Just watched Rear Window again, and realized that some details about exactly what the murderer (Lars Thorvald) did, and when, have always been vague. Here’s what we know:
The night of the murder, we (ie, Jimmy Stewart) see him leaving his apartment several times, carrying his sample case.
The next day, we see him wrapping a knife and saw in newspaper. The bedroom curtains are closed.
We see Lars cleaning his sample case.
The curtains open and a large trunk is removed from the apartment.
The dog is killed after digging in the garden.
After he’s arrested, the cops say he wants to “take them on a tour of the East River”, and that they found something in a hatbox that had previously been buried in the garden.
I’ve always concluded that his wife’s head was in the hatbox, and her body was in the trunk. But…
What was in the sample case?
What evidence is in the East River?
Why was it necessary to dispose of the head and the rest of the body separately?
I’m guessing the knife and saw were thrown in to the East River.
I always assumed (1) the sample case had any physical evidence (blood-soaked clothing, bedsheets, etc.) that he wanted to destroy immediately, (2) the body wouldn’t fit in the trunk without the removal of the head, and (3) he dumped the trunk in the East River.
In the style of the time, “gruesome detail” is left to the imagination.
Presumably, he used the sample case to carry body pieces to be distributed in various locations… at least some of which (we conclude from the detective’s comments) were dropped in the East River. Then he had to clean the sample case to take care of drips of blood and gore. The head and body were distributed separately to prevent identification, in those balmy days before DNA analysis (one presumes the fingerprints were burned off or marred as well.)
In the Cornell Woolrich story the film is based on, IIRC, the body hidden in a raised floor that the hero figures must be there from watching people walk in the same direction on that floor and the one below it. There was a step down on Thorwald’s floor that wasn’t present on the floor below. But that was, I’m sure, too complex for the film. “Body in a trunk” is easier and quicker to grasp.