Rear Window

It reviews better than it plays — admired more than it is enjoyed.

• “Rear Window lovingly invests in suspense all through the film, banking it in our memory, so that when the final payoff arrives, the whole film has been the thriller equivalent of foreplay.”

  Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times · 100

• “Flawless, essential viewing that would earn more than its five stars if only Empire would allow it.”

  Kim Newman, Empire · 100

• “The film leaps off the screen with a thrilling immediacy.”

  Peter Travers, Rolling Stone · 100

• “As much as I admire all of these, especially "Vertigo," I can't imagine that any one of them will top the feelings of exhilaration that are prompted by Rear Window, this most bittersweet of Hitchcockian suspense-romances. Make no mistake about it: Rear Window is as much of a romance as it is a brilliant exercise in suspense.”

  Vincent Canby, The New York Times · 100

• “Hitchcock confines all of the action to this single setting and draws the nerves to the snapping point in developing the thriller phases of the plot. He is just as skilled in making use of lighter touches in either dialog or situation to relieve the tension when it nears the unbearable. Interest never wavers during the 112 minutes of footage.”

  William Brogdon, Variety · 100