Born in 1775 in Hampshire, England and daughter of a clergyman, Jane Austen wrote her first story after a failed romance in 1799. The story, ‘First Impressions’ would eventually become one of the most beloved novels of many women, Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen is probably one  of the best loved women authors of all time. She has been studied and anylized. But perhaps we know her best by her novels and the movies they inspired. The life of Austen is portrayed in  the movie Becoming Jane, starring Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy. In Becoming Jane, Hathaway show us the  young, love-struck Jane Austen in the untold romance that inspired Pride and Prejudice. The handsome Scotsman, James McAvoy plays Tom Lefroy, young penniless law student sparks  a passionate romance with Jane. It is a must see for true Jane Austen fans.

The Austen Novels

From 1811 until her death in 1816, Jane Austen wrote her best known works;  Sense And Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), and , Northanger Abbey and Persuasion which were published posthumously.  Talk a about a string of hits. In five short years, Jane Austen wrote some of the most enduring love stories of all time and became the crowned Queen of Chick Lit.

Read the Works of Jane Austen on Your Kindle.

The Movies

Jane Austen’s other books have been made into movies as well.  Gwyneth Paltrow starred in Emma with Jeremy Nothham and Toni Collette. Gwyneth seems to have stepped right off the pages of a Jane Austen novel. She is perfect as the meddling, matchmaking young Emma Woodhouse

Ang Lee directs Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet in  Sense & Sensibility , the story about the on again and off again romances of the Dashwood sisters. Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant star as their love interests.

I first watched Frances O’Connor, Jonny Lee Miller in Mansfield Park at a slumber party. I loved the story of  the smart and a independent Fanny Price, who is sent to live with her rich cousins. They are supposed to teach her how to be a proper lady, but she teaches them a thing or two as well.

There is even a mini-series called Lost in Austen, about a real Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice fan who finds herself back in 19th century England, entangled in the lives loves of her favorite characters.  Amanda Price (Jemima Rooper) is bored with  the modern world’s and her boyfriend’s  lack of romance. She longs for the romance she finds in Austen’s novels. But she gets more than she bargained for when she finds herself living in the home of the Bennets, where she ignites new romantic twists and turns and almost ruins the love the story between Darcy and Lizzie.

Pride and Prejudice

The love story between the arrogant and proud Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and the high-spirited Miss Elizabeth (Lizzie )Bennett. Not only a classic love story, study of the social and moral values of her day. Jane Austen’s story of two passionate people who has touched the hearts of women for more than two hundred years. Can yo believe that? How many times have we read the book and loved it? How many times have we watched the movie?

There are several versions of Pride and Prejudice. Greer Garson and Laurance Olivier stared in the 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice. Keira Knightly, Matthew MacFadyen, Brenda Blethyn and Donald Sutherland starred in a recent 2005 movie version of Pride & Prejudice.  There is even a Bollywood re-make called Bride and Prejudice, which I really like. However, if you really want to get the full sense of Jane Austen’s book, you should see the five-hour BBC version of Miss Austen’s most-famous work. In this lavash mini-series, Colin Firth plays Darcy and Jennifer Ehle plays the role of Lizzie.

Win the Pride and Prejudice DVD

Emmy Award winning miniseries on two digitally restored DVDs.  Color-enhanced and completely digitally restored from hi-def source materials for the first time on DVD and backed with bonus features: Lasting Impressions, An Impromptu Walkabout with Adrian Lukis and Lucy Briers; Turning Point; Uncovering the Technical Restoration Process.

You could  win a copy of the 2-DVD BBC miniseries,Pride and Prejudice. Leave a comment and tell me your favorite Jane Austen movie. What is it you love about the movies and stories by Jane Austen. The deadline is June 12, 2010. A random comment will be chosen from comments left on this post. The winner will be chosen on June 14th.

Trying to narrow down all the chick flicks about mothers and daughters was not that easy. I have a few favorites and for some reason they all seem to be tearjerkers. Perhaps you have some favorites of your own.

Stella Dallas

Stella Dallas is a classic chick flick about the sacrifices a mother makes for her daughter. Barbara Stanwyck stars as the working class girl with big plans, Stella Martin. Stella works at the factory of Stephen Dallas (John Boles) and eventually catches his eye. Stephen didn’t know what hit him and before he knew it, Stephen married Stella. Soon they have a daughter, Laurel. Stella is not a bad person. It’s just that she and the high-born Mr. Dallas as from two entirely different worlds.

