I like to think that humans are natural voyeurs. We like to watch. We like to eavesdrop. We are gossipmongers, looking for the latest scandal, always. We cannot mind our own business, and though we may clamor for privacy, we also share every detail of our lives on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and whatever else those kids are doing with those fancy-schmancy iPhones these days. But mostly, we like to watch. For whatever reason, we have this strange compulsion to, if we get just a taste of something juicy, try to see more. (As a side note, our media takes advantage of this by filling the news with mostly-worthless crap more scandalous than useful, and we can't forget our sickening reality television culture.)
Our modern culture has changed the face of voyeurism, but Alfred Hitchcock hit on the theme brilliantly in 1954 with Rear Window. Jimmy Stewart stars as L.B. Jeffries, a photographer with a broken leg and is thus homebound, with nothing to to do but spy on his neighbors with binoculars. It's all innocent observations, until he begins to suspect one man across the way of something terrible. Are Jeffries' suspicions purely the result of paranoia and boredom – or is there a killer on the loose? It's an incredible film, to be screened tonight, Friday, at the Louisville Palace as part of the Alfred Hitchcock film series.
Which series continues tomorrow night with The Trouble With Harry. And what is the trouble with Harry? Apparently that he is dead. Some things need to be decided: how did he die? Who killed him? And – what is to be done with the body? The film stars Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, and Mildred Natwick.
All films screen at 8:00; admission is $5. The Louisville Palace is located at 625 S. 4th Street. Further information about the Hitchcock film series can be found at the Palace website.
Image: Internet Movie Database
