The late-night/early-morning spot for Cubs fans asks who is the Cubs’ closer of the century—so far.

It’s Wednesday night here at BCB After Dark: the hippest hangout for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in out of the cold. We’ve got a warm table waiting for you. We can check your coat. The show will start shortly. Bring your own beverage.

BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.

Yesterday I asked you about signing free agent reliever Ryne Stanek and probably by the time a lot of you had read the article, Stanek had re-signed with the Mets. So the vote is pretty moot at this point. In any case, 40 percent of you were “meh” on Stanek and 36 percent thought the Cubs should sign him.

Here’s the part where we listen to music and talk movies. The BCB Winter Hitchcock Classic is entering the home stretch, but it’s not too late to join. In any case, you’re free to skip ahead to the baseball stuff at the end. You won’t hurt my feelings.

Tonight we have pianist Shai Maestