19 Great Performances by Women Playing Love Interests
By Amy Woolsey
James Stewart (1908-1997), US actor, wearing pyjamas as he sits in his wheelchair, while Grace Kelly (1929-1982), US actress, lays on a bed in a publicity still issued for the film, ‘Rear Window’, USA, 1954. The suspense film, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980), starred Stewart as ‘LB Jeffries’, and Kelly as ‘Lisa Carol Fremont’. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
16. Grace Kelly (Rear Window)
The role: Lisa Fremont is a socialite who grudgingly helps her photographer boyfriend, James Stewart’s L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies, spy on his neighbor.
Why she’s great: Yes, she’s meant as eye-candy. Director Alfred Hitchcock notoriously favored a particular kind of leading lady (i.e. slender, cool blondes), whose beauty he heightened with his voyeuristic filming style; along with Vertigo, Rear Window was the subject of Laura Mulvey’s seminal essay on the male gaze. Even so, it’s impossible to deny that Kelly brings a certain allure to the screen and deserves some credit for the movie’s status as a classic. Without her, it would just be a curmudgeonly Jimmy Stewart peering into binoculars and muttering to himself. They’re both basically passive; Kelly just makes it look appealing. She’s the perfect foil to Stewart: sensible where he’s capricious, vibrant where he’s brooding, beautiful where he’s slovenly. Let’s be real: the actors exchange plenty of engaging banter, but the real romance of Rear Window is between Kelly and those clothes. More than 60 years later, her wardrobe designed by Edith Head remains the height of elegance.
Standout moment: Jeff and Lisa’s debate over whether the neighbor’s behavior is suspicious has shades of Mulder and Scully in The X-Files: he spouts conspiracy theories while she searches for a logical explanation. It feels less lopsided, though. Kelly speaks with an urgency that reflects not only Lisa’s concern for Jeff’s mental state, but also her impatience with the current state of their relationship. Also, she lets Lisa’s appetite for gossip emerge, her speculation that “there’s something a lot more sinister going on behind those windows” betraying genuine curiosity.