Rear Window (1954) gives us Alfred Hitchcock at the very top of his game. This perfect movie concerns L. B. “Jeff” Jefferies (James Stewart), a photojournalist who is wheelchair bound with a broken leg. Recovering in his Greenwich Village apartment, he passes the time observing his neighbors through his rear window and theirs. One night he hears a commotion followed by a woman’s scream. The next day he realizes that across the way the bedridden wife of a salesman has disappeared. Jeff and his high-society girlfriend, Lisa Fremont—an astonishingly beautiful Grace Kelly—begin playing detective, eventually joined by Jeff’s physical therapist (Thelma Ritter). Did the husband (Raymond Burr) murder the wife? Or are imaginations overactive? All these windows are pieces of a larger puzzle about community, privacy, and prying eyes. It’s the film’s 70th anniversary, and if you haven’t seen it, now’s the time. It’s in theaters this August. —Jack Sullivan

Screenings of Rear Window will take place on Sunday, August 25, and Wednesday, August 28.