Rear Window

The film negative was damaged considerably as a result of color dye fading as early as the 1960s. Nearly all of the yellow image dyes had faded. Despite fears that the film had been irrevocably damaged, preservation experts were able to restore the film nearly to its original coloration.

According to Georgine Darcy, the man and woman on the fire escape struggling to get out of the rain was based on a prank by Sir Alfred Hitchcock. Each actor and actress in the apartment complex facing Jeff's rear window wore an earpiece through which they could receive Hitchcock's directions. Hitchcock told the man to pull the mattress in one direction and told the woman to pull in the opposite direction. Unaware that they had received conflicting directions, the couple began to fight and struggle to get the mattress inside once the crew began filming. The resulting mayhem, in which one of the couple is tossed inside the window with the mattress, provided humor and a sense of authenticity, which Hitchcock liked. He was so pleased with the result that he did not order another take.

Sir Alfred Hitchcock gave Georgine Darcy free range to choreograph her own dance moves for her character, Miss Torso. Darcy was to dance on her own volition during filming. Hitchcock's only restriction was that he forbade her to take professional dance lessons, as he wanted her to maintain the imprecision of an amateur dancer.

The entire movie was shot on one set, which required months of planning and construction. The apartment-courtyard set measured ninety-eight feet wide, one hundred eighty-five feet long, and forty feet high, and consisted of thirty-one apartments, eight of which were completely furnished. The courtyard was set twenty to thirty feet below stage level, and some of the buildings were the equivalent of five or six stories high. This movie was shot quickly on the heels of Dial M for Murder (1954), November 27, 1953 to January 13, 1954.

While shooting, Sir Alfred Hitchcock worked only in Jeff's "apartment". The actors and actresses in other apartments wore flesh-colored earpieces so that he could radio his directions to them.