Those kinds of things may not matter in 2010, in our age of political correctness and ‘we are all equal‘. But in 1937, class was a very real thing. Not only did Stella come from the lower class, but she didn’t have any–class, that is.  Stella was the kind of girl who drank beer out of the bottle, told bawdy jokes, laughed loudly had not taste in fashion and had inappropriate friends. Stella is what we would call tacky or gauche.  Despite Stephen’s efforts to educate on proper manners, she was just plain old Stell. ”Perfect” Stephen could take and they divorced.

Where does that leave Laurel Dallas? With her mother in a small house on the wrong side of the tracks. I guess they didn’t have alimony and child support in those days. Stella and Laurel have a wonderful relationship. Stella tries hard to provide best things  for Laurel, but she can’t afford the expensive best things that Stephan can provide. By now, Stephen has remarried (one of his own this time) and Laurel is a beautiful young woman with the upper class sensibilities of her father. Each time Laurel returns home from visiting her father, she is full of stories about the parties, tennis, and the joys of living with the upper crust. By now  How can Stella compete with that? What hurts more is Laurel’s admiration for the new Mrs. Dallas, Helen. ‘Helen does her hair this way…Helen and her sons always do things this way or that….Helen is so refined and elegant

Laurel loves her mother, and she is aware of the affect her admiration of her step-mother has on Stella. Laurel stops telling her mother about the details of her visits with Stephen and Helen, as well as about Dick, the wealthy young man who is attracted to her.  Stella wants to show Laurel how much she loved her, so Stella books them into an exclusive resort to show Laurel the kind of ‘high class times’ she experiences at her father’s home.

Enter Stella in her tacky best, complete with feather boas, costume jewelry, bleached blonde hair, tons of make-up and cheap perfume. She quickly becomes the laughing-stock of the resort. When Laurel overhears some snooty people making comments about her mother, she pretends to be sick and makes Stella take her home early, hoping to spare her mother any embarrassment. But on the train ride home, Stella too overhears what people were saying about her and how it will affect Laurel’s changes of  marrying her wealth beau. Here comes the part about a mother’s love and sacrifice.

When Stella realizes that she is standing in the way of Laurel’s happiness, she goes to Helen asking her to ‘take’ Laurel. To help Laurel in a way that Stella could not. I have told you too much already and I don’t want to spoil the incredible flood of tears that you will experience at the end of this movie. However, Stella makes the ultimate sacrifice to ensure her daughter’s happiness.

What would you have done? Did Stella make the right choice?
What are your favorite Mother’s Day movies?

It has been three weeks since I have joined the ranks of the unemployed. You would think with all this free time, I would spend my days at the movie theater and my nights writing brilliant blog posts. Call me lazy crazy, but finding a way to earn a living by writing and blogging while in my pajamas has always been a dream of mine. However, like Johnny Depp in Secret Window (except for the crazy, murder part) I have experienced  a little bit of writer’s  block. Not completely blocked as much as I have been concentrating on trivial things, like paying bills and  buying groceries.

My lack of employment and  in celebration of Administrative Professionals Week, let’s check out these movies about Women At Work.

Working Girl

Big 80’s hair, shoulder pads and Harrison Ford in his prime. Working Girl starred Melanie Griffith as Tess McGill, the hard-working Administrative Assistant ( but we called them secretaries then). Sigourney Weaver plays Katherine Parker her boss. You know the type. They steal your ideas, make you look bad at staff meeting and promise you an ever elusive promotion, raise (__) fill in the blank. Fortune smiles on our heroine and her credit grabbing boss breaks her leg on a ski trip. While Katherine is at home recuperating, Tess grabs the opportunity to present her idea to Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford).

The other plot of Working Girl is the age-old battle of every career woman. The choice between marriage and family and having a career. Tess is engaged to Mick Dugan (played by a very young and thin Alec Baldwin). Why would she want to get spend her time working and having a career when she could stay home and do his laundry? Good Question.

