If this disturbs you, never watch “North by Northwest.”
Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn were frequently cast with much older leading men.
Grace and…
…Gary Cooper, 28 years
…Clark Gable, 29 years
…Ray Milland, 24 years
…James Stewart, 21 years
…Bing Crosby, 26 years
…Stewart Granger, 16 years
…William Holden, 11 years
…Cary Grant, 25 years
…Alec Guinness, 15 years
…Louis Jourdan, 10 years
Audrey and…
…Gregory Peck, 13 years
…Humphrey Bogart, 30 years
…William Holden, 11 years
…Mel Ferrer, 12 years
…Henry Fonda, 24 years
…Fred Astaire, 30 years
…Gary Cooper, 28 years
…Anthony Perkins, 3 years younger
…Peter Finch, 17 years
…Burt Lancaster, 16 years
…George Peppard, 1 year
…Buddy Ebsen, 21 years
…James Garner, 1 year
…Cary Grant, 25 years
…Rex Harrison, 21 years
…Peter O’Toole, 3 years younger
…Albert Finney, 7 years younger
…Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., 11 years
…Sean Conney, 1 year younger
I find the idea of Rear Window without Jimmy Stewart unthinkable. Much more so than without Grace Kelly.
Or To Catch A Thief. Also remember that the concept of a woman being in a relationship with and marrying a man significantly older than her was more accepted in this era than now, primarily because women were expected to marry a few years out of college rather than seriously pursue any kind of career and a somewhat older man would be a more prosperous and demonstratively promising candidate. Any woman who doesn’t follow this plan will end up like Miss Lonelyhearts, or at least, being pursued by wolves like Miss Torso, both of whom Lisa is compared to.
Of course, L.B. Jeffries is totally unsuited to a relationship with Lisa Fremont, both in terms of social strata and personal inclination, which is why she seeks to change him and he reacts by pushing her away. The plot of the movie gives them the compelling reason why they’re still together; he likes to look at her (who wouldn’t?) and she likes to be looked at by him. The most compelling scenes of the film are those when Jeff is looking at her through his camera breaking leaving a note for and later breaking into Thorwald’s apartment.
Personally, I think the most interesting shot in the film is the first scene where the camera pans around Jeff’s apartment, finally settling on a picture of Lisa…in negative. Why negative? Is it because Jeff can only see flaws? Is this his way of indicating that he sees her differently than other people? Why?
Anyway, one of my very favorite films, and I agree with DianaG that it is Jimmy Stewart’s particular persona that pulls it off. Thanks to the o.p. for giving me a chance to reflect upon it.
Stranger
I concur. Of course, IRL, I’d gladly beat the old boy to death if I had to choose between the two, but for Rear Window, he MUST stay.
Tunnel vision. Most women in the 1950s and 60s did not go to college. Not until 1965 did the majority of Americans over 25 have even a high school diploma, and only one-quarter of high school graduates went on to get a college degree.
…especially in THAT movie. She was particularly knock-out gorgeous.
While this would be true of the general public, women of Lisa’s (presumed) upper middle class background would likely have either gone to finishing school or at least a couple years of college as preparation for obtaining the “Mrs.” degree with a suitable mate. It is not necessarily out of character for her to be interested with a man who is significantly older than she, although Stewart, former war correspondent and self-described “camera bum who never has more than a week’s salary in the bank,” obviously doesn’t fit into her cosmopolitan lifestyle and social circle, which is what causes all the trouble between them.
Stranger
Most disturbing of all, IME, is Love in the Afternoon. I adore Gary Cooper, but he shows every one of his 56 years in that flick, and Audrey Hepburn is 28 and looks much younger (she plays a music student). They play their parts delightfully, but on the whole it’s just icky.
Another one of my favorites… and Cary Grant pulls it off without a problem with Eva Marie Saint. Actually, I never thought about it until I read your post.
Jeff (Jimmy) doesn’t even pronounce her name right throughout the movie. He calls her Leeza (and her name is Lisa, and pronounced “Lisa” by Grace Kelly herself when she introduces herself while turning on the lights). Drives me a bit crazy, it does.
She is impeccable in that movie. Her clothes are amazing, she is amazing… he is a frumpy, middle aged man who looks like he could be her father. Until I looked it up today, I never knew the difference in their ages, but she is so young and vibrant and he is old, gray and grumpy.
