One could wonder what makes it possible that Rear Window's viewer is locked in with Jefferies for almost two hours in his apartment, and somehow, it still doesn’t get boring. Having Grace Kelly as a guest and a murder case in the neighbor certainly helps (among other things), but I didn't really recognize the real engine of the entertainment here, being too busy with, well, peeping with the others. If one thing is really genius about this film is how it shows to everyone how much they really like peeping – at least if they have no reason not to do it. The cinema is the perfect place to trap the latent voyeur: there's no risk of getting caught and no moral obligations against watching fictional people; what's more, a decent viewer is supposed to just sit and watch. And there, the affinity for peeping is lured out from basically anyone. The guests of Jefferies go through a change of attitude, too; first, they all judge him more or less, but they give in the moment they find a good excuse or even just something they “can't help” watching (Miss Torso for Lt. Doyle). Stella doesn't even hide her voyeurism from the moment the Thorwald's trunk is exposed, and Lisa even expresses it the phone after she's told to go home: “Alright, but what's he doing now?”
We could even argue that Doyle was technically right, and Jefferies only got “lucky” that his poorly based suspicions (fueled by his excuse-seeking voyeurism) turned out to be right, after all. No wonder Doyle almost convinced him and Lisa at a certain point. From this aspect, an alternative ending – with Mrs. Thorwald turning out to be alive – might have been a more obvious, if a little spoon-fed conclusion. However, it would have ruined the message about the community. Thorwald is able to murder, chop, and smuggle out his wife (including burying and digging out one of her body parts in the courtyard) without anyone getting suspicious – except Jeff, in his special condition. But even Jeff wouldn't suspect anything if it wasn't for his entertainment. Just like all the other tenants, he doesn't know his neighbors, and don't really care for them either. He happens to find out a murder simply because he was desperate to make his peeping more interesting, and the others followed him when he was able to provide a half-baked murder case.
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