Hayes, "Rear Window" screenwriter passes.

The screenwriter of one of my favorite movies of all-time, "Rear Window" (and my favorite Hitchcock flick) - John Michael Hayes - passed of natural causes mid-November. He was 89.

Hayes collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on a number Hitch's films, including, "To Catch A Thief" with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, "The Trouble With Harry" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much". He also wrote the movies, "Peyton Place", "Butterfield 8", "The Carpetbaggers" and "Nevada Smith". His last credit was the movie, "Iron Will", starring Kevin Spacey and James Cada. Cada directed me in my first stage play, "17 Days" back in 1994. Hayes wrote for television later in his career.

"Rear Window", (1954) starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly, was added to the United States National Film Registry in 1997 and was ranked #48 on AFI's top 100 film list (#3 in the mystery film category. Time called it "just possibly the second most entertaining picture (after "The 39 Steps") ever made by Alfred Hitchcock" and a film in which there is "never an instant...when Director Hitchcock is not in minute and masterly control of his material." Variety called the film a "one of Alfred Hitchcock's better thrillers" which "combines technical and artistic skills in a manner that makes this an unusually good piece of murder mystery entertainment."

Personally, I'm intrigued by the film's simplicity in it's camera shots and set, as that I feel it's representative of everything I find enthralling about the 1950's - simplicity, style, music, tone and acting style.