October 5, 2025 • 34 mins
Rewind Episode: Join Sandy and Terry for a fun chat about how a short story from a dime store magazine turned into one of Hollywood's most talked-about films and the fifth-highest-grossing movie of 1954. The film REAR WINDOW, featuring stars like Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr, and Thelma Ritter, was written by John Michael Hayes and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
The PAGE International Screenwriting Awards sponsors the WRITERS HANGOUT.
Executive Producer Kristin Overn
Creator/Executive Producer Sandy Adomaitis
Producer Terry Sampson
Music by Ethan Stoller
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hello, my name is Sandy Adamis,the social media director for
the page, internationalScreenwriting Awards, and your
host for the Writer's Hangout.
A podcast that celebrates themany stages of writing, from
inspiration to the first draft,revising, getting a project made
and everything in between.
(00:21):
We'll talk to the best and thebrightest in the entertainment
industry and create a spacewhere you can hang out, learn
from the pros, and have fun.
Hi, I'm Sandy Adamis.
Hi, I'm Terry Sampson.
Terry.
Today I'm gonna tell you abouthow a 24 page short story was
turned into one of the mostdiscussed works of cinematic
(00:43):
art.
Ever produced in Hollywood andthe fifth grossing film of 1954,
the Film Rare Window starringJimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly,
Raymond Burr, and Thelma Ritter.
It was written by John MichaelHayes and was originally a short
(01:04):
story by Cornell Woolrich anddirected by Alfred Hitchcock.
Terry.
We've all seen Rear window,right?
Yes, yes.
I'm gonna put you on the spot.
I want you to tell me, I'm sureit's been a long time since
you've seen Rear Window, right?
Yes.
From your memory, what is RearWindow about?
we can edit this, so, Nope.
(01:27):
It's about, it's a guy.
A guy in a wheelchair.
Yes.
He is limited in where he cango.
Yes.
He.
Observes things that are, Ican't think of a, a good word
for it.
He observes around him.
Well, he observes things thatlook like trouble has occurred.
Yes.
That's his biggest thing.
Yes.
(01:47):
Something is horribly wrong.
He can't do anything about it.
Right.
And what can he do?
Okay.
Here is a short synopsis of RearWindow.
Rear Window was originallypublished in 1942 in a Dime
Detective Magazine.
Under the title, it had to BeMurder.
It was a short story by CornellWoolrich.
(02:08):
The story is about a man whohabitually watches his
neighbor's rear windows in theapartment across from his one
day.
He believes he witnesses.
Evidence of a murder and triesto find proof.
Woolrich based the story in parton the HG Well Story through a
Window.
The author who died in 1968 wasconsidered one of the best crime
(02:33):
writers of this time, and moreof his work had been adapted
into film noir screenplays thanany other writer.
So, of course, rear Window,Jimmy Stewart, he was in a
wheelchair.
But basically, and so he had nomobility, which you were saying.
Right?
So that was added into thescreenplay.
so let's just get into how RearWindow came to be.
(02:58):
Have you heard the name LelandHayward?
I, it seems familiar, but I'mnot sure.
He was this incredibly, superpowerful agent.
He also produced Broadway showsand he also became a producer
and some of the people that he,uh, careers that he guided.
Greta Garbo, Fred Astaire, KerryGrant, James Stewart, and Clark
(03:19):
Gable, Henry Fonda and CatherineHepburn.
Yeah.
It's a lot.
And as far as on stage, heproduced South Pacific and the
Sound of Music.
Wow.
So Leland was known for histaste read a long time ago.
His daughter, Brooke Hayward,wrote a memoir called Haywire,
(03:42):
and I think it came out in 19.
77.
But if you're, if you like toread memoirs about Hollywood,
that's a good one.
I highly recommend it.
It's filled with so much pain,but.
Mixed up with just the, justHollywood and how golden it was.
So it's interesting.
(04:02):
Did was the painful part of it,her recollecting, her dad's
trouble?
It was painful in the sense thather mom was Maureen Sullivan.
Okay.
The actress.
Okay, so you've got a beautifulactress.
You've got a very powerfulfather.
They grew up in think.
If I remember up in the hills,and it was very rugged.
(04:24):
There were two buildings thatwere attached by a corridor.
The parents lived in onebuilding and the kids lived in
another building.
No kidding.
Yeah.
With the nanny and her sister.
I remember her talking about hersister was very, very delicate
and the sister committedsuicide.
Her brother, if I remembercorrectly, was really good
(04:45):
friends with.
Peter Fonda, and then I thinkPeter Fonda's father, of course,
Henry Fonda was once married toher mother, or they were
together.
So it was just kind of, uh, thisvery too close knitted there.
Yeah, it was, it was just.
It was a really good memory.
I, I'm stumbling over my words.
(05:06):
I brought the subject up, but I,you know, should have looked at
the book again.
But I remember just being drawnin by, it was very melancholy.
I remember, you know, it's, theyhad everything, but yet they
didn't have their parents.
Yeah, exactly.
And, and as you brought this up,I was, I immediately thought,
the reason I even said anythingwas when somebody with those
kind of credits mm-hmm.
(05:27):
You'd think their life waspretty great.
Yeah.
But sometimes.
Or not to, to anyone's surprise,those things come at a cost.
Exactly.
You look at those people and youlook at their beautiful homes
and you think, just like youjust said, nothing can ever be
wrong.
It's just too perfect to life.
And if something does come up,they have the money to take care
(05:48):
of it.
But that's not necessarily true.
And as we demonstratedthroughout our episodes with our
true crime, bad things happen.
Right, so Leland purchased therights to, it had to be murder,
along with five other storiesfor the amount of$9,250.
(06:10):
In February of 1952, Lelandhired Joshua Logan to write a
treatment, and Logan in turnwrote pages.
And he remained very faithful tothe original story, but also
made several changes that bearsimilarities to the finished
film.
He added in a love story.
(06:32):
Oh, okay.
Which was, oh, sure.
When you're translating that.
To screen when?
When you have a pretty galthere, why not?
Yes.
In turn, Hitchcock then paid$25,000 for the rights to rear
window and 15,000 for Logan'streatment.
So I think Leland made outreally well.
Yeah.
Okay.
(06:53):
Alfred then went Alfred, let'sjust say Hitchcock.
Hitchcock went looking for awriter and landed on John
Michael Hayes.
John Michael Hayes was born in1919 in Worcester,
Massachusetts, and he started inradio.
His first screen credit was forRed Ball Express.
(07:14):
In 1952, the Hitchcock HayesCollaboration produced four.
Motion pictures in two years.
That's amazing.
Rear window to catch a thief.
The trouble with Harry and theman who knew too much.
Wow.
It was one of the mostsuccessful director
screenwriting pairings inHollywood history.
(07:36):
Yeah.
What did Hayes bring to theAlmighty Hitchcock?
Hayes was known for writingrichly drawn sympathetic
characters.
And prior to working with Hayes,most of Hitchcock's protagonists
had been deeply troubled, darkand complex figures.
(07:58):
Hayes also brought voyeurism.
Fear of intimacy, fear of death,and the lost of a loved one were
seen throughout a lot of Hay'sscripts.
On a side note, a journalistonce wrote, John Michael Hayes.
Looks like a Hollywood scriptwriter as played by a Hollywood
(08:21):
film star.
In a Hollywood film aboutHollywood.
He was a nice guy.
Hayes was known to be a niceguy.
He had dark good looks, and hesmoked a pipe with a grace.
It was said that would make.
Crosby looked positively clumsy.
His dialogue is friendly and butforceful, and his humor is dry
(08:47):
and snappy as a dead twigunderfoot.
And during all of this, he wasabout 34 years old.
Oh, Hayes scripts also have whathe calls, and I wonder if he was
the first to capture thisphrase, an emotional roadmap,
something which drives thecharacter to the end of the
(09:08):
story.
For this reason, Hayes alwaysinsisted on completing a first
draft before turning.
It into a producer.
One of the hardest things for aproducer to do is wait.
Hayes has been quoted as saying,he also said after two or three
weeks, he wants to see somepages.
(09:30):
But if you give the producer thepages before you're ready,
you'll end up in literarylitigation for weeks.
And lose your perspective beforeyou get going with your story.
That's what's wrong with a lotof pictures.
They have great openings and noendings.
Hayes Touch goes beyond hisdialogue and carefully
(09:51):
constructed storylines.
Hayes brought a certainintegrity to the job of
screenwriter, which had toooften been cast in the shadow of
famous insults like Jack.
Warner saying that screenwritersare schmucks with Underwoods.
Have you heard that sayingbefore?
No.
Yeah.
He used to say that Schmuckswith Underwoods, I'm not even
(10:13):
sure what an Underwood is.
Underwood typewriter.
A dinner was set up betweenAlfred Hitchcock and John
Michael Hayes at 7:30 PM at thePolo Lounge of Beverly Hills.
Hayes dressed as well as hecould and he had read the short
story.
Over and over and over.
He knew it.
Backwards, frontwards, forwards,sidewards.
(10:36):
He memorized his notes and ideasand he drove from the valley
where we are right now.
Yeah.
To the Beverly Hills Hotel, andhe arrived a few minutes early.
I'm thinking.
He took cold water.
It had to be cold water.
Yes.
He drives right in there.
Yes, he was.
I've heard, yes.
I have never been to the PoloLounge.
(10:56):
I've been to the Polo Lounge.
Well, I haven't either.
We, we will.
We will do an episode from thePolo Lounge.
I think that's an excellent,hold us to that audience.
An excellent idea.
So again, he arrived a fewminutes early, which I applaud.
I always like to arrive a fewminutes early.
Absolutely.
So by seven 30, Hitchcock hadn'tarrived.
Quarter of eight.
(11:16):
He still wasn't there.
By eight o'clock is still nosign of Hitchcock.
Hayes thought he might havegotten the night or even worse,
the hotel wrong, and he startedto get really anxious about
meeting the famous director.
And you know, there was no wayto pull out your cell and call
(11:37):
and.
With your people to check withhis people and Yep.
Just had to sit there, I guess.
Yep.
So now Hayes is filled withanxiety and so he thinks, okay,
I gotta calm my nerves.
So he went to the hotel bar andhe actually told the bartender,
I'm here to see Hitchcock.
I don't even know if I have theright night.
(11:59):
I'm nervous, give me a drink.
Unlike many of hiscontemporaries in Hollywood.
At that time, Hayes was not abig drinker, and he told
himself, even before he startedtwo drinks, I'm gonna give
myself a two drink minimum.
He asked the bartender, give mesomething that will calm my
nerves.
The bartenders said, I haveexactly what you need, and gave
(12:20):
him a martini.
Of course Hayes knocked back thedrink'cause he wanted to get
back to the table really quicklyin case Hitchcock shows up.
So he goes back to the table andhe waits.
And he waits and he waits again.
No Hitchcock.
And so by eight 30, the writerwent back to the bar one more
(12:41):
time and decided to have onemore drink.
Then he'd go back, wait a fewmore minutes for hitch, and then
if he didn't show up, he wasgonna go back home.
So that's exactly what he did.
Had one more drink, went back tothe table, no hitch.
So he decided to go back to hiscar.
So he is walking to his car andas he's walking down the hill,
(13:02):
who's coming up the hill, butAlfred Hitchcock in a taxi and
he.
Waved and stopped him andHitchcock leaned out the window
and he said, I'm sorry.
No, no autographs.
No autographs.
And he said, are you here to seeJohn Michael Hayes?
And he goes, oh, you must beJohn Michael Hayes.
Get in.
We're gonna, we're gonna godrinking.
(13:24):
Yeah, go drinking.
And he's just like, that woulddrives me crazy because I
would've wanted the credit forwaiting there for so long.
Of course.
So it looks like, yeah, it lookslike Hayes was.
Just as late as Hitchcock, Iguess.
Soon as they got inside thedining room, the head waiter
began fussing all over Hitchcockwhose reputation as a big
spender and a gourmet had beenwell established before he had
(13:48):
even arrived in America.
Nevermind the Polo Lounge.
They sat at a booth and thefirst thing that Hitchcock said
to Hayes was.
Do you drink?
Hayes?
Replied Well, I've been known onoccasion to take a drink.
Well, what do you drink?
I think the last drink I had wasa martini.
Wonderful.
(14:09):
That is my favorite drink.
I like a man who drinksHitchcock called the waiter to
the table and ordered two doublemartinis.
When the drinks arrived, the twomen tipped glasses and haze
sipped.
As cautiously as he could hitch.
Called for hor d'oeuvres andanother double martini for each
(14:30):
of them.
Are you keeping count?
Yeah.
Six.
Is that, I think this is six forHayes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He should have said somethingalong the lines of, if I, you're
like a guy that, uh, drinks, soyou should have been with me a
half an hour ago.
It's, you would've loved me.
Then Hitchcock throughout thedinner kept encouraging Hayes,
who was trying to of course,slowly drink his drinks.
(14:53):
Drink up.
Drink up.
Relax.
We're here to get to know eachother.
Drink some more.
You know, I like a man whodrinks Hayes kept imagining he
was going to get sick and thatAlfred Hitchcock would never
speak to him again.
And, and up to this point, hitchhad never mentioned rear
(15:13):
windows.
Hayes was just really confused,and he said that he began to
start pouring sweat, trying tokeep sober and sound
intelligent.
Hayes recalls the directorasking, have you seen any of my
movies?
Or maybe he would've seen, said,have you seen any of my movies?
(15:34):
Do you have an Alfred Hitchcockimitation?
No.
No.
Okay.
I'm not even gonna push you onthat.
I'm gonna go with yours on thatone.
Yes, I have Mr.
Hitchcock.
By now, they'd finished theirhor d'oeuvres and started a
second course of Dover Soul withsome rear white wine.
(15:55):
Perfect.
Wow.
Hitchcock like sold the virtuesof the white wine, and he poured
a big glass for haze and said,please tell me more.
Hayes replied, well, forexample, shadow of a doubt.
What did you think of it?
Asked Hitchcock.
Hayes began to give an analysisof shadow of a doubt from frame
(16:18):
one to the end of the picture,telling Hitchcock what he
thought he had done right andwhat he had thought he had done
wrong, where it was strong,where it was weak, and what he
particularly liked about thecasting.
The young writer then continuedthe assessment.
Of shadow of a doubt straightthrough the next course of steak
(16:40):
and red wine, blurred by thecombination of martinis and fine
wines.
Hayes started going throughHitchcock's movies one by one,
indicating some things that hehitch could have done better and
notorious, and telling thedirector that he thought the
bullet stopped by the Bible inthe hero's pocket in 39 steps
(17:04):
was kind of corny.
While Hayes was talking,Hitchcock said nothing.
He just continued eating anddrinking and munching and
crunching and slurping at theconclusion of the meal.
Hitchcock ordered dessert to bebrought with a concoction of
brandy, Dr.
(17:25):
And Dr.
Sounds like flaming career.
I, I don't even know what thatis.
Yeah.
Amazingly Hayes didn't get sick,but.
Hitchcock still hadn't said oneword about rear window, not one
single word.
Finally, with the dinnerfinished, Hitchcock said, well,
(17:47):
I've got to go home now.
Hayes offered to drive him home,which I think is just adorable.
Wow.
But Hitchcock said he would takea taxi and after a considerable
amount of coffee, Hayes got intohis car, put the top down, and
drove back over.
Which we assume is ColdwaterCanyon Canyon back to his home.
(18:09):
And when he got home, his wifeasked, you know, how'd it go?
And Hay said it was, you know,one of the best dinners he's
ever had.
But I think I'm through withHitchcock.
There's no way he's gonna hireme.
I basically just babbled on likean idiot.
Yep.
I, I was honking if that's wherethis was going.
Yes.
(18:29):
Now, well, obviously he, he didwrite the movie, but this is my
theory.
Hitchcock probably is alwayssurrounded by sycophants and
he's probably always the one todo the talking.
And here he is having all thisdelicious food, all this
delicious liquor, and JohnMichael Hayes knew what he was
(18:50):
talking about, Maybe it wasrelaxing to have someone else
talk for a change.
What do you think it could be?
It could be the quality of theconversation too.
Let's, when I, when I've been ina situation where we was talking
about something that I wascreating mm-hmm.
And somebody said something thatwas legitimately good.
(19:10):
Now I might not have chose it,but they say something to me.
and I, think it's worthmeasuring.
Mm-hmm.
And, and checking out.
I'm interested.
I'll keep, yeah.
I just keep listening and Ithink, okay, this guy's rolling.
Yeah.
Let's, let's, let's hear more.
Yeah.
I think it was the quality ofthe comments.
I, you can say.
(19:30):
I didn't like that thishappened.
And then it just depends on thenext thing you say.
Yes.
And I'm sure he was loose withhis words, but I'm also, I
believe a hundred percent itwas, it was probably spot on and
And enthusiastic.
Possibly enthusiastic and saidwith reverence.
There you go.
Like I said, yeah.
(19:52):
On Monday morning, Hay's agenttelephoned him and said, you're
in Hitchcock, loved you.
You start work tomorrow.
Report to Warner Brothers wherehitch is prepping for dial M for
murder.
I love that.
I love report to WarnerBrothers, get up there and tell
him where you are.
Have five martinis waiting foryou.
(20:12):
So get the day started and as weknow, Warner Brothers in the
valley.
So yeah, you wouldn't have todrive over cold water again.
Yeah, Hayes responded with.
Are you sure you have the rightJohn Michael Hayes.
We why we never even talkedabout rear window or anything.
You are fine.
Send the agent and the next day.
Hayes arrived at Warner Brothersand he and hitch discussed rear
(20:36):
window for the first time.
Baffled by the experience Hayesneeded a whole year before he
had the guts to ask Hitchcockabout that night.
Well, let me tell you whathappened.
Hitchcock said, I went to acocktail party at Jules Stein's
house.
That's why I was late.
(20:57):
You know, I was dieting and Ihad several drinks.
I remember meeting you and goingto eat, but I don't remember
anything after that.
But you said and talked a lot,and on that assumption that a
man who talks a lot hassomething to say.
I hired you, not one to leave anassociate completely at ease.
(21:19):
Hitchcock added.
But don't forget, if I didn'tlike you two leaks later, I
would've let you go.
Wow.
How about that?
I'm too in the back to reallyknow what you're saying, but it
seems like a lovely evening.
I'm not gonna interrupt it.
That's exactly.
Wow.
So it didn't matter what hesaid.
(21:39):
Nope.
And I highly recommend for.
Our screenwriters out there notto do that.
Yeah.
Or to make sure whoever you'retalking to is deeply in the bag
by the time you chat with'em.
Exactly.
That sounds like an excellentplan.
Hayes met with Hitchcock on theWarner Brothers Lot twice before
starting the treatment for whereWindow His salary was$750 a week
(22:04):
with no guarantee.
Was officially put on theParamount payroll on June 8th,
1953.
At that time, paramount assignedrear window, a story fund number
of 8 4 0 0 1 to keep anaccounting of all costs.
(22:24):
During their preliminarymeetings, Hayes discovered.
Hitchcock's main concern, as wastrue of nearly all his films,
was creating a love story, andthey both saw a need to create
more neighbors to place in thewindows of the surrounding
buildings and to build thesecharacters so that each would
(22:47):
present a reflection of therelationship between the
principles while Hitchcock.
Bused himself through July andAugust of 1953 with
pre-production for dial M formurder.
Hayes went all out preparing thetreatment for rare window and he
was familiar with uh,Hitchcock's style Plus he was
(23:08):
also familiar with the leadJimmy Stewart, who he had worked
with before.
Jimmy Stewart.
Also happened to be a client ofLee Lynn Hayward again.
There you go.
So powerful.
And so he was attached to theproject from the beginning.
Like most Hitchcock scenarios,the storyline for Rear Window
would develop from its details.
(23:30):
As Hayes explained, it startedwith the fact that we had to
give Jeffries.
A reason to travel around theworld, a dangerous occupation
and a reason to get his legbroken.
It was more dramatic having itbroken in the line of work and
not just slipping on the stairs.
I really agree with that.
That was a really good creativepoint.
(23:51):
I thought.
Yeah, it meant something.
Hayes, what goes on to say?
Secondly, I wanted to give himan occupation that would give
him an occasion to meet a girllike Lisa, played by Grace
Kelly.
Sure.
Out of that came her profession.
He's a foreign correspondent andhis editor said, look, we're out
(24:13):
of fashion photographers thisweek.
We want you to do a layout on anupcoming model named Lisa
Fremont.
And he said, that's not my lineof work.
And they say, well fill in asbest you can.
He did the magazine layout andcover.
That's how they met.
She was fascinated with him.
And of course he was veryinterested in her as a woman,
(24:36):
but not as a wife in thebeginning.
He figures, models are frivolousand she certainly has never been
off the sidewalk and couldn'tlive in safari clothes.
So that was backstory, but Ireally like.
Stats Uhhuh that they were eventhinking of, okay, he's in a
wheelchair.
And it would've been so easy forthe writer to just go, Hey, he
(24:56):
slipped down the back stairs.
Right?
And he's a internationalphotographer.
Of course he knows a model.
Nope.
Usually those two worlds don'tmix.
So they really thought aboutbringing the pieces together.
You know, it's funny sometimesif you, if you give too much
information, it feels likeyou're setting people up with
(25:16):
something, right?
But this, this is a really goodexample of a guy who fed just
enough things to make his.
Description of his life, moreauthentic.
Oh, I also like the been off thesidewalk.
Yeah, that's, that's a greatlittle turn of phrase in
creating the love story,Hitchcock and Hayes considered
(25:38):
it a more interesting twist tohave Lisa pursue Jeffries rather
than the other way around.
And it was rumored at the timethat Hitchcock was basing this
off the love affair between.
Ingrid Bergman and the the photojournalist Robert Capra.
(25:58):
Oh, but if you listen to more ofwhat Hayes put into the script.
Hayes's wife and the characterGrace Kelly were very similar.
Hayes drew upon his ownexperience with his wife.
He explains in the case of JimmyStewart in Rear Window, when
Lisa was in danger, he suddenlyrealized how much she meant to
(26:21):
him and that if anythinghappened to her.
My.
God, life was worthless.
That came out of my life beforemy wife and I were married.
We decided to delay our marriageuntil I was more successful.
We got into an automobileaccident and she was thrown out
of the car and onto the highwayamongst broken glass, metal and
(26:44):
everything.
But in the brief moment that Isaw her rolling down the highway
before I was knocked unconsciousagainst the windshield, I said.
Oh my God.
If anything happens to her, mylife won't be worth anything.
And I decided I was not going towait another minute if we ever
lived through this thing.
So when I got to the situationin rear window, we had to bring
(27:07):
Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kellytogether.
How are we gonna play it?
This is kind of a dull scene,but we never had to have it.
When she was in danger, youlooked at his face and you knew
instantly that he valued hermore than anything.
So when I came to figure out howwe were going to get right, that
scene I.
(27:28):
The automobile accident, and youremember in the movie, Lisa goes
to the killer's apartment acrossthe way to collect some evidence
and the bad man comes home,right?
And you, you can see in JimmyStewart's face the terror.
Of him seeing the killer.
Oh, another interesting thingthat Hayes brought to his
(27:50):
treatment in the original storythere, Jefferies had a houseman
named Sam and Hayes replaced theHouseman Sam with Stella
McCaffrey, an insurance companynurse.
Who visits Jeff Dailey checkinghis temperature and massaging
his back to relieve the straincaused by the wheelchair in the
(28:13):
treatment.
Hayes describes Cella as a bluntand earthy woman full of the
wise and cynical lore of cityliving.
No, can't, no hypocrisy.
In her dialogue, she says whatmost of us thinks, but revises
vocally for greater and socialacceptance.
(28:33):
Her comments border on thestartling and are either
extremely penetrating orextremely humorous, and often
both.
This is how he described Lisa, alife beautiful, honey haired
young woman of perhaps 26 years.
Her dress and adornment have theexacting perfection of a Vogue
(28:55):
Magazine model.
Her beauty seems to go deeperthan the surface.
Her eyes alert and her faceintelligent, but there is
something about her physicalmovement, the way she walks,
turns sits that has aprofessional touch to it.
It is as if she is alwaysconscious of the need for
dramatizing her appearance.
(29:17):
It could be a result of greatinsecurity, vanity, or
professional training.
In Lisa's case, it is thelatter.
I.
Hayes turned in his completedtreatment on Friday, September
11th, 1953, while Hitchcock wasstill busy directing scenes for
Dial M for murder, which hadfallen behind schedule.
(29:40):
The treatment was then deliveredto Marge Wonder at Paramount for
retyping and the official studiotreatment dated September 12th.
1953 boosted Paramount's beliefthat they had a real winner in
rare window and that 75 pagetreatment was handed out by the
(30:01):
story department as an examplefor a perfect way to write a
story treatment.
Yeah.
Side note, James Stewart hadenough faith in the film and the
future of its success to foregohis salary in exchange for part
ownership of the picture.
After completing the treatment,Hitchcock and Hayes met again to
(30:22):
make adjustments to the basicconstruction.
But the characters, theirmotivations and the tone of the
film had been set in stone.
That was done back then.
Huh?
Jimmy Stewart's.
Uh, I'll take a piece of theaction rather than a salary.
I know Immediately thought ofStar Wars.
Yeah.
I see.
That's.
Seventies back then and that wasa good move on the part I part
(30:43):
of Jimmy.
Yeah, it's a good idea.
I bet you Leland told him to dothat.
Yeah, maybe so.
Hayes started to meet withHitchcock at the Bel Air Home to
discuss the screenplay.
Hayes recalled hitch was stillworking on dial M for murder in
post-production.
We did have conferences to keepup with what I was doing, but he
gave me my head and he let me goahead and write the screenplay.
(31:06):
And this is what Hitchcock saysabout working with writers when
they go off to write.
The screenplay Hitchcock said, Ialways insist on sitting with
the writer from the verybeginning and creating about a
hundred page outline of all thedetails.
From the first shot to the end.
On October 14th, Hayes hadcompleted his first draft of the
(31:27):
script.
And everybody thought it was aremarkable job.
Hayes had breathed life into thecharacters, expanding in every
way on what had already been inthe exceptional treatment.
From the dialogue emerged adepth of characterization he
hadn't achieved before in themedium.
He then met with Hitch almostdaily, turning the screenplay
(31:51):
into a Hitchcock shootingscript.
The writer recalled, we sat downin his office and he broke up
all the scenes into individualshots and made sketches of them
and laid out the picture.
Now that a script was in hand, aproduction team was quickly
assembled.
Although a Paramount pressrelease boasted that rear window
(32:12):
in its entirety was shot on onestage and in one set.
The statement is not completelyaccurate.
Following the opening shot ofthe courtyard and Jeff's
apartment, the script calls fora brief scene inside the office
of Jeff's.
Photographer editor and hitchshot the scene, but it was never
(32:35):
used in the film.
And one of the reasons whyhistorians film historians think
that Hitchcock shot the scenewas.
Because of rope.
It was static an all in one set.
The powers that be might benervous thinking this was gonna
be another static set.
And if you've seen Rear window,it's the exact opposite of that.
(32:57):
Mm-hmm.
But he probably threw that in,probably shot the scene.
Just so he can say he had it,but he never planned on putting
it in the movie.
Principal photography began onFriday, November 27th at nine in
the morning with the exceptionof a few minor injuries such as
Raymond Burr straining his back,lifting Ted Mapes, Jimmy
(33:18):
Stewart's stunt double.
The production came off without.
A hitch.
The final day of shooting wasJanuary 13th, 1954.
Hitchcock and Hayes managed totransform a 24 page short story,
not only into the fifth highestgrossing film of 1954, but into
(33:42):
one of the world's mostdiscussed works of cinematic art
ever produced in Hollywood.
And for you and I, we have now.
Can add to our palette ofcomments that it was a quote,
six martini idea.
That sounds like a six martiniidea, doesn't it?
I think we've named the episode.
The resources for this story wasthe book Writing with Hitchcock
(34:05):
by Steve DeRosa.
That's a rep for the Writer'sHangout.
Thanks so much for listening.
If you enjoyed the show, pleasesubscribe, like, and thrive till
we get to hang out again.
