Back in 1954, James Stewart starred in the favourite of his movies with director Alfred Hitchcock.

Rear Window was shot entirely at Paramount Studios and saw the much-loved Hollywood legend star opposite Grace Kelly.

According to Stewart: “Everybody just sat around and waited for [Grace] to come in the morning, so we could just look at her. She was kind to everybody, so considerate, just great, and so beautiful.”

The 46-year-old also praised his 25-year-old co-star’s instinctive acting talent and her “complete understanding of the way motion picture acting is carried out.”

Hitchcock enjoyed working with his leading man, compared to the “fussy and demanding” Cary Grant as he found Stewart to be easy to get on with and a hard-working performer.

However, their relationship was simultaneously strangely intimate and slightly distanced, since they didn’t really socialise outside of the set. Even on the lot, they would barely talk other than through the occasional knowing glance. According to the Rear Window star, Hitchcock wouldn’t discuss a scene with an actor but instead favoured hiring stars who would instinctively know what to do when he said “action”. Apparently, the most the director would say to Stewart was something along the lines of “the scene is tired” which would mean his timing hadn’t been quite right.

Despite the positives of their working relationship, Rear Window co-star Wendell Corey claimed that Stewart had a “whopping big ego”. And surprisingly, even he could out-shout, out-argue and out-intimidate Hitchcock if they disagreed on how a scene was going. Corey said of the star known for his affable nature: “There was steel under all that mush.”

Rear Window is on BBC Two at 4:10pm.