Disturbia (2007)

In the more engaging first two-thirds of this suburban thriller, Shia LaBeouf's Kale Brecht is put under house arrest and like Jimmy Stewart's L B 'Jeff' Jefferies finds himself with nothing better to do than spy on his neighbours, but in the less engaging last third, this Rear Window premise gives way to an uninteresting serial killer thriller with David Morse obviously trying to channel Raymond Burr's Lars Thorwald as he stares back down the binocular lens but nothing else is trying very hard, least of all the writers.

★★★☆☆

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The Woman in the Window (1944)

In director Fritz Lang’s 1944 film noir full of great moments but dopey on the whole, a psychology professor played by Edward G Robinson has to dream up a way out of a terrible pickle when the woman whose portrait in a shop window he admires turns up in real life, invites him back to her apartment for a drink and before you can say, “What would your wife and kids think of this?”, the two become embroiled in murder, body disposal and blackmail!

★★☆☆☆ 

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Witness To Murder (1954)

Rather optimistically compared to Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, this noir has Barbara Stanwyck playing a woman who witnesses a murder in the apartment across from hers and although we are supposed to be thrilled as she contends with the killer, an ex-Nazi and wily gaslighter, he proves not nearly as diabolical as Gary Merrill's infuriatingly defeatist detective.

★★★☆☆

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Rear Window (1954)

Alfred Hitchcock's mystery suspense masterpiece has an incredibly elaborate purpose-built film-set of 31 apartments (eight of them fully furnished) and it stars James Stewart as a wheelchair-bound man who entertains himself by sitting at his apartment window observing his neighbours, one of whom may be a murderer!

★★★★★

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