Keep writing.
The world needs your stories.
The Writers Hangout is sponsoredby the Page, international
Screenwriting Awards executiveproducer Kristin Ove, producers
(34:29):
Terry Sampson and Sandy Adamis.
Music by Ethan Stoller.
Hello, my name is Sandy Adamis,the social media director for
the page, internationalScreenwriting Awards, and your
host for the Writer's Hangout.
A podcast that celebrates themany stages of writing, from
inspiration to the first draft,revising, getting a project made
and everything in between.
(00:21):
We'll talk to the best and thebrightest in the entertainment
industry and create a spacewhere you can hang out, learn
from the pros, and have fun.
Hi, I'm Sandy Adamis.
Hi, I'm Terry Sampson.
Terry.
Today I'm gonna tell you abouthow a 24 page short story was
turned into one of the mostdiscussed works of cinematic
(00:43):
art.
Ever produced in Hollywood andthe fifth grossing film of 1954,
the Film Rare Window starringJimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly,
Raymond Burr, and Thelma Ritter.
It was written by John MichaelHayes and was originally a short
(01:04):
story by Cornell Woolrich anddirected by Alfred Hitchcock.
Terry.
We've all seen Rear window,right?
Yes, yes.
I'm gonna put you on the spot.
I want you to tell me, I'm sureit's been a long time since
you've seen Rear Window, right?
Yes.
From your memory, what is RearWindow about?
we can edit this, so, Nope.
(01:27):
It's about, it's a guy.
A guy in a wheelchair.
Yes.
He is limited in where he cango.
Yes.
He.
Observes things that are, Ican't think of a, a good word
for it.
He observes around him.
Well, he observes things thatlook like trouble has occurred.
Yes.
That's his biggest thing.
Yes.
(01:47):
Something is horribly wrong.
He can't do anything about it.
Right.
And what can he do?
Okay.
Here is a short synopsis of RearWindow.
Rear Window was originallypublished in 1942 in a Dime
Detective Magazine.
Under the title, it had to BeMurder.
It was a short story by CornellWoolrich.
(02:08):
The story is about a man whohabitually watches his
neighbor's rear windows in theapartment across from his one
day.
He believes he witnesses.
Evidence of a murder and triesto find proof.
Woolrich based the story in parton the HG Well Story through a
Window.
The author who died in 1968 wasconsidered one of the best crime
(02:33):
writers of this time, and moreof his work had been adapted
into film noir screenplays thanany other writer.
So, of course, rear Window,Jimmy Stewart, he was in a
wheelchair.
But basically, and so he had nomobility, which you were saying.
Right?
So that was added into thescreenplay.
so let's just get into how RearWindow came to be.
(02:58):
Have you heard the name LelandHayward?
I, it seems familiar, but I'mnot sure.
He was this incredibly, superpowerful agent.
He also produced Broadway showsand he also became a producer
and some of the people that he,uh, careers that he guided.
Greta Garbo, Fred Astaire, KerryGrant, James Stewart, and Clark
(03:19):
Gable, Henry Fonda and CatherineHepburn.
Yeah.
It's a lot.
And as far as on stage, heproduced South Pacific and the
Sound of Music.
Wow.
So Leland was known for histaste read a long time ago.
His daughter, Brooke Hayward,wrote a memoir called Haywire,
(03:42):
and I think it came out in 19.
77.
But if you're, if you like toread memoirs about Hollywood,
that's a good one.
I highly recommend it.
It's filled with so much pain,but.
Mixed up with just the, justHollywood and how golden it was.
So it's interesting.
(04:02):
Did was the painful part of it,her recollecting, her dad's
trouble?
It was painful in the sense thather mom was Maureen Sullivan.
Okay.
The actress.
Okay, so you've got a beautifulactress.
You've got a very powerfulfather.
They grew up in think.
If I remember up in the hills,and it was very rugged.
(04:24):
There were two buildings thatwere attached by a corridor.
The parents lived in onebuilding and the kids lived in
another building.
No kidding.
Yeah.
With the nanny and her sister.
I remember her talking about hersister was very, very delicate
and the sister committedsuicide.
Her brother, if I remembercorrectly, was really good
(04:45):
friends with.
Peter Fonda, and then I thinkPeter Fonda's father, of course,
Henry Fonda was once married toher mother, or they were
together.
So it was just kind of, uh, thisvery too close knitted there.
Yeah, it was, it was just.
It was a really good memory.
I, I'm stumbling over my words.
(05:06):
I brought the subject up, but I,you know, should have looked at
the book again.
But I remember just being drawnin by, it was very melancholy.
I remember, you know, it's, theyhad everything, but yet they
didn't have their parents.
Yeah, exactly.
And, and as you brought this up,I was, I immediately thought,
the reason I even said anythingwas when somebody with those
kind of credits mm-hmm.
(05:27):
You'd think their life waspretty great.
Yeah.
But sometimes.
Or not to, to anyone's surprise,those things come at a cost.
Exactly.
You look at those people and youlook at their beautiful homes
and you think, just like youjust said, nothing can ever be
wrong.
It's just too perfect to life.
And if something does come up,they have the money to take care
(05:48):
of it.
But that's not necessarily true.
And as we demonstratedthroughout our episodes with our
true crime, bad things happen.
Right, so Leland purchased therights to, it had to be murder,
along with five other storiesfor the amount of$9,250.
(06:10):
In February of 1952, Lelandhired Joshua Logan to write a
treatment, and Logan in turnwrote pages.
And he remained very faithful tothe original story, but also
made several changes that bearsimilarities to the finished
film.
He added in a love story.
(06:32):
Oh, okay.
Which was, oh, sure.
When you're translating that.
To screen when?
When you have a pretty galthere, why not?
Yes.
In turn, Hitchcock then paid$25,000 for the rights to rear
window and 15,000 for Logan'streatment.
So I think Leland made outreally well.
Yeah.
Okay.
(06:53):
Alfred then went Alfred, let'sjust say Hitchcock.
Hitchcock went looking for awriter and landed on John
Michael Hayes.
John Michael Hayes was born in1919 in Worcester,
Massachusetts, and he started inradio.
His first screen credit was forRed Ball Express.
(07:14):
In 1952, the Hitchcock HayesCollaboration produced four.
Motion pictures in two years.
That's amazing.
Rear window to catch a thief.
The trouble with Harry and theman who knew too much.
Wow.
It was one of the mostsuccessful director
screenwriting pairings inHollywood history.
(07:36):
Yeah.
What did Hayes bring to theAlmighty Hitchcock?
Hayes was known for writingrichly drawn sympathetic
characters.
And prior to working with Hayes,most of Hitchcock's protagonists
had been deeply troubled, darkand complex figures.
(07:58):
Hayes also brought voyeurism.
Fear of intimacy, fear of death,and the lost of a loved one were
seen throughout a lot of Hay'sscripts.
On a side note, a journalistonce wrote, John Michael Hayes.
Looks like a Hollywood scriptwriter as played by a Hollywood
(08:21):
film star.
In a Hollywood film aboutHollywood.
He was a nice guy.
Hayes was known to be a niceguy.
He had dark good looks, and hesmoked a pipe with a grace.
