SOMEWHERE IN TIME IN SOMEWHERE

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About two Hitchcock Movies...

Same screenplay writer (John Michael Hayes), same leading actress (Grace Kelly), and close release years (1954 and 1955), all of these make Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” and “To Catch a Thief” very similar. Clearly, both of them are typical Hitchcock style: a mystery, a hero, beautiful women and a Hitchcock appearance on the screen. On the other hand, the narrative structure of these two movies is very different, which ingeniously avoids spectator disenchantment, while watching two movies that share many similarities.

In both movies, the stories have the same theme: a hero who is trying to investigate a mystery. “Rear Window” is about a murder, and “To Catch a Thief” is about a series of jewelry robberies. During the mystery solving process, in both stories, a beautiful and graceful woman’s help is crucial and indispensable. Hitchcock makes this feature of his style even more prominent by using the same actress, Grace Kelly, in both movies. Additionally Hitchcock’s style is further validated by ,some trivial re-occurring themes as the policemen, in both movies, are the hero’s obstacle or problem.

Considering these two movies, we can say Hitchcock is really skilled at seeking differences while accepting existing common ground. The major difference in these two movies is the narrative structure. In discovering Hitchcock’s classic style in the common themes as discussed above, the narrative structure of these two movies reveals the diversity of Hitchcock’s movies.

In “Rear Window”, the narrative structure, to a certain extent, is an induction structure, because no one knows, including the hero, Jimmy Stewart, what the mystery is exactly until the last minute of the story. During the whole movie, Jimmy Stewart is trying to collect evidence to figure out what happened to the businessman’s wife, one of the tenants in his apartment building. He assumes it is a murder, but it is just an assumption. The accumulation of evidence finally leads to a concrete conclusion. Briefly speaking, the structure flow is from cause to result, keeping the audience in suspense until the last minutes, with the police catching the murderer after a fight between Jimmy Stewart and the businessman. The whole story could have been a misunderstanding, but instead it is really a mystery within a mystery, as no one knows what will happen until the curtain call. The attraction of this movie is edge-of-your-seat focus on the ending...

Compared with “Rear Window”, the narrative structure of “To Catch a Thief” is much clearer. It is more a process of deduction, because we know all about the jewelry theifts at the beginning of the movie. Throughout the whole movie, Gary Grant is believed to be the perpetrator as he investigates on his own to exonerate himself. Briefly speaking, the structure flow is from result to cause as Hitchcock show a series of jewelry robberies with some mystery about who the criminal is from the very beginning. Even though Gary Grant, a reform jewelry robber is suspect, his culpability is not clear. Generally, the ending is obvious and predictable: Gary Grant discovers the identity of the real robber making the process of investigation the focus of this movie. There are more attractive scenes in “To Catch a Thief” than “Rear Window”, such us the gorgeous scenery of the French countryside which contribute to holding audience attention until the very end...    

The different narrative structures allow these two movies to catch audience attention in different ways illustrating the genius of Hitchcock to leave his audience coming back for more. ..

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人定归本，早安眠...

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