Rear Window

Jeff: You've got to get me out of here. Six weeks sitting in a two-room apartment with nothing to do but look out the window at the neighbors. ..If you don't pull me out of this swamp of boredom, I'm gonna do something drastic...like what? I'm gonna get married and then I'll never be able to go anywhere. Editor: It's about time you got married, before you turn into a lonesome, bitter old man. Jeff: Yeah, can't you just see me, rushin' home to a hot apartment to listen to the automatic laundry and the electric dishwasher and the garbage disposal, the nagging wife. Editor: Jeff, wives don't nag, they discuss. Jeff: Is that so, that so? Maybe in the high rent district they discuss, in my neighborhood they still nag. Editor: Well, um, you know best.

Rear Window, CC BY-SA 4.0

Stella: I got a nose for trouble. I can smell it ten miles away...I can smell trouble right here in this apartment. First you smash your leg. Then you get to lookin' out the window. See things you shouldn't see. Trouble. I can see you in court now, surrounded by a bunch of lawyers in double-breasted suits. You're pleading: 'Judge, it was only a little bit of innocent fun. I love my neighbors like a father.' And the Judge says, 'Well, congratulations, you've just given birth to three years in Dannemora.' Jeff: Yeah, right now I'd welcome trouble...You know, I think you're right. I think there is going to be trouble around here. Stella: ...What kind of trouble? Jeff: Lisa Fremont. Stella: Are you kidding? She's a beautiful young girl and you're a reasonably healthy young man. Jeff: She expects me to marry her. Stella: That's normal. Jeff: I don't want to. Stella: That's abnormal. Jeff: I'm just not ready for marriage. Stella: Every man's ready for marriage when the right girl comes along

Rear Window, CC BY-SA 4.0

Jeff: Did you ever get shot at? Did you ever get run over? Did you ever get sandbagged at night because somebody got unfavorable publicity from your camera? Did you ever...those high-heels, they'll be great in the jungle and the nylons and those six ounce lingerie... Lisa: Three! Jeff: All right. Three! They'll make a big hit in Finland just before you freeze to death? Lisa: Well, if there's one thing I know, it's how to wear the proper clothes. Jeff: Yeah, yeah. Well try and find a raincoat in Brazil, even when it isn't raining. Lisa. In this job, you carry one suitcase, your home is the available transportation. You don't sleep very much, you bathe less, and sometimes the food that you eat is made from things that you couldn't even look at when they're alive. Lisa: Jeff, you don't have to be deliberately repulsive just to impress me I'm wrong. Jeff: Deliberately repulsive! I'm just trying to make it sound good. You just have to face it, Lisa, you're not meant for that kind of a life.

Rear Window, CC BY-SA 4.0

Lisa: How far does a girl have to go before you notice her? Jeff: Well if she's pretty enough, she doesn't have to go anywhere. She just has to be. Lisa: Well, ain't I? Pay attention to me. Jeff: Well, I'm, I'm not exactly on the other side of the room. Lisa: Your mind is. When I want a man, I want all of you.

Rear Window, CC BY-SA 4.0

Jeff: Don't, don't you ever have any problems? Lisa: I have one now. Jeff: So do I. Lisa: Tell me about it. Jeff: Why, why would a man leave his apartment three times on a rainy night with a suitcase and come back three times? Lisa: He likes the way his wife welcomes him home. Jeff: Oh no. No, no, no. Not this salesman's wife. And why didn't he go to work today? Lisa: Homework. It's more interesting. Jeff: What's interesting about a butcher knife and a small saw wrapped in newspaper? Huh? Lisa: Nothing, thank heaven. Jeff: Why hasn't he been in his wife's bedroom all day? Lisa: I wouldn't dare answer that. Jeff: Well, listen. I'll answer it, Lisa, there's something terribly wrong. Lisa: And I'm afraid it's with me. [Lisa leaves him to go to the couch and smoke a cigarette.] Jeff: What do you think? Lisa: Something too frightful to utter. Jeff: He went out a few minutes ago in his undershirt. He hasn't come back yet. That would be a terrible job to tackle. Just how would you start to cu

Rear Window, CC BY-SA 4.0

Jeff: I've seen it through that window. I've seen bickering and family quarrels and mysterious trips at night, knives and saws and ropes, and now since last evening, not a sign of the wife. All right, now you tell me where she is... Lisa: Maybe he's leaving his wife, I don't know, I don't care. Lots of people have knives and saws and ropes around their houses and lots of men don't speak to their wives all day. Lots of wives nag and men hate them and trouble starts. But very very few of them end up in murder if that's what you're thinking. Jeff: It's pretty hard for you to keep away from that word isn't it? Lisa: You could see all that he did, couldn't you? Jeff: Of course, I... Lisa: You could see because the shades were up and, and he walked along the corridor and the street and the back yard. Oh Jeff, do you think a murderer would let you see all that? That he wouldn't pull the shades down and hide behind them? Jeff: Just where he's being clever. He's being nonchalant about things...

Rear Window, CC BY-SA 4.0