It was said that would make.
Crosby looked positively clumsy.
His dialogue is friendly and butforceful, and his humor is dry
(08:47):
and snappy as a dead twigunderfoot.
And during all of this, he wasabout 34 years old.
Oh, Hayes scripts also have whathe calls, and I wonder if he was
the first to capture thisphrase, an emotional roadmap,
something which drives thecharacter to the end of the
(09:08):
story.
For this reason, Hayes alwaysinsisted on completing a first
draft before turning.
It into a producer.
One of the hardest things for aproducer to do is wait.
Hayes has been quoted as saying,he also said after two or three
weeks, he wants to see somepages.
(09:30):
But if you give the producer thepages before you're ready,
you'll end up in literarylitigation for weeks.
And lose your perspective beforeyou get going with your story.
That's what's wrong with a lotof pictures.
They have great openings and noendings.
Hayes Touch goes beyond hisdialogue and carefully
(09:51):
constructed storylines.
Hayes brought a certainintegrity to the job of
screenwriter, which had toooften been cast in the shadow of
famous insults like Jack.
Warner saying that screenwritersare schmucks with Underwoods.
Have you heard that sayingbefore?
No.
Yeah.
He used to say that Schmuckswith Underwoods, I'm not even
(10:13):
sure what an Underwood is.
Underwood typewriter.
A dinner was set up betweenAlfred Hitchcock and John
Michael Hayes at 7:30 PM at thePolo Lounge of Beverly Hills.
Hayes dressed as well as hecould and he had read the short
story.
Over and over and over.
He knew it.
Backwards, frontwards, forwards,sidewards.
(10:36):
He memorized his notes and ideasand he drove from the valley
where we are right now.
Yeah.
To the Beverly Hills Hotel, andhe arrived a few minutes early.
I'm thinking.
He took cold water.
It had to be cold water.
Yes.
He drives right in there.
Yes, he was.
I've heard, yes.
I have never been to the PoloLounge.
(10:56):
I've been to the Polo Lounge.
Well, I haven't either.
We, we will.
We will do an episode from thePolo Lounge.
I think that's an excellent,hold us to that audience.
An excellent idea.
So again, he arrived a fewminutes early, which I applaud.
I always like to arrive a fewminutes early.
Absolutely.
So by seven 30, Hitchcock hadn'tarrived.
Quarter of eight.
(11:16):
He still wasn't there.
By eight o'clock is still nosign of Hitchcock.
Hayes thought he might havegotten the night or even worse,
the hotel wrong, and he startedto get really anxious about
meeting the famous director.
And you know, there was no wayto pull out your cell and call
(11:37):
and.
With your people to check withhis people and Yep.
Just had to sit there, I guess.
Yep.
So now Hayes is filled withanxiety and so he thinks, okay,
I gotta calm my nerves.
So he went to the hotel bar andhe actually told the bartender,
I'm here to see Hitchcock.
I don't even know if I have theright night.
(11:59):
I'm nervous, give me a drink.
Unlike many of hiscontemporaries in Hollywood.
At that time, Hayes was not abig drinker, and he told
himself, even before he startedtwo drinks, I'm gonna give
myself a two drink minimum.
He asked the bartender, give mesomething that will calm my
nerves.
The bartenders said, I haveexactly what you need, and gave
(12:20):
him a martini.
Of course Hayes knocked back thedrink'cause he wanted to get
back to the table really quicklyin case Hitchcock shows up.
So he goes back to the table andhe waits.
And he waits and he waits again.
No Hitchcock.
And so by eight 30, the writerwent back to the bar one more
(12:41):
time and decided to have onemore drink.
Then he'd go back, wait a fewmore minutes for hitch, and then
if he didn't show up, he wasgonna go back home.
So that's exactly what he did.
Had one more drink, went back tothe table, no hitch.
So he decided to go back to hiscar.
So he is walking to his car andas he's walking down the hill,
(13:02):
who's coming up the hill, butAlfred Hitchcock in a taxi and
he.
Waved and stopped him andHitchcock leaned out the window
and he said, I'm sorry.
No, no autographs.
No autographs.
And he said, are you here to seeJohn Michael Hayes?
And he goes, oh, you must beJohn Michael Hayes.
Get in.
We're gonna, we're gonna godrinking.
(13:24):
Yeah, go drinking.
And he's just like, that woulddrives me crazy because I
would've wanted the credit forwaiting there for so long.
Of course.
So it looks like, yeah, it lookslike Hayes was.
Just as late as Hitchcock, Iguess.
Soon as they got inside thedining room, the head waiter
began fussing all over Hitchcockwhose reputation as a big
spender and a gourmet had beenwell established before he had
(13:48):
even arrived in America.
Nevermind the Polo Lounge.
They sat at a booth and thefirst thing that Hitchcock said
to Hayes was.
Do you drink?
Hayes?
Replied Well, I've been known onoccasion to take a drink.
Well, what do you drink?
I think the last drink I had wasa martini.
Wonderful.
(14:09):
That is my favorite drink.
I like a man who drinksHitchcock called the waiter to
the table and ordered two doublemartinis.
When the drinks arrived, the twomen tipped glasses and haze
sipped.
As cautiously as he could hitch.
Called for hor d'oeuvres andanother double martini for each
(14:30):
of them.
Are you keeping count?
Yeah.
Six.
Is that, I think this is six forHayes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He should have said somethingalong the lines of, if I, you're
like a guy that, uh, drinks, soyou should have been with me a
half an hour ago.
It's, you would've loved me.
Then Hitchcock throughout thedinner kept encouraging Hayes,
who was trying to of course,slowly drink his drinks.
(14:53):
Drink up.
Drink up.
Relax.
We're here to get to know eachother.
Drink some more.
You know, I like a man whodrinks Hayes kept imagining he
was going to get sick and thatAlfred Hitchcock would never
speak to him again.
And, and up to this point, hitchhad never mentioned rear
(15:13):
windows.
Hayes was just really confused,and he said that he began to
start pouring sweat, trying tokeep sober and sound
intelligent.
Hayes recalls the directorasking, have you seen any of my
movies?
Or maybe he would've seen, said,have you seen any of my movies?
(15:34):
Do you have an Alfred Hitchcockimitation?
No.
No.
Okay.
I'm not even gonna push you onthat.
I'm gonna go with yours on thatone.
Yes, I have Mr.
Hitchcock.
By now, they'd finished theirhor d'oeuvres and started a
second course of Dover Soul withsome rear white wine.
(15:55):
Perfect.
Wow.
Hitchcock like sold the virtuesof the white wine, and he poured
a big glass for haze and said,please tell me more.
Hayes replied, well, forexample, shadow of a doubt.
What did you think of it?
Asked Hitchcock.
Hayes began to give an analysisof shadow of a doubt from frame
(16:18):
one to the end of the picture,telling Hitchcock what he
thought he had done right andwhat he had thought he had done
wrong, where it was strong,where it was weak, and what he
particularly liked about thecasting.
The young writer then continuedthe assessment.
Of shadow of a doubt straightthrough the next course of steak
(16:40):
and red wine, blurred by thecombination of martinis and fine
wines.
