Author: Teri Rice

Teri Rice

Compare and Contrast of “Rear Window” by Alfred Hitchcock & “It Had to Be Murder” by Cornell Woolrich

ENG 2400 Films from Literature

While reading “It Had to Be Murder” and watching the film version “The Rear window” I noticed a couple of similarities and differences. In this essay I will touch base on the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds throughout the film version and also the differences in the characters versus in the written story. Although there were some differences between the film and the written version, both were also very similar in plot which I believe the film “The Rear Window” was a traditional translation to “It had to be murder”. I intend to prove these points further along by comparing and contrasting both versions of the story.

The written story “It Had to Be Murder” was greatly written by Cornell Woolrich in 1942. His story was very descriptive and suspenseful in a way where you can almost envision what’s happening. He describes the neighbor’s houses from top to bottom that if you have a vivid imagination you could probably draw out exactly what he described. The story is about a man named Jefferies who’s confined to his home due to a leg injury and in his free time he’s what we like to call a peeping Tom. During his peeping Tom activities, he accidentally discovers what seems to be a murder happening from one of his neighbors named Mr. Thorwald and becomes a detective with the help of his helper Sam to prove what he has witnessed. “It Had to be Murder” was written from Jefferies point of view, we as the reader was able to explore his thoughts, whereas in the film we are looking from the outside in. We are viewing the film from different point of views and not just one.

“Rear Window” which is the film version of “It Had to Be Murder” was filmed in 1954, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by John Michael Hayes. As stated, the plot of this version is very similar to Woolrich’s version but more detailed which most film versions of stories are. In “Rear Window” the differences I noticed were the character layout. In this version I learned more about Jefferies than in the story. Jefferies who was an obvious peeping Tom was also a photographer.

Him being a photographer explained why he was so keen to being in front of his window so often and analyzing the scenery before him. We also got a glance of his extensive love life in the film. In Woolrich’s version there was very little detail about Jefferies life. The most we knew was that he was home due to an injury and he had what seemed to be a helper named Sam who came in to assist him with household things. “Rear Window” gave us more background information about Jefferies which helped us an audience understand the story a little a better.  Lisa who was Jefferies girlfriend also played a major role in the film. She seemed to play not only his companion but also an investigator of the supposed murder. Lisa was very invested in this murder and actively assisted Jefferies in proving Mr. Thorwald killed his wife. In Woolrich’s version Sam was Jefferies right hand man with the murder, there was no evidence that Jefferies had a girlfriend in “It Had to Be Murder”. Not only was Lisa of help, Jefferies also had help from Stella who acted as his helper in the film version.

The “Rear Window” really gave us a sense of suspense with the use of the diegetic sounds. Diegetic sound is any sound that emanates from the story. Diegetic sound is anything from a voice inside the characters head or music coming from an instrument or radio. Non-diegetic sound also called nonliteral sound. Non-diegetic sound could be a narration or voice over or sound effects for a more dramatic effect. The use of non-diegetic sound was very minimum in this film. Throughout the film we hear only sounds that actually occur in the film’s world. For instance, we could hear cars passing by and sirens here and there. Interesting enough we heard the sounds the way Jeff hears them. Conversations in other apartments were heavily muted while we were able to still here the outside noises. This technique keeps us in Jeff’s point of view. Same as when he uses the camera to see from a distance or when he was looking through the camera to see the pictures of the flowers, the camera view was as if we were looking through Jefferies eyes as well.

According to Cahir’s definition of traditional translation, I believe “Rear Window” best exemplifies this particular translation. Traditional translation is a close translation of the book with minor detail changes whichever way the director sees fit. The plot of “Rear Window” and “It Had to be Murder” were very much alike and both displayed important symbols. Alfred Hitchcock who directed “Rear Window” gave the film a more suspenseful touch with his use of sound, camera angles and lighting. With camera angles he really uses the camera to focus on different focal points in the film, an example would be the written note Jefferies wrote to Lars Thorwald. The camera really focused on the note which stated “What have you done to her.” This note was also presented in the written version as well. Another important focal point was Jefferies camera. Jefferies uses his camera for different objectives in the film. For example, he uses the camera to take pictures for evidence and also to see clearly what is going on in his neighbor’s apartment. Although Hitchcock added his own touch to the film the story stayed the same. Stella who played Jefferies helper was a key member of the team just like Sam was in the written story. Stella is basically Jefferies confidant about his relationship with Lisa and she also becomes heavily involved in the investigation. It’s obvious her word holds a lot of weight in Jefferies life because he listens to her words of wisdom and the advice she had to give . “Rear Window” character creates more ethically complex than the story such as entertaining giving a short description of how the character lives, and making more realistic of how the character helped the police to find out the man who murdered Thorwald’s wife. In the short story, “It Had to Be Murder” the main point of the story is figuring out the murder, but in the film the audience is forced to watch because of the relationship between Jefferies and his girlfriend Lisa with also the big picture being solving a murder.

In conclusion, We see some differences between the film and the written story. The film giving us a more descriptive layout of each characters life and the story being not so descriptive of the characters but of the homes of Jefferies neighbors and it’s sole dedication to solving the murder of Mrs. Thorwald, the plot for both still remain the same which gives me the idea that “Rear Window” is a traditional translation of “It Had to be Murder”