American Cinematographer (1985) - Personal Favorite: Rear Window

Details

• magazine article: Personal Favorite: Rear Window
• author(s): Daniel L. Fapp
• journal: American Cinematographer (01/Mar/1985)
• issue: volume 67, issue 3, page 104
• journal ISSN: 0002-7928
• publisher: American Society of Cinematographers
• keywords: Academy Awards, Alfred Hitchcock, Grace Kelly, James Stewart, Paramount Pictures, Raymond Burr, Rear Window (1954), Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey

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Article

High among my favorites is Rear Window, a Technicolor picture directed by Alfred Hitchcock with Robert J. Burks, ASC as director of photography. The entire picture was photographed in 1954 on Stage 18 at Paramount. A gigantic set was built depicting the facing backs of a number of apartment buildings including 31 apartment units, fire escapes, roof gardens, an alley, a street and the skyline. Except for the opening scene, in which the camera (on a crane) moves into the courtyard to eventually settle into James Stewart's apartment, the picture is filmed from Stewart's viewpoint. House-ridden because of a broken leg, Stewart breaks the monotony by spying on his neighbors, eventually becoming involved in a murder. Burks overcame the many photographic problems admirably, and did full justice to a cast that included Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr, [[Wendell Corey] and Thelma Ritter.

Daniel L. Fapp, ASC, entered the motion picture field as a lab technician at Paramount in 1924 and soon became an assistant cameraman. His first picture as a director of photography was Paramount's World Premiere. He was employed steadily at Paramount until 1959, when he became a free‑lance. Fapp was awarded an Academy Oscar for West Side Story (1961), and received a half‑dozen other nominations. Some of his most memorable were Desire Under the Elms, The Five Pennies, One, Two, Three, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Ice Station Zebra, and Marooned.