Angie Quinto-Moreno
Professor Scanlan
ENG 2400
April 1 2021
Translating “It Had to be Murder” and Rear Window
“It Had to be Murder” by Cornell Woolrich, tells the story of Hal Jeffries a temporarily immobilized man, who watches the world or at least the world of his urban neighbors from his bedroom window. Largely isolated from the outside, Jeffries (or Jeff) sits in his wheelchair with a pair of binoculars, initially as a pastime- to uncover a dark truth. In the midst of his watching, Jeffries become certain that his neighbor Lars Thorwald has murdered his wife. Alongside his caretaker Sam, and his old-time friend Detective Boyne- the 3 work together to get closer to the truth, hidden under a façade of a short trip and a loving husband. Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window is an intermediate film adaptation of its 1942 counterpart of “It had to be Murder” that transfers its basic story and development, but with a twist on characters, cinematic elements and themes. Hitchcock’s film takes a traditional (translation) approach, implementing the use different narration styles, character actions and scene developments in comparison to its literary equivalent but maintaining its original major storyline.
To begin, lets look at Hitchcock’s adaptation strategy in Rear Window – interestingly, Hitchcock did not decide to concentrate elements to particular parts of the text as one would at the start and at the end. Rather, Hitchcock decides to construct a redefined ‘story’ with the addition of new elements to the existing ones of “It Had to be Murder”. In Woolrich’s story- Jeff is accompanied alongside his caregiver Sam and Detective Boyle- an old-time war mate. These are the only two whom he interacts with for the majority of the text. However, in the film we see that Stella (an insurance company nurse) replaces Sam who is African American and male. To note, the roles are reversed- with Sam no longer being the main person who delivers messages and obtains information on Thorwald- a role that is split between Stella and Lisa (Lisa being the main catalyst). However, prior to delving deeper into this, we must analyze Lisa’s significance to the film. In “It Had to be Murder”- Jeff is alone, that is without a companion and solves the case primarily with caretaker and houseman Sam. Sam takes on the roles of obtaining information on Thorwald, disturbing the apartment, and delivering the messages- a role where only he is the catalyst on the story. However, in Rear Window there is the addition of Lisa, Jeff’s romantic interest and a new ally. Their situations are varied, Sam willingly does what he is told- with Jeff giving little to no background on why he is doing what has being told- often times told to not ask questions. Stella and Lisa, however, follow along with everything going on as Jeff shares his thinking and the rationale behind his actions- allowing them to be directly involved in the case solving and becoming engaged and present allies (having their own opinions on the matter). Unlike, Sam who Jeff had a more authoritarian hold on.
Next, we can move on to narration style and cinematic themes. “It Had to be Murder” is told from the first-person perspective of Jeffries, directly from the confined space from where he watches the rear windows of the neighboring apartments. However, Rear Window takes on a third person perspective- although illustrating from the Jeff’s space, Rear Window lacks the insight and everchanging thought process. For example, we can let’s take page 27, where we see Jeff’s thinking play out, just in this page we can see how Jeffs thinking shifts from “Sam was back again, he must have forgotten something” to ‘Delayed action. This time final, fatal, altogether too late. A voiceless ring of the phone. A direction-finder of a look from over there. “Sam” seemingly trying to get back in a while ago”. This in particular is important, because the suspension that comes from “It Had to be Murder” is the result of arising suspicions, deductions and putting the ‘pieces’ together. In contrast to Rear Window where its source of cautious distrust and wariness stems from various cinematic elements- we do not hear directly from Jeff’s thinking but rather from what he chooses to share with Lisa and Stella. Therefore, suspense arises from visual and auditory elements. Let’s take the same scene from which Jeff realizes that Thorwald is within his home. The first shot is a close up of Jeffries as he notices that Thorwald’s apartment is dark- the camera’s angle transitions to a shot of the dark and empty home to confirm this. The camera pans back to Jeff who promptly answers the ringing phone- this scene is where it is revealed that Jeff believes Thorwald has left his home. When Jeff realizes there is no one on the line, and the line goes dead- Hitchcock uses a slow zoom on Jeff’s face resulting in a very close up frame shot. However, while this scene utilizes no verbal statements to convey the fear of Jeff-the panning and zooming of the camera from his face to the neighboring window he glances on reveals the depth of the situation and the importance of the mistake he made in revealing to Thorwald he was indeed being spied on. Then you can hear the noise of the hallway (nondiegetic sound), Jeff turns to the door and the camera pans to a shot of the doorframe and the light peering under from the door into the dark room. This scene invokes the same suspense felt in its literary counterpart. Using close ups in this scene demonstrates the importance of the objects as the scenes focal target and new revelations. The use of light under the door frame serves as foreshadowing, as the watcher now knows this is where the next scene will unfold, where Thorwald will now enter from. While both the text and film build the same suspense, the pacing of the shots and use of nondiegetic sound (approaching footsteps) invokes claustrophobia and entrapment through cinematic elements vs literary elements.
We will now discuss the ending, one of the major changes in the storyline playing a role in Thorwald’s ability to redeem himself, satisfying the readers/watchers need for redemption. In “It Had to be Murder” Thorwald’s ending is met with the following: “It was pretty horrible. He took a minute to show anything, standing up there on the parapet. Then he let his gun go, as if to say: “I won’t need this anymore.” Then he went after it. He missed the fire escape entirely, came all the way down on the outside. He landed so far out he hit one of the projecting planks, down there out of sight”. According to this, Thorwald falls or jumps to his death. In contrast, the ending of Rear Window is met with Thorwald’s arrest after he throws Jeff out the window, Lisa and Jeff coming back together and Jeff having to recover from 2 broken legs. The two endings contrast greatly, in the sense of whether or not Thorwald pays for his crimes and the possibility of Thorwald reflecting on them and redeeming himself.
In conclusion, we were able to see how narrative (1st person vs 3rd person) can influence the progression of a story, as well as the importance of differing elements- both literary and cinematic- on foreshadowing, revelations and creation of suspense. The film, which took on a traditional translation of the text, maintains the overall traits of the story but with minor changes as an act of interpretation to create a unique entity as the director sees fit. The lesson the film/text attempts to teach is the extent one is able to create something new, with its precursors in mind to reimagine and concieve, all while maintaining its own personal properties and themes.
