Rear Window is a 1954 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story It Had To Be Murder. It stars James Stewart as photojournalist L.B. Jefferies, Grace Kelly as his fashion model girlfriend Lisa Carol Fremont, and Raymond Burr as the suspected killer, Lars Thorwald. The film combines its main theme of a murder mystery with a critical examination of the ethics of marriage and voyeurism.
The film is considered by many film goers, critics and scholars to be one of Hitchcock's best and most thrilling pictures. Hitchcock also cameoed in the movie. Rear Window is one of several films directed by Hitchcock originally released by Paramount Pictures, that were acquired by Universal Studios in later years.