Nine to Five

Have you ever fantasized about getting revenge on your boss? Maybe by putting rat poison instead of  Sweet & Low in their coffee. Or perhaps you would rope him like a steer in the rodeo? Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lillie Tomlin are three office workers who finally get their revenge on the boss from hell, Dabney Coleman in Nine to Five. In the days before sexual harassment lawsuits, an executive like Frank Hart (Coleman) could feel free to make sexually suggestive comments and chase his buxom secretary Doralee Rhodes (Dolly Parton) around his day without fear of retribution or litigation. Like Sigourney’s idea stealing character, Frank Hart is promoted into his position based on the hard work of Violet Newstead (Lillie Tomlin).

Through a  hilarious mix of circumstances, the three ladies kidnap their arrogant boss, lock him up in his own house while his wife is on vacation and run the company in his absence. I don’t need to say that the company ran much better without him, because we already know how much more work we get done when the boss is out of the office.

His Girl Friday

Made in 1940, His Girl Friday was based on Ben Hecht’s play The Front Page. Howard Hawks directs Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in the fast talking classic working girl chick flick. Cary and Rosalind play journalists Walter Burns and Hildy Johnson. Hildy is the best newspaper woman since Nellie Bly. So when she wants to quit the paper and move to Albany to get married, Walter will stop at nothing, including blowing up the train to stop her from leaving. With the big Earl Williams story just about to explode on the front page, how can Hildy resist.

Never seen His Girl Friday? See the full movie in the sidebar.

Other Working Girl Chick Flicks

Desk Set [1957] Kathryn Hepburn and Spencer Tracy

The Devil Wears Prada [2006] Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway

Clockwatchers [1997]  Toni Collette and Parker Posey

What is your favorite Working Girls Chick Flick?

It’s A Wonderful Life comes on TV every year at this time. Some stations even play it around the clock. It is a holiday classic, but I like It’s A Wonderful Life for the lessons it teaches us. Like most Frank Capra films, the story is about the strength and courage of ordinary people. In fact, the rich and power are usually the bad guys in his films.

In 1946 Frank Capra directed It’s A Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewert, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore. It is the story of a man who lives an unassuming life in a small town and thinks that his life doesn’t really matter in the great big scheme of things.

Even though George Bailey spends  his whole life in Bedford Falls helping others, he was a man who had bigger dreams. He had plans to travel, to see the world and have adventures. Instead he  works in the family’s business, a  building and loan company that helps working people to buy a home of their own.

“Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”

But one Christmas Eve, George’s absent-minded Uncle Billy loses an  $8,000  bank deposit. That’s 1946 dollars, so $8000 was a fortune. Actually, it is still a lot of money. George now faces  jail and the collapse of his company so he goes to Mr. Potter,  the mean old skinflint banker to ask for assistance. But of course that wasn’t going to happen.  He is out of options. With nothing left but a life insurance policy, he thinks everyone  would  off if he were  dead and  he considers suicide.

The  prayers of his loved ones are heard and an angel named Clarence is sent  to help George and  show him what life would be like if he had never been born. George sees his beloved Bedford Falls controlled by Mr.  Potter turned into a town full of sleazy bars and shoddy slums. His wife Mary who he feels could have done better for herself by marrying a rich man  is a mousey, old-maid librarian.  The people who he had been friends with and the lives that he touched all had a much different life than the one he had known.

George realizes what all of us need to remember: we DO make a difference. That each of use touches the lives of those around us in small, sometimes imperceptible ways that ultimately change the world around us.

“Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends.”

At the end of the movie, George goes back to his real life, expecting to be thrown into prison for bank fraud. But he soon learns the true  power of friendship.  All his friends pull together to help him, collecting money and paying off his debt. This part always makes me cry.

The wonderful thing about It’s A Wonderful Life is that it restores your faith in your fellow man. Like most of Frank Capra’s movies, there is an underlying believe that we are basically good people and in good times and bad times we can all pull together.

My friends and fellow FilmGirl Force bloggers would also like to share some of their most beloved holiday movies with you.

Action Flick Chick: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Reel Arty: The Quest for Indie Christmas Movies

Kelley-Vision: Christmas Specials

Filmgurl: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Adam’s Rib

Two attorneys, a husband and a wife. He is a regular guy and she is an independent modern woman, especially for 1949. They take on opposing sides of a case of attempted murder when a woman tries to shot her philandering husband and his girlfriend. The is the premise of Adam’s Rib, one of the best of the Tracy-Hepburn films.

