Author: Mehriniso Muhammadieva

Alfred Hitchcock’s film “Rear Window”, leads Cornell Woolrich’s short story “It Had to Be Murder” to life, and somehow parts to the storyline fit differently. One of the major differences that struck out to me between the film and the story is the visual aspect of the character in the film; I knew that Jeff is a mysterious, unshakable, and intelligent man that ends up solving a murder.  Also in the film, we know about his love life, his occupation, and the story behind his disability. However, in the story, while reading the beginning, I automatically thought that Jeff was an old man that is unable to walk. Additionally, we do not know anything about Jeff from reading the story, all we know is his name and that he is unable to walk; we do not know his job, his love life, the story behind his disability. Another major difference was the caretaker. In the story we have Sam, who is really obedient;  we know that he is able to jump over fences and climb ladders without a question. On the other hand, we have Stella, who is Jeff’s caretaker; we know that she comes in every morning to change his clothes and give him a massage (plus she is really talkative unlike Sam). Other minor differences we see is Jeff’s view of the protagonist. 48 minutes into the movie we see Hitchcocks’ notion of troubles starting, which begins with a mise en scene; where the black car runs across the courtyard between Jeffs’ view and his neighbors’ buildings. In the short story, we don’t have that imagery of Thorwald driving his car. What we see is Thorwald’s movements throughout the apartment; that becomes Jeff’s obsession and center of attention. Another minor difference is Jeff’s job. While reading the story I totally thought that Jeff was a stalker; who peeps into their neighbors with binoculars? We know Jeff as a photographer in the film. However, rather than not knowing the occupation(in the short story), knowing the occupation makes Jeff peer into his neighbors’ lives pretty easily.

The place I know in great detail is the house I grew up in back in my country. I still remember it to this day even after the reconstruction. It was a 5 bedroom house with two big living rooms, all in a single floor. We also had farmland in the backyard. As you look in from the street view, you would see a big burgundy door with beautiful designs on it; I remember when we first got it, I was so excited. As entering the house you would see the living room to the right; it was barely used, but I loved how spacious it was. To get to the other bedrooms we had to walk a little; (the way my country builds houses is different) it was more like 5 separate houses. The other living was where we spent a lot of time in, we ate dinner, played around, and had the most guests in. Walking out of the living room we had a big patio and a big sofa, where we sometimes ate lunch. From the patio we take a couple of steps to make our way to the kitchen; and the backyard that is all on the right side. To the left, we had the bedrooms where I shared with my sisters. In Front of the bedrooms, we had another huge patio with swings on it. And lastly on to the back was the bathrooms. The living room, the bedrooms, the kitchen, the bathrooms are all separate, so to get to them we had to walk a little. However, we had this huge backyard where we grew out vegetables.

The questions I have after reading the “It Had to Be Murder” by Cornell Woolrich is that how did Mr.Thorwald know where to look and how did he manage to call the narrator? After the talk, we know that the narrator failed in finding where the body was; where Mr.Thorwald called him a liar. How did he manage to find the number and look at the narrator? Another question I have is how did the narrator’s phone get disconnected? The narrator said that his phone wire has been cut off, but we know that Mr.Thorwald did not get into the narrator’s house( I might be mistaken. I am not sure if he actually got into the house. What I thought was, by reading it, that he came through the window and then said “You-” and that’s where the narrator pushed him to the ground).

The place I know in great detail is the house I grew up in back in my country. I still remember it to this day even after the reconstruction. It was a 5 bedroom house with two big living rooms, all on a single floor. We also had farmland in the backyard. As you look in from the street view, you would see a big burgundy door with beautiful designs on it; I remember when we first got it, I was so excited. As entering the house you would see the living room to the right; it was barely used, but I loved how spacious it was. To get to the other bedrooms we had to walk a little; (the way my country builds houses is different) it was more like 5 separate houses. The other living was where we spent a lot of time in, we ate dinner, played around, and had the most guests in. Walking out of the living room we had a big patio and a big sofa, where we sometimes ate lunch. From the patio we take a couple of steps to make our way to the kitchen; and the backyard that is all on the right side. To the left, we had the bedrooms where I shared with my sisters. In Front of the bedrooms, we had another huge patio with swings on it. And lastly on to the back was the bathrooms. The living room, the bedrooms, the kitchen, the bathrooms are all separate, so to get to them we had to walk a little. However, we had this huge backyard where we grew out vegetables.

The questions I have after reading the “It Had to Be Murder” by Cornell Woolrich is that how did Mr.Thorwald know where to look and how did he manage to call the narrator? After the talk, we know that the narrator failed in finding where the body was; where Mr.Thorwald called him a liar. How did he manage to find the number and look at the narrator? Another question I have is how did the narrator’s phone get disconnected? The narrator said that his phone wire has been cut off, but we know that Mr.Thorwald did not get into the narrator’s house( I might be mistaken. I am not sure if he actually got into the house. What I thought was, by reading it, that he came through the window and then said “You-” and that’s where the narrator pushed him to the ground).