Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538125
39 F A L L Q 3 I S S U E B O O K R E V I E W By Peter Tonguette I n what may have represented a tele- vision first (and last) in June of 1972, A l f re d H i tc h co c k a p p e a re d o n " Th e D i c k C ave tt S h ow " to ex p o u n d o n t h e principles of montage. To be sure, Hitch- c o c k 's c o n v e r s a t i o n w i t h t h e w i t t y, well-informed Cavett included the usu- al humorous anecdotes, but at one point, the Master of Suspense gave the view- ers at home a lesson in editing theory. By way of example, Hitchcock turned to one of his signature f ilms, "Rear Window," s ta r r i n g Ja m e s Stewa r t a s L . B. "Je f f " Jefferies, a photojournalist whose tempo- rarily wheelchair-bound status leads him to idly ponder the lives being led outside his Greenwich Village apartment window, including that of a potential murderer re- siding across the courtyard. "You have James Stewart, a close-up of him, and he looks, you see, and you cut," Hitchcock told Cavett. To make his point, he then proposed several possibilities as to what Stewart might see in the first shot after that close-up. "Say, for example, a woman nursing a baby," Hitchcock said. "Now you go back to Mr. Stewart and he smiles. So what have we demonstrated? That he's a nice, benevolent gentleman." Hitchcock went on: "Now take the middle piece of film away — he looks, he sees, now cut to a girl in a bikini, and he smiles. Now he's a dirty old man!" Hitchcock delivered his lesson in a light- hearted, audience-friendly manner, but on the whole, he was entirely serious: motion picture editing has sufficient power that we perceive the two unchanging close-ups of Stewart differently, depending on the hypo- thetical image sandwiched between them. Hitchcock applied his intuitive grasp of montage to all his films, but it is no accident that he chose "Rear Window" to illustrate his point. The film, released by Paramount Pictures in 1954, rigorously adheres to the structure Hitchcock outlined to Cavett and had earlier articulated, more succinctly and a bit more dryly, in conversation with Francois Truffaut: "You have an immobi- lized man looking out. That's one part of the film. The second part shows how he reacts. This is the purest expression of a cinematic idea." These are the notes by which Hitch- cock made cinematic music. Happily, "Rear Window" is the subject of a peppily written, scrupulously researched new book by author Jennifer O'Callaghan. Although a whole catalogue of books exists on Hitchcock, O'Callaghan recognizes the centrality of "Rear Window." Hitchcock had made great films before — certainly "The 39 Steps" (1935), "Shadow of a Doubt" P H OT O : P H OT O F E S T LONG LENS: Jimmy Stewart in "Rear Window." STOLEN GLANCES 'WE HAVE A MOVIE,' ALFRED HITCHCOCK SAID ON LOCKING PICTURE FOR 'REAR WINDOW'