Rear Window and Other Stories

A short and sweet collection of five stories from Cornell Woolrich, who excels in writing taut, tense suspense fiction. It’s hard to discuss these stories, even to describe their effectiveness in general terms, without running the risk of some kind of spoiler. (Like if you read a review of a thriller that says “Oh wow such a twist ending!”, you then read that book waiting for the twist to come and aren’t surprised.) I can safely say that the story “Rear Window” is in fact the basis for the James Stewart / Alfred Hitchcock movie, which is an exceedingly faithful adaptation, and that “Three O’Clock” made me so anxious that I almost couldn’t finish it (but I did, and it was good). “Post-Mortem” and “Change of show more Murder” were well done as well; the latter was the most “ordinary” of the bunch but still very good. And “Momentum” capped off the collection nicely. Overall, highly recommended. show less

Janela Indiscreta, uma das obras-primas do Hitchcock, está completando 70 anos hoje. Enquanto o conto do Woolrich é muito bom, ele não chega à perfeição do filme, uma das grandes diferenças entre conto e filme é a ausência da personagem da Grace Kelly, o que obviamente tira o componente sexy da narrativa, além, é claro o modo do Hitchcock filmar como alegoria do espectador de cinema.

Rear Window and Other Stories by Cornell Woolrich; (4 1/2*); NOIR; hardcopy, IN WA;

He has been called 'The Prince of Darkness' & the inventor of the NOIR genre. He was an absolute brilliant author whose novels and shorts are simply genius. Of such as genius is his Rear Window. I am speaking, of course, of the one and only Cornell Woolrich. And the story which came before the also genius movie.

Our protagonist is a journalistic photographer who is laid up in his apartment with a broken leg. His apartment windows look out upon the inner courtyard of his complex and also looks in to all of the other resident's rear windows.
He has nothing to do as his leg is healing but to recline and watch the happenings going on in the other apartments show more and in the courtyard. As he watches the apartment across the way he notices that while the husband goes out to work each day the wife appears to be invalided within the bedroom. He never sees her rise except to talk with her husband when he returns from work each day and goes in to check on her, bring her meals, etc.
One day he notices that the husband is no longer going in to check on the wife and he no longer sees her sitting up in the bed. The husband appears to be spending his nights in the living space rather than the bedroom and he sees him there in the dark smoking, as his cigarette's red ash reflects in the dark.
His imagination begins to burn with all sorts of thoughts of what could be happening to or what has happened to the wife. show less

Rear Window and Other Stories by Cornell Woolrich; (4 1/2*); NOIR; hardcopy, IN WA;

He has been called 'The Prince of Darkness' & the inventor of the NOIR genre. He was an absolute brilliant author whose novels and shorts are simply genius. Of such as genius is his Rear Window. I am speaking, of course, of the one and only Cornell Woolrich. And the story which came before the also genius movie.

Our protagonist is a journalistic photographer who is laid up in his apartment with a broken leg. His apartment windows look out upon the inner courtyard of his complex and also looks in to all of the other resident's rear windows.
He has nothing to do as his leg is healing but to recline and watch the happenings going on in the other apartments show more and in the courtyard. As he watches the apartment across the way he notices that while the husband goes out to work each day the wife appears to be invalided within the bedroom. He never sees her rise except to talk with her husband when he returns from work each day and goes in to check on her, bring her meals, etc.
One day he notices that the husband is no longer going in to check on the wife and he no longer sees her sitting up in the bed. The husband appears to be spending his nights in the living space rather than the bedroom and he sees him there in the dark smoking, as his cigarette's red ash reflects in the dark.
His imagination begins to burn with all sorts of thoughts of what could be happening to or what has happened to the wife. show less