Directed by George Cukor,  Adam’s Rib was written by husband and wife team Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon.  The plot revolves around Adam and Amanda Bonner,  a married couple who unwittingly take on the same case. Doris Attinger, wonderfully played by Judy Holliday fires a gun at her husband (Tom Ewell)  when she catches him with another woman. Adam, the prosecuting attorney sees it as a straight forward case of attempted murder and Amanda sees it as a way to advance woman’s rights. (keep in mind this is 1949, there were not that many woman’s rights). Their opposing arguments spill over from the courtroom into the bedroom and result in some pretty funny scenes. It is full of all the  wit and barbs you would expect in a hilarious battle of the sexes.

Woman of the Year 1942

Tracy and Hepburn first appear together in George Stevens’ Woman of the Year. It is part of Hollywood legend that when they were first introduced by Joseph Mankiewicz, Katharine a tall woman anyway)  was wearing high heels, said:  “I’m afraid I’m too tall for you, Mr. Tracy.” Mankiewicz replied, “Don’t worry, he’ll soon cut you down to size.” That is an indication how their relationship would be.

In Woman of the Year, Tracy and Hepburn play rival journalists Tess Harding and Sam Craig. They work on the same newspaper and it is definitely NOT love at first sight, but they soon fall in love (on and off-screen). After the wedding, Tess’ busy lifestyle and  feminist activities put a strain on the marriage. And when she is elected as “the woman of the year” Sam feels  neglected and probably a bit jealous.

That is a pretty modern situation for a married couple in 1942. Watching them work through their problems is  wonderfully hilarious. Especially when Tess tries to prove she can be a ‘real wife’ by making him breakfast. You’ve got to see it!

But what makes this and all their movies so special is the dynamic chemistry between Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Even though they seemed to be opposites, they were made for each other.  I think the appeal of their movies was is to  Katharine’s independent spirit  which perfectly complements Spencer’s blue-collar demeanor and   easy-going attitude.  They made a total of 9 movies together and their final film was Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, for which Hepburn won her second  Academy Award for Best Actress.

In modern Chick Flicks, like The Ugly Truth there is a battle of the sexes where ultimately the man gets his way and the woman gets her man, but in the films of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, the battle of the sexes often ended in a draw (or at least a truce). They were a very modern couple for their time. She was the tough, independent woman and he knew just how to handle her: by giving her the freedom she needed to be herself and she gave him the respect he need to fell good about himself. I think it worked beautifully. Don’t you?

The Classic Chick Flick Couple: Tracy-Hepburn Films

Keeper of the Flame (1942)

Woman of the Year (1942)

State of the Union (1948)

Adam’s Rib (1949)

Pat and Mike (1952)

Desk Set (1957)

The Sea of Grass (1947)

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

The Hepburn & Tracy Signature Collection

State of the Union (1948

Released: 1950
Writer/Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

“Margo Channing is a star of the theater. She made her first stage appearance at the age of four in Midsummer Night’s Dream. She played a fairy and entered, quite unexpectedly, stark naked. She has been a star ever since. Margo is a great star, a true star. She never was or will be anything less or anything else.”–All About Eve

All About Eve won six Oscars. Best Picture, Joseph Mankiewicz won for Best Director and Best Screenplay and George Sanders won for Best Supporting Actor. The movie also features a brief appearance by a young starlet named Marilyn Monroe.

Bette Davis was 42 years old when she starred in All About Eve. Which make the story all the more interesting. Bette plays Margo Channing, a Broadway legend who  is  getting older and  no longer able to play the younger roles. She is   struggling to keep her successful career and her relationship with a younger man (Gary Merrill) who is also the plays director.

Along comes a devoted  fan,  Eve Harrington, who  weasels her way into Margo’s life, in order to further her own acting career.  Even though she has most of Margo’s friends fooled,  Eve’s sweet act is soon seen through by the  powerful theater critic Addison deWitt (George Sanders), who soon becomes her mentor. Eve isn’t about to let anyone get in the way of her goal of Broadway stardom. She uses every trick in the book to  manipulate  Margo and her friends to get what she wants. 

After becoming  Margo’s understudy, Eve manages to trick Karen,  Margo’s best friend  (Celeste Holme)  and the wife of the playwriter into making Margo miss a  performance. Of course, she goes on stage in Margo’s place and achieves fame a stardom.