Hayes started going throughHitchcock's movies one by one,
indicating some things that hehitch could have done better and
notorious, and telling thedirector that he thought the
bullet stopped by the Bible inthe hero's pocket in 39 steps
(17:04):
was kind of corny.
While Hayes was talking,Hitchcock said nothing.
He just continued eating anddrinking and munching and
crunching and slurping at theconclusion of the meal.
Hitchcock ordered dessert to bebrought with a concoction of
brandy, Dr.
(17:25):
And Dr.
Sounds like flaming career.
I, I don't even know what thatis.
Yeah.
Amazingly Hayes didn't get sick,but.
Hitchcock still hadn't said oneword about rear window, not one
single word.
Finally, with the dinnerfinished, Hitchcock said, well,
(17:47):
I've got to go home now.
Hayes offered to drive him home,which I think is just adorable.
Wow.
But Hitchcock said he would takea taxi and after a considerable
amount of coffee, Hayes got intohis car, put the top down, and
drove back over.
Which we assume is ColdwaterCanyon Canyon back to his home.
(18:09):
And when he got home, his wifeasked, you know, how'd it go?
And Hay said it was, you know,one of the best dinners he's
ever had.
But I think I'm through withHitchcock.
There's no way he's gonna hireme.
I basically just babbled on likean idiot.
Yep.
I, I was honking if that's wherethis was going.
Yes.
(18:29):
Now, well, obviously he, he didwrite the movie, but this is my
theory.
Hitchcock probably is alwayssurrounded by sycophants and
he's probably always the one todo the talking.
And here he is having all thisdelicious food, all this
delicious liquor, and JohnMichael Hayes knew what he was
(18:50):
talking about, Maybe it wasrelaxing to have someone else
talk for a change.
What do you think it could be?
It could be the quality of theconversation too.
Let's, when I, when I've been ina situation where we was talking
about something that I wascreating mm-hmm.
And somebody said something thatwas legitimately good.
(19:10):
Now I might not have chose it,but they say something to me.
and I, think it's worthmeasuring.
Mm-hmm.
And, and checking out.
I'm interested.
I'll keep, yeah.
I just keep listening and Ithink, okay, this guy's rolling.
Yeah.
Let's, let's, let's hear more.
Yeah.
I think it was the quality ofthe comments.
I, you can say.
(19:30):
I didn't like that thishappened.
And then it just depends on thenext thing you say.
Yes.
And I'm sure he was loose withhis words, but I'm also, I
believe a hundred percent itwas, it was probably spot on and
And enthusiastic.
Possibly enthusiastic and saidwith reverence.
There you go.
Like I said, yeah.
(19:52):
On Monday morning, Hay's agenttelephoned him and said, you're
in Hitchcock, loved you.
You start work tomorrow.
Report to Warner Brothers wherehitch is prepping for dial M for
murder.
I love that.
I love report to WarnerBrothers, get up there and tell
him where you are.
Have five martinis waiting foryou.
(20:12):
So get the day started and as weknow, Warner Brothers in the
valley.
So yeah, you wouldn't have todrive over cold water again.
Yeah, Hayes responded with.
Are you sure you have the rightJohn Michael Hayes.
We why we never even talkedabout rear window or anything.
You are fine.
Send the agent and the next day.
Hayes arrived at Warner Brothersand he and hitch discussed rear
(20:36):
window for the first time.
Baffled by the experience Hayesneeded a whole year before he
had the guts to ask Hitchcockabout that night.
Well, let me tell you whathappened.
Hitchcock said, I went to acocktail party at Jules Stein's
house.
That's why I was late.
(20:57):
You know, I was dieting and Ihad several drinks.
I remember meeting you and goingto eat, but I don't remember
anything after that.
But you said and talked a lot,and on that assumption that a
man who talks a lot hassomething to say.
I hired you, not one to leave anassociate completely at ease.
(21:19):
Hitchcock added.
But don't forget, if I didn'tlike you two leaks later, I
would've let you go.
Wow.
How about that?
I'm too in the back to reallyknow what you're saying, but it
seems like a lovely evening.
I'm not gonna interrupt it.
That's exactly.
Wow.
So it didn't matter what hesaid.
(21:39):
Nope.
And I highly recommend for.
Our screenwriters out there notto do that.
Yeah.
Or to make sure whoever you'retalking to is deeply in the bag
by the time you chat with'em.
Exactly.
That sounds like an excellentplan.
Hayes met with Hitchcock on theWarner Brothers Lot twice before
starting the treatment for whereWindow His salary was$750 a week
(22:04):
with no guarantee.
Was officially put on theParamount payroll on June 8th,
1953.
At that time, paramount assignedrear window, a story fund number
of 8 4 0 0 1 to keep anaccounting of all costs.
(22:24):
During their preliminarymeetings, Hayes discovered.
Hitchcock's main concern, as wastrue of nearly all his films,
was creating a love story, andthey both saw a need to create
more neighbors to place in thewindows of the surrounding
buildings and to build thesecharacters so that each would
(22:47):
present a reflection of therelationship between the
principles while Hitchcock.
Bused himself through July andAugust of 1953 with
pre-production for dial M formurder.
Hayes went all out preparing thetreatment for rare window and he
was familiar with uh,Hitchcock's style Plus he was
(23:08):
also familiar with the leadJimmy Stewart, who he had worked
with before.
Jimmy Stewart.
Also happened to be a client ofLee Lynn Hayward again.
There you go.
So powerful.
And so he was attached to theproject from the beginning.
Like most Hitchcock scenarios,the storyline for Rear Window
would develop from its details.
(23:30):
As Hayes explained, it startedwith the fact that we had to
give Jeffries.
A reason to travel around theworld, a dangerous occupation
and a reason to get his legbroken.
It was more dramatic having itbroken in the line of work and
not just slipping on the stairs.
I really agree with that.
That was a really good creativepoint.
(23:51):
I thought.
Yeah, it meant something.
Hayes, what goes on to say?
Secondly, I wanted to give himan occupation that would give
him an occasion to meet a girllike Lisa, played by Grace
Kelly.
Sure.
Out of that came her profession.
He's a foreign correspondent andhis editor said, look, we're out
(24:13):
of fashion photographers thisweek.
We want you to do a layout on anupcoming model named Lisa
Fremont.
And he said, that's not my lineof work.
And they say, well fill in asbest you can.
He did the magazine layout andcover.
That's how they met.
She was fascinated with him.
And of course he was veryinterested in her as a woman,
(24:36):
but not as a wife in thebeginning.
He figures, models are frivolousand she certainly has never been
off the sidewalk and couldn'tlive in safari clothes.
So that was backstory, but Ireally like.
Stats Uhhuh that they were eventhinking of, okay, he's in a
wheelchair.
And it would've been so easy forthe writer to just go, Hey, he
(24:56):
slipped down the back stairs.
Right?
And he's a internationalphotographer.
Of course he knows a model.
Nope.
Usually those two worlds don'tmix.
So they really thought aboutbringing the pieces together.
You know, it's funny sometimesif you, if you give too much
information, it feels likeyou're setting people up with
(25:16):
something, right?
But this, this is a really goodexample of a guy who fed just
enough things to make his.
Description of his life, moreauthentic.
Oh, I also like the been off thesidewalk.
