Daniel Irala

ENG 2400

Professor Scanlan

Midterm Essay Final Draft

October 29, 2020

Midterm Essay Final

The short story, “It Had to Be Murder” by Cornell Woolrich was published in the year of 1942 that is about a man named Hal Jeffries or Jeff who is in a wheelchair with a leg injury. In order to pass the time, occasionally he looks at his neighbor’s windows and he believes that his neighbor murdered his wife. Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of the short story “Rear Window” was released in 1954 and the description of the book is relatively the same in the movie. By utilizing Linda Cahir’s three types of film translations: Radical, Literal, and Traditional, we can use it to see how accurate the film version is to the short story. Even though there are moments in the film version that are different to the text version, the main plot, Jeff’s character, character changes, and non-diegetic music makes the film a traditional translation.

A traditional translation means that is a close translation of the story but not entirely the same as the book. There are slight changes and that is what the film “Rear Window” is. The plot of the film, “Rear Window” stayed true to the short story, “ It Had to Be Murder”. In both the film and short story, Jeff had the assumption that his neighbor, Lars Thorwald murdered his wife, and his goal is to seek justice. However the way that it was delivered in the film was different than in the short story. In the book it stated, “He came forward and stood there by the window, as he had at dawn…  He stood there motionless for several minutes. And now his attitude was the proper one for inner preoccupation. He stood there looking downward at nothing, lost in thought.” (Woolrich, 2). In the movie, Jeff heard a woman screaming and he saw Lars Thorwald coming in and out of his apartment multiple times with his suitcase in the middle of the night. This scene plants the seeds into the viewer’s head that makes Mr. Thorwald suspicious. Another difference would be how in the story, Jeff hears a cricket chirping and his housekeeper Sam told him that it meant that there was a death nearby. While this small detail was not in the movie, overall the main plot remains the same.

For both films, Jeff’s character is very similar, as he is in a wheelchair with a leg injury. In order to pass the time, he has the habit of looking out from his window observing the other tenants which is what he does in both the film and story. One slight difference is the tool that Jeff uses to look out the window, in the story, he uses a spyglass and in the movie he uses a camera with large zoom lens. The biggest difference would have to be the introduction of some characters. The viewer is introduced to two characters that were not in the text, Lisa and Stella. Both Lisa and Jeffries seem to be in a relationship of some sort and Jeff’s personal life comes more into light than in the story which is another difference as in the story the reader did not really know too much about Jeff. Even though Sam is not in the movie, the actions that Sam did in the story appear on the film but they are portrayed by two characters, Lisa and Stella. Like Sam, who was Jeff’s assistant, Stella had more of a nursing role, in the movie she is giving Jeff food, taking vitals and massages. Lisa is the one that helps Jeff on solving the crime. Like Sam, Lisa went to Thorwald’s apartment to leave him a note that said “What have you done with her?”. As this was happening, non-diegetic music was playing, this high pitch jazz style music creates and adventurous and thrill seeking, high adrenaline vibe because what Lisa is doing risky because she is not supposed to be seen by Mr. Thorwald, she could get seriously hurt or killed.

In conclusion, while there were some differences, the main plot of the story remains unchanged, Jeff’s character is the same with additional information and with a view into his personal life that filled in that gap in the short story. While there are slight differences, the plot structure did not get drastically altered, which is important for this argument otherwise the film would then be considered a literal translation. Film makers such as Alfred Hitchcock are allowed to have their own spin when the film is based on a book or story as long as it is good, and it was, the director, producers, actors, actresses and audience everyone wins.