. . . which is why the story never came up once during the first "working dinner" between director Alfred Hitchcock and screenwriter John Michael Hayes ostensibly concerning this film project, according to the documentary short entitled SCREENWRITER JOHN MICHAEL HAYES ON REAR WINDOW. Let's face it, what was there to discuss that Ol' Hitch could've put into words? Would he say, "I might have used a cute gimmick during ROPE to keep my crew on edge and drive the producers nuts, but by the time I get done with REAR WINDOW it will be such a notorious pain-in-the-butt that folks will long for the "good times" at the end of ROPE, declaring that making ROPE was a walk in the park compared to slaving away on REAR WINDOW?" Would he talk about a fiendish plan to scoop out basements and sub-basements on the "REAR WINDOW sound stage" and his plot to tie up every piece of lighting equipment in Hollywood to simulate the great outdoors (when any director with a few common cents would have BUILT THIS SET OUTSIDE!)? Would Hitch the infamous Svengali brag about the no-dating-royalty clause he thought was ironclad in Grace Kelly's contract? Only Heaven knows.
2 Reviews
Nice Interview
Michael_Elliott12 March 2012
Screenwriter John Michael Hayes on 'Rear Window' (2001)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
This 13-minute featurette is pretty much described by the title itself. Screenwriter John Michael Hayes is interviewed about certain points of his early life but the main focus is his work on Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW. The screenwriter talks about his early days of going to movies and how he realized that certain screenwriters and directors were dependable in regards to turning out a good product. He talks about how he always considered Hitchcock one of these people so he then talks about how he got the book sent to him. This led to a dinner with Hitchcock where the screenwriter was asked what his favorite film of his was, which he replied SHADOW OF A DOUBT. This here led to the screenwriter thinking he blew his chance at the new project but the rest is history. This is a pretty fun interview because John Michael Hayes goes into so much detail about his ideas on the story, what Hitchcock asked for and there's even a discussion about him spending a week with Grace Kelly so that he could get a good idea about her because her character wasn't in the original book. He also tells some great stories about basing her character after his wife and how during the preview she caught onto what he had done. The writer says that at the end of production you just knew it was a case where everything had gone right and they all knew it.
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
This 13-minute featurette is pretty much described by the title itself. Screenwriter John Michael Hayes is interviewed about certain points of his early life but the main focus is his work on Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW. The screenwriter talks about his early days of going to movies and how he realized that certain screenwriters and directors were dependable in regards to turning out a good product. He talks about how he always considered Hitchcock one of these people so he then talks about how he got the book sent to him. This led to a dinner with Hitchcock where the screenwriter was asked what his favorite film of his was, which he replied SHADOW OF A DOUBT. This here led to the screenwriter thinking he blew his chance at the new project but the rest is history. This is a pretty fun interview because John Michael Hayes goes into so much detail about his ideas on the story, what Hitchcock asked for and there's even a discussion about him spending a week with Grace Kelly so that he could get a good idea about her because her character wasn't in the original book. He also tells some great stories about basing her character after his wife and how during the preview she caught onto what he had done. The writer says that at the end of production you just knew it was a case where everything had gone right and they all knew it.
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