What is so wonderful about All About Eve and what makes it essential viewing for Chick Flick lovers, is that it shows us a situation that most older women face. The younger, fresher, brighter, and sometimes more devious woman who is chomping at the bit to take what you have worked your whole life to achieve. Maybe its the way of the world that the old replace the young. Or maybe its survival of the fittest that causes this to happen. Maybe all those years of experience are worth something. Or maybe…just maybe the older woman is just not ready to go yet!

Released: 1954
Director: Billy Wilder
Screenplay: Billy Wilder, based on the play Sabrina Fair

“Once upon a time, on the north shore of Long Island, some 30 miles from New York, there lived a small girl on a large estate. The estate was very large indeed and had many servants. There were gardeners to take care of the gardens, and a tree surgeon on a retainer. There was a boatman to take care of the boats: to put them in the water in the spring, and scrape their bottoms in the winter. There were specialists to take care of the grounds: the outdoor tennis court and the indoor tennis court, the outdoor swimming pool and the indoor swimming pool. And there was a man of no particular title who took care of a small pool in the garden for a goldfish named George.

Also on the estate, there was a chauffeur by the name of Fairchild, who had been imported from England, years ago, together with a new Rolls Royce. … and he had a daughter by the name of Sabrin. … as had been tradition on Long Island for the past 30 years, the Larrabees were giving a party.  It never rained on the night of the Larrabee party, the Larrabees wouldn’t have stood for it.–Opening scene from SABRINA

Once upon a time, in a kingdom not very far away there existed a place called Long Island, NY. A magic time and place where wealthy people danced and played to the delight of their eager and adoring servants. That is the world of  Sabrina.

Sabrina is directed by Billy Wilder, the director of some of our greatest classic movies, like Some Like It Hot, Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, The Seven Year Itch and The Apartment. Wilder loved his leading ladies. You can tell by the wonderful way he filmed them.

In Sabrina he shows the character going from a young naive young girl to a sophisticated woman, who still maintains her innocence about love. The lovely Audrey Hepburn plays Sabrina Fairchild, the daughter of a chauffeur for the Larrabee’s a Long Island high society family. Poor Sabrina has been madly in love with the David Larrabee (a very blond William Holden) since childhood. But David is an irresponsible playboy who never gives her a second look.

Ever the devoted servant, Sabrina’s father send her off to  Paris to become a chef so she can get over David and take her place in the wonderful world of happy servants. Looking at this movie from modern eyes it seems a little strange to us that there are classes of people who ‘know their place’. But at the beginning of the movie, we see Sabrina perched high in  a tree looking down on of Mrs. Larrabee’s lavish parties. Looking longingly at a world that was out of her reach.

But Sabrina returns Paris  a changed woman (who wouldn’t be?) Now she is a sophisticated lady with a trunk full of the latest Paris fashions. But sadly, Sabrina is still carrying a torch for the shallow David. When he see the new & improved Sabrina, he is all over her and  invites her to  Mrs. Larrabbe’s ball at the mansion. This new  romantic interest in a so-called servant girl jeopardizes not only David’s upcoming marriage to one of Long Island’s elite, but also endangers an important  business deal.  Linus, the responsible brother,  (played by Humphrey  Bogart) arranges a minor set back  to get David out of the way for a days. Linus then tries to woo Sabrina away from David.

This romantic relationship between Bogie and Audrey Hepburn is a little odd to me.He is quite a bit older than her. At the time, she was 23 and he was 55 years old. I not saying that a woman can’t fall in love with an older man (or a younger man-but that’s another movie). All I am saying is who is going to fall for a man old enough to be your father, when there is a younger millionaire who wants you.

So Linux pretends that he want to break free of his straight-laced corporate exsistance and go live a bohemian life in Paris. Innocently, Sabrina thinks she’s seeing the secret  side of  Linux, and starts falling for him. Now, take my word for it. When you start thinking you have discovered a secret side of a guy, love soon follows. But Linus’ real plan is to get  Sabrina to  move back to Paris and away from David.

Should I tell you the ending? No. I won’t. You have to watch this gem for yourself.  But your Classic Chick Flicks education doesn’t end here. To really consider yourself properly schooled in the ways of the Chick Flick, you really must these other movies starring Audrey Hepburn.

