Rear Window (1954)
Still the best film about peeping toms — and one that is heavily referenced by other films on this list — this Alfred Hitchcock thriller stars Jimmy Stewart as L.B. Jeffries, an adventuring news photographer who finds himself sidelined by a cast and forced to stay home. He passes the hours watching his neighbors through their apartment windows.
Hitchcock brilliantly enlists us as accessories in his peeping by getting us invested in the lives of his neighbors, and what they represent: the sexy but complicated single life of Miss Torso, the sadness of Miss Lonelyhearts, the creative freedom of the songwriter, the mix of joy and resignation for the newlyweds.
All his worries are amplified by threat of marriage to his girlfriend, Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly, pictured with Stewart), who everyone recognizes as a great catch — except for the self-pitying Jeffries.
Then, one night, Jeffries starts to notice very strange behavior on the part of another of his neighbors, The Salesman. And Rear Window becomes fascinatingly unpredictable.
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