Yeah, that's, that's a greatlittle turn of phrase in
creating the love story,Hitchcock and Hayes considered
(25:38):
it a more interesting twist tohave Lisa pursue Jeffries rather
than the other way around.
And it was rumored at the timethat Hitchcock was basing this
off the love affair between.
Ingrid Bergman and the the photojournalist Robert Capra.
(25:58):
Oh, but if you listen to more ofwhat Hayes put into the script.
Hayes's wife and the characterGrace Kelly were very similar.
Hayes drew upon his ownexperience with his wife.
He explains in the case of JimmyStewart in Rear Window, when
Lisa was in danger, he suddenlyrealized how much she meant to
(26:21):
him and that if anythinghappened to her.
My.
God, life was worthless.
That came out of my life beforemy wife and I were married.
We decided to delay our marriageuntil I was more successful.
We got into an automobileaccident and she was thrown out
of the car and onto the highwayamongst broken glass, metal and
(26:44):
everything.
But in the brief moment that Isaw her rolling down the highway
before I was knocked unconsciousagainst the windshield, I said.
Oh my God.
If anything happens to her, mylife won't be worth anything.
And I decided I was not going towait another minute if we ever
lived through this thing.
So when I got to the situationin rear window, we had to bring
(27:07):
Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kellytogether.
How are we gonna play it?
This is kind of a dull scene,but we never had to have it.
When she was in danger, youlooked at his face and you knew
instantly that he valued hermore than anything.
So when I came to figure out howwe were going to get right, that
scene I.
(27:28):
The automobile accident, and youremember in the movie, Lisa goes
to the killer's apartment acrossthe way to collect some evidence
and the bad man comes home,right?
And you, you can see in JimmyStewart's face the terror.
Of him seeing the killer.
Oh, another interesting thingthat Hayes brought to his
(27:50):
treatment in the original storythere, Jefferies had a houseman
named Sam and Hayes replaced theHouseman Sam with Stella
McCaffrey, an insurance companynurse.
Who visits Jeff Dailey checkinghis temperature and massaging
his back to relieve the straincaused by the wheelchair in the
(28:13):
treatment.
Hayes describes Cella as a bluntand earthy woman full of the
wise and cynical lore of cityliving.
No, can't, no hypocrisy.
In her dialogue, she says whatmost of us thinks, but revises
vocally for greater and socialacceptance.
(28:33):
Her comments border on thestartling and are either
extremely penetrating orextremely humorous, and often
both.
This is how he described Lisa, alife beautiful, honey haired
young woman of perhaps 26 years.
Her dress and adornment have theexacting perfection of a Vogue
(28:55):
Magazine model.
Her beauty seems to go deeperthan the surface.
Her eyes alert and her faceintelligent, but there is
something about her physicalmovement, the way she walks,
turns sits that has aprofessional touch to it.
It is as if she is alwaysconscious of the need for
dramatizing her appearance.
(29:17):
It could be a result of greatinsecurity, vanity, or
professional training.
In Lisa's case, it is thelatter.
I.
Hayes turned in his completedtreatment on Friday, September
11th, 1953, while Hitchcock wasstill busy directing scenes for
Dial M for murder, which hadfallen behind schedule.
(29:40):
The treatment was then deliveredto Marge Wonder at Paramount for
retyping and the official studiotreatment dated September 12th.
1953 boosted Paramount's beliefthat they had a real winner in
rare window and that 75 pagetreatment was handed out by the
(30:01):
story department as an examplefor a perfect way to write a
story treatment.
Yeah.
Side note, James Stewart hadenough faith in the film and the
future of its success to foregohis salary in exchange for part
ownership of the picture.
After completing the treatment,Hitchcock and Hayes met again to
(30:22):
make adjustments to the basicconstruction.
But the characters, theirmotivations and the tone of the
film had been set in stone.
That was done back then.
Huh?
Jimmy Stewart's.
Uh, I'll take a piece of theaction rather than a salary.
I know Immediately thought ofStar Wars.
Yeah.
I see.
That's.
Seventies back then and that wasa good move on the part I part
(30:43):
of Jimmy.
Yeah, it's a good idea.
I bet you Leland told him to dothat.
Yeah, maybe so.
Hayes started to meet withHitchcock at the Bel Air Home to
discuss the screenplay.
Hayes recalled hitch was stillworking on dial M for murder in
post-production.
We did have conferences to keepup with what I was doing, but he
gave me my head and he let me goahead and write the screenplay.
(31:06):
And this is what Hitchcock saysabout working with writers when
they go off to write.
The screenplay Hitchcock said, Ialways insist on sitting with
the writer from the verybeginning and creating about a
hundred page outline of all thedetails.
From the first shot to the end.
On October 14th, Hayes hadcompleted his first draft of the
(31:27):
script.
And everybody thought it was aremarkable job.
Hayes had breathed life into thecharacters, expanding in every
way on what had already been inthe exceptional treatment.
From the dialogue emerged adepth of characterization he
hadn't achieved before in themedium.
He then met with Hitch almostdaily, turning the screenplay
(31:51):
into a Hitchcock shootingscript.
The writer recalled, we sat downin his office and he broke up
all the scenes into individualshots and made sketches of them
and laid out the picture.
Now that a script was in hand, aproduction team was quickly
assembled.
Although a Paramount pressrelease boasted that rear window
(32:12):
in its entirety was shot on onestage and in one set.
The statement is not completelyaccurate.
Following the opening shot ofthe courtyard and Jeff's
apartment, the script calls fora brief scene inside the office
of Jeff's.
Photographer editor and hitchshot the scene, but it was never
(32:35):
used in the film.
And one of the reasons whyhistorians film historians think
that Hitchcock shot the scenewas.
Because of rope.
It was static an all in one set.
The powers that be might benervous thinking this was gonna
be another static set.
And if you've seen Rear window,it's the exact opposite of that.
(32:57):
Mm-hmm.
But he probably threw that in,probably shot the scene.
Just so he can say he had it,but he never planned on putting
it in the movie.
Principal photography began onFriday, November 27th at nine in
the morning with the exceptionof a few minor injuries such as
Raymond Burr straining his back,lifting Ted Mapes, Jimmy
(33:18):
Stewart's stunt double.
The production came off without.
A hitch.
The final day of shooting wasJanuary 13th, 1954.
Hitchcock and Hayes managed totransform a 24 page short story,
not only into the fifth highestgrossing film of 1954, but into
(33:42):
one of the world's mostdiscussed works of cinematic art
ever produced in Hollywood.
And for you and I, we have now.
Can add to our palette ofcomments that it was a quote,
six martini idea.
That sounds like a six martiniidea, doesn't it?
I think we've named the episode.
The resources for this story wasthe book Writing with Hitchcock
(34:05):
by Steve DeRosa.
That's a rep for the Writer'sHangout.
Thanks so much for listening.
If you enjoyed the show, pleasesubscribe, like, and thrive till
we get to hang out again.
Keep writing.
The world needs your stories.
The Writers Hangout is sponsoredby the Page, international
Screenwriting Awards executiveproducer Kristin Ove, producers
(34:29):
Terry Sampson and Sandy Adamis.
Music by Ethan Stoller.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.