He would have been a much better match with “Stella”, than Lisa Carol Freemont.
If Jimmy Stewart is a must have, can you give me a better actress for Lisa?
According to Wikipedia, Grant was uncomfortable with being a romantic lead at his age. So he got the director to get the script rewritten so that Hepburn’s character was persuing him.
In 1954?
Ginger Rogers, 41.
Teresa Wright, 37.
Vivien Leigh, 39.
Those would work. I especially like Vivien Leigh.
In The Moon Is Blue, Maggie McNamara (24) tells David Niven (43) that a girl should be half the age of her husband, plus 7 years. This was in 1953.
Grace Kelly: 25 (in Rear Window)
Jimmy Stewart: 45
45/2 + 7 = 29.5, for a discrepancy of 4.5 years.
Still, when many of the relationships in films of the era seemed to stick roughly to the (♂/2)+7=♀ formula, this particular pairing never struck me as odd. It was the fashion that what made men attractive was maturity and security–the most withering thing a woman could’ve called a suitor was “callow.” It was pre-women’s lib, so all a woman (invariably called a “girl”) was expected to bring to the table was looks. And it was a man’s world, where the presentation of a male character as the object of woman’s sexual gaze was extremely, extremely rare, and would’ve been seen by men, who were in charge, as humiliating and probably even emasculating. This almost never occurred in films except comically; I can’t think of one single example to the contrary. So by the standards of the day, the couple in Rear Window would’ve been considered perfectly natural.
Which was why I asked the OP how old he is, though apparently he thinks I asked for snarky reasons or something as he’s refused to answer me.
For the record, I’m 46 and have watched a lot of old movies. Presumably if the OP is 19 and is relatively new to old movies, he’d be judging the relationship according to present-day real-world standards, and not according to 1954 movie-world standards.
As an aside, wasn’t GK doing the horizontal mambo with Bing Crosby in real life about this time?? He was 30 plus years her senior, wasn’t he? Also, his 22 year old gf made Bing choose between her and GK. So, if Bing could have them with a 30 year spread, I’m willing to cop to Jimmy with only 20 years.
hh
PS, I’m 52 and see nothing wrong with the age difference. Go figure.
L.B. Jeffries, old gray and grumpy? Maybe because he’s trapped in a wheelchair sidelined with a broken leg, so you’re thinking that he’s always this way. I don’t get the impression at all that this is how Jeff usually behaves. It’s a testament to how good Stewart is that despite our never seeing Jeff at work – or even mobile – I think of Jeff as an energetic, adventurous guy. He is, after all, a photojournalist who thrives on action and danger. Plus he’s sexy (Stewart is quite attractive in his lanky, understated way, and his Jeff in particular is a pretty vibrant, sensual guy), smart, funny in a cynical sorta way, and imaginative. Why wouldn’t Lisa like him?
And we can’t discount the fact that he’s seemingly unattainable, which is clearly something that intrigues Lisa and is relatively foreign to a golden girl like her.
Heck, even Stella (Thelma Ritter) likes him, and he’s not the easiest patient in the world.
Grace Kelly is indeed luminous as Lisa, but I think Stewart’s Jeff is every bit her match – and that ain’t easy. One of my favorite movies, and definitely my favorite Hitchcock (though I love Rebecca too, but that’s not as Hitchcocky).
This pairing was not as bad as Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby in High Society.
And I can’t help mentioning that - ahem - my partner and I are 20 years apart. 
Mary Duncan -> Charles Farrell in The River. Patricia Neal -> Gary Cooper in The Fountainhead.
I haven’t seen The River, but now that you mention it there were a lot of pre-Code films that showed women as the sexual aggressors: Female; The Divorcee; The Red Head; etc. The Code put an abrupt halt of almost all of those shenanigans.
And while The Fountainhead is certainly a valid exception–which stands out for its uniqueness on that count–the sexual “gaze” of the Neal character was largely Vidor laughing into his sleeve; it’s a pretty intentionally campy parody of the usual male gaze. Which joke, I think, works primarily because it’s so unexpected. Practically unheard of since the Code excised all the sexually powerful women from the movies.
I’m not sure you can call Maureen O’Sullivan the aggressor ( probably not, relative to her He-Man partner ), but I remember Tarzan and His Mate as being comparatively sex-soaked ( for 1934 ) and it came off to me as a completely mutual objectification, if you will - they seemed very in to each other.