OhReallyNow

To me, Rear Window contains an extended metaphor of the business of making movies. Jeffries' neighborhood, like a movie studio, is a whirl of activity, with artist and composer and dancer all busy at their work, Seen from a distance, this little ant-farm will conclude its work by the final curtain. Wendell Corey and Jeff discuss the story and decide which is the most believable conclusion just as the scriptwriters polish a script. Costumes, such as Lisa wears, are very expensive, but also very beautiful. There are stills to examine, shots to plan, lighting to design... unforeseen events like a sudden shower can interrupt location shooting... actors must be managed.. aging ones with alcohol and pill problems... and then there is Selznick/Thorwald watching from his darkened window. The script is cluttered with movie jargon, "opening night' "curtain" and of course the photographer/director who is entirely hampered by his CAST,

Sam Loomis is yet another example of the Hitchcock male who is content to enjoy a physical relationship with an attractive, unattached female but who is himself marriage shy. Sam's excuse, alimony poverty, allows him to fend off Marion's desire to have him make, literally, an honest woman out of her. Just as Lisa Fremont declares that she is finished with Jeffries, Marion declares an end to her relationship with Sam, but the temptation of $40000 in cash draws her back in, since the infusion of so much cash would strip Sam of his final excuse for not marrying her. In the same way, when Jeffries refuses to make an honest woman out of Lisa, she reverts to crime - burglary of Thorwald's apartment - in an attempt to solve the mystery which has been stealing all of Jeff's attention. Both Lisa and Marion show that they are moral women caught in an immoral dilemma, driven by men whose morality doesn't extend to the way they treat the women who love them.