Roman Holiday

Breakfast At Tiffany’s

Funny Face

FYI: The was a re-make of Sabrina, starring Harrison Ford as Linnus, Greg Kinnear as David and Julia Ormand as Sabrina. All I can say about this movie is, the original is always best.

Hitchcock's Women

Grace Kelly (, Joan Fontaine (Suspicion, Rebecca), Ingrid Bergman (Spellbound, Notorious), Eva Marie Saint (North By Northwest), Janet Leigh (Psycho), Tippi Hedren (The Birds, Marnie), Doris Day, Vera Miles (Psycho), Kim Novak (Vertigo)

October… A time for fall leaves, cooler weather, Oktoberfest & beer and scary movies.  Starting with Paranormal Activity and Zombieland, there is no shortage of movies  to frighten you and give me bad dreams. My fellow Filmgirl Force bloggers, Action Flick Chick and Film Gurl know a lot more about  zombies and vampires than me. Sorry to be such a horror movie wimp, but I prefer ‘old-school’ scary. When movies left you on the edge of your seat and made you check all the locks in the house before you took a shower. Oh, you know you do it too. I am referring to the Master of Suspense, himself: Alfred Hitchcock.

One of the wonderful things about Hitchcock,  is the way he featured women in his movies. Hitchcock’s women were always stunningly beautiful blonds who got involved in mysteries, murder and mayhem, all while remaining impeccable dressed. Even the most timid of his heroines steps ups to the challenge when needed. Well wouldn’t you if you were being attacked by a flock of birds? Here are two of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movies.

Psycho

Janet  Leigh starred as Marian Crane in Psycho,  one of the scariest movies ever . Ok, yes Tony Perkins was extremely creepy too. It’s a simple story. In order to run away with her lover, Sam (played by John Gavin) Marian steals $40, 000 from her boss. That may not seem like much now, but in 1960 dollars, $40, 000 was a fortune. She runs off with the money and hides out in the seedy Bates Motel, run by Norman Bates and his invalid mother.  This is not really a spoiler, since we already knows what happens at the Bates Motel. Poor Marian Crane. She will forever be remembered as the woman in the shower.

As frightening as the shower scene may be, the suspense grows when Marian’s determined sister, Lila  (played by Vera Miles)  enlists  Sam to help her find Marian, return the money and avoid a jail sentence.  Lila hires a private to detective to track down her sister and he follows her trail to the Bates Motel, where he also meets a tragic end.  Note to self: Don’t go snooping around creepy old houses inhabited by 30 year old men who still live with their mother.

I have seen Psycho 100 times over the years. And I was scared every time. How does Alfred Hitchcock do that? To tell you anymore would ruin the suspense and the surprise ending.

Rear Window

Rear Window stars one of my favorite classic film stars, Jimmy Stewart. He is L.B. (Jeff) Jeffries, a wheelchair bound photojournalist with a broken leg. His gorgeous super model girlfriend, Lisa Fremont  is played by  Grace Kelly. There is also Thelma Ritter as the smart-mouthed nurse. Sounds pretty boring right? But Hitchcock like to show the terror next door and that’s just what Jeff finds while staring out his window into the courtyard below his apartment. OK…so what if your neighbor’s dog finds a femur bone in the flower bed. Gee, I wonder why Mr. Thorwald is taking those large trunks out of his house in the middle of the night? What ever happened to Mrs. Thorwald, I haven’t seen her in days?

Grace Kelly and Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window (1954)

Is Jeff just a bored invalid with a vivid imagination or has he stumbled upon a grisly murder? He enlists his nurse and girlfriend in his amateur investigation of the missing Mrs. Thorwald. I love how Grace Kelly’s character jumps right into the center of Jeff’s case.  Did she lay around his place looking gorgeous? Yes, but when the time came for action she was ready to help her man out by breaking into the suspected murder’s apartment to look for clues.

Grace Kelly is the quintessential Hitchcock women. The cool, beautiful blond. She starred in two other Hitchcock movies, To Catch A Thief with Cary Grant and Dial M For Murder.

Other Scary Movies

A List of Every Zombie Movie Ever Made

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

The Phantom Tollbooth

Jennifer’s Body