Author: Riya Chopra

Riya Chopra 

ENG 2400

October 27th, 2020

Midterm Essay

Rear Window vs. “It Had To Be Murder”

The movie Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is the visual recreation of Cornell Woolrich’s 1942 short story “It Had to Be Murder”. Here we see the encompassing impact of betrayal of one spouse to the other and how the mere curiosity of a neighbor turned into a full investigation of a possible murder. With a mix of romance and mystery, there’s quite the story being illustrated between a few partners in crime and a man who was caught by chance.

The movie and the story have quite the few similarities and differences ranging from the characters included to the visualization of it all. While the plot of Rear Window is similar to Cornell Woolrich’s short story “It Had To Be Murder,” the use of camera movements and angles makes this translation radical, according to Linda Cahir’s definition.Radical translations provide a more wider outlook onto the basic plot of stories, and we see such in both the written version and cinematic version. Hitchcock’s adaptation establishes a more intricate representation of scenes and the individual characters.  In order to prove this I will first analyze the use of Jefferies “camera lens,” exploring the use of point of view shots within the film and how this illustrates Jefferies’ investigation. Secondly, I will observe the scenes in which Jefferies observes his neighborhood with the use of pan shots. Lastly, I will discuss how the importance of close up shots in the film are fundamental in building Jeffries individual character as well as Lisa’s. 

In Woolrich’s short story “It Had To Be Murder,” it does not place any emphasis on what profession Jeffries is involved in, which essentially gives a very vague look into his character overall.  We see the only mention of his lens within the movie as the narration goes on as,” He went, and I got the spyglass ready. I got him in the right focus after a minute or two,” This is when Sam delivered the letter to Mr.Thorwald and Jefferies anticipated the conclusion of this interaction and wanted to observe his reaction to reading the contents of the letter. He uses this piece of equipment he has to provide himself with the proof that Mr.Thorwald was guilty as he had presumed. We know that he is very intuitive and bases his investigation off his habit and practice of observation, through this he is even able to gather the evidence he needs. This insertion of his equipment in the story gives us a slight link to his profession. The radical translation here develops first as we start to see more emphasis being placed on Jefferies character within the movie. We develop a more insightful connection to who Jefferies is and why this attribute of him being a photographer contributes to his investigation. He is more independent as a character whereas only being someone who observes and stumbles upon this mysterious couple because he was bored due to his injury. In the movie he is this charismatic man who may or may not be someone who works closely with the police, his knowledge on his equipment contributes to this plot development that Mr.Thorwald was a killer. 

We witness a P.O.V shot every time Jefferies looks into his lens. It is as he is looking through his lens that he notices the first few unfortunate interactions between Mr. Thornwald and Mrs. Thorwald, this camera movement in essence is composed of point of view shots. Jefferies looks through his lens to observe both characters, something we don’t see in the written story, the animosity between both characters and how Mrs.Thorwald seems to make fun of Mr.Thorwald compared to his obvious dissatisfaction of her humor. We see Jefferies smiling at her behavior and Hitchcock uses this capturing of the characters reactions through P.O.V shots. With these P.O.V shots comes the concept of vignetting, where a vignette is the darkening of the image around the edges of the frame, where the center of this visualized lens is called the mask. The mask will be more circular where we will be able to see what the character is seeing first hand. Hitchcock uses a lot of these shots, through vignetting, on characters’ faces, so we as the audience,  know what we should be thinking and feeling with the characters themselves. This observation of the animosity between both husband and wife, contributes to the motive of why Mr.Thorwald may have committed the murder, not only was his wife sick but she also made him feel “less of a man,” as he already was out of a job. The was a more developed visualization of both the characters’ reactions.

From the beginning of the film we see Jefferies studying his neighborhood down below. Throughout,  it is shown how Jefferries views his neighborhood and how exactly he observes his surroundings. This may be due to pure habit, curiosity or even due to his profession as a photographer. In the short story, “It Had to Be Murder”, we read as Jefferies describes his neighborhood, peering through his windows with his eyes.The narration goes on as,“Just to pick a few at random: straight over, and the windows square, there was a young jitter-couple, kids in their teens, only just married. It would have killed them to stay home one night… The next house down, Something about it, it used to make me a little sad. There was a woman living there with her child, a young widow I suppose… The third one down.. no longer offered any insight, the windows were just slits like in a medieval battlement, due to foreshortening. That brings us around to the one on the end…” This observation helps Jefferries understand his neighbors better and feel exactly what they are going through or experiencing, like he is there as their friend from afar. Here however, as he is observing he does not characterize his neighbors as much as we see in the movie. He is relating to their emotions, but not describing their movements as a fundamental part to their relation to the story, more so just describing the setting they are in. In movies pan shots move the camera from side to side on a horizontal axis, providing the sense of looking left to right. The radical translation here is the personalization through the pan shots as we see an individual story of each character play out leading up to the conclusion of each just as Jefferies. 