"Rear Window and Other Stories" by Cornell Woolrich published in 1994 under the Penguin Crime imprint originally collected and published by Ballantine Books in 1984 contains five short stories including the title story plus Post-Mortem, Three O'Clock, Change of Murder, and Momentum. Cornell Woolrich was the O'Henry of crime with many of his novels and stories featuring murder with a twist filtered through his jaundiced eye reflecting his own sad life and sour worldview. Woolrich's stories have been adapted many times in the mediums of film, television, and radio and never more successfully and popularly than by Alfred Hitchcock for the film Rear Window based on the 1942 short story originally titled "It Had to Be Murder." The story and show more film share the core plot of Jeff a man confined to his apartment by physical limitations passing his time by gazing for hours out of his rear window observing his neighbors in their various apartments at all hours of the day until he becomes convinced a salesman has murdered his invalid wife. Even with knowing the plot of the story from the film Woolrich's tight writing makes the climax an exciting page turner. Unfortunately the character of Jeff in the story is so negative and undefined he makes a very unpleasant companion for the reader and leaves one wondering why his caretaker Sam would work for him for ten years or why the lieutenant detective Boyne would take his call much less investigate a man for murder on the word of this sour character. Hitchcock keeps the central plot and transforms the story with the title change to Rear Window signaling our engagement with the entire mise en scène as the other apartment dwellers become characters with their own mini-stories playing out and even intersecting with the main narrative. Jeff played by Jimmy Stewart is now clearly characterized as a man of action globe-trotting as a professional photographer feeling irritable about both his current confinement in his apartment and his perceived potential confinement in marriage to his 'too perfect' girlfriend Lisa Fremont played by Grace Kelly. Now we understand why Jeff's temporary caretaker Stella played by Thelma Ritter and his friend NYPD detective Doyle would want to help with the investigation and the couple's relationship. Now the stakes are raised by having characters to care about and root for in their investigation, their peril, and in the resolution of it as well as the stories of all the characters in the different apartments. The next story in the collection Post-Mortem involves a woman whose deceased husband purchased a winning lottery ticket and had an insurance policy her current husband might be trying to kill her for. It is possible Woolrich was writing this story as a humorous send-up, as the wife character Josie is written as overly naïve, dense, and confused when she is address by both her former married name Mrs. Mead and her current married name Mrs. Archer. For a short story this is awfully convoluted with multiple names, multiple twists, and potentially multiple murders. The third story is Three O'Clock which was particularly surprising and suspenseful. The entire story is told from the perspective a man named Paul Stapp who believes his wife has been unfaithful. He has decided not just to kill, kill, kill his wife as he repeatedly recites to himself, but to use a bomb to blow-up her, her companion, and the entire house! This is as close to a character piece as these stories provide as we live in this man's head for nearly the entire story as it draws ever closer to Three O'Clock! The fourth story Change of Murder is set in the Chicago underworld of gangsters where Woolrich really convinces with this sojourn into the milieu of mobsters. Brains Donleavy is set on "getting squared up" his own term for getting even by killing anyone he thought had crossed him and now he had a new grudge to settle. Any time he needed to get squared up Brains would visit his 'friend' Fade a barkeep, gambler, and semi-professional alibi provider. Needless to say despite Brains plans and pre-cautions the outcome is not quite what he and Fade anticipated. Momentum the fifth and final story in this collection centers on Dick Paine a very appropriate name for this weak willed man and what he endures mentally and physically. He has been lingering outside the house of his former boss for days trying to work of a reasoned plea and the courage to ask the wealthy man for a loan. Somehow even though it will mean eviction from their home for him and his wife he cannot get himself to ask for the money. Instead he watches through a window and when he sees a safe being opened decides stealing the money would be a better solution. Naturally being a Cornell Woolrich story this results in a number of twists that propel Dick Paine to his destiny. This is an entertaining collection although the individual stories and their twists might stand up best not being read consecutively.

In addition to adapting Rear Window for the big screen three of these stories Post-Mortem, Change of Murder, and Momentum were adapted for television by Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Post-Mortem was greatly enhanced and streamlined for its TV episode. Also, Producer of the TV series Joan Harrison previously produced a movie adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's novel Phantom Lady which is also the title of her biography by Christina Lane, Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock.

Online there is an excellent adaptation for the Suspense radio program in 1949 of Three O'Clock starring in Van Heflin in a gripping performance. show less

CW wrote some terrific stories that made for great movies. My only complaint is he never seemed to know when to end them. His shorts aren't so bad but his novels tend to go on way past the point where they should have ended.