We see a variety of pan shots within the movies from when Jefferies observes his neighborhood to the scene where Lisa delivers the letter to Mr.Thorwald and the end of the film where everyone has a happy ending to their own story. These pan shots help us follow the major points in the story, giving us a sense of actually being within the film which in reality would be one of the major differences between the movie and the short story. The pan movement is used when moving from character to character, such as when Lisa and Jefferies are speaking throughout the film. For the duration of the film the camera movement is at a fairly medium pace and only quickens towards the end of the film where we see Thorwald and Jefferies in a physical fight. This quickening of the camera movement builds the suspense and makes it easier to capture the intensity of the scene itself, we as the audience are at the edge of our seats. As the audience this development of intensity is important because we feel as we are in person and actually witnessing the fight for ourselves. From this we receive Thorwald’s admission of guilt and make our way towards the lingering question, “what happens next?” 

A part of the story which played an important part in Jefferies character was his “partner in crime,” Sam. Sam was not only Jefferies’ caretaker but he was also the one that delivered the letter to Mr.Thorwald. He was the character that was unafraid and would do what Jefferies would ask of him to ensure that he got the information he needed to complete his investigations. In the story we see the narration go on as,”I said to Sam: “Now here’s what I want you to do, and I want you to be slick about it. You take this, go in that building 525, climb the stairs to the fourth-floor rear, and easeit under the door. You’re fast, at least you used to be….”even with these given instructions Sam listens and goes on to deliver the letter, however we do ot see any details on how he did but we do know why he did. We see here that Jefferies trusted the same way and knew that he would be able to take care of himself enough to be able to handle what he would possibly have to experience. The radical translation here is the insertion of Lisa’s character in replacement of Sam, not only is Lisa Jefferies’ lover but also his partner in crime. Lisa taking Sam’s place opened Jefferies up to more vulnerability and emotionalized his character more. 

Lisa is Jefferies accomplice and his main object of affection and we see the development of their relationship through a variety of close up shots. Hitchcock uses this concept of close ups shots of the characters to show what they are thinking, in this situation to show exactly how Jefferies feels about Lisa. Compared to the beginning of their interaction where Jefferies’ face was almost filmed with curiosity and amusement we see that he himself was not attached to Lisa as a possible love interest. However, as their investigation goes forward so does their love and interest in each other, the investigation is their love language. 

In one particular scene in the film, we see Lisa deliver the letter that Jefferies had written to Mr. Thorwald’s apartment and we see the fear visible in Jefferies’ face as he is not only scared for her life but her being able to successfully escape. His investigation was putting someone he was emotionally involved with in trouble. However, when she rushes back to Jefferies’ apartment Lisa states,” Wasn’t that close! Well, what was his reaction? I mean when he looked at the note..” As Lisa continues to speak we see the camera close up on Jefferies face, it seems his eyes were glowing in a way that expressed his likingless towards her and how her being able to accomplish such a daring task just made her a woman to desire. We see here that he loves her, as he smiles looking at her and admiring her courage, a clear and definite difference from the story. When a camera is closer to a character than it normally is, it draws attention to whatever is in the frame and here we see the love language between both characters. It can even be said that Lisa’s character played such a fundamental role that it changed the dynamic of the movie entirely, Jefferies may not have been apple to solve his case as he did. 

This radical translation of “It Had to Be Murder,” proposes a deep look into this story of Thorwald and his role as the murderer and Jefferies as the invesogator. The introduction of new characters such as Lisa and Stella provides a cynical and almost a deeper personalization of Jefferies life. The short story provided the important plot points for Hitchcock’s adaptation which contained masterful filing techniques. As the audience we were all related to the characters somehow, even the neighbors who all moved on and got their happy ending. In the end, it seems, everyone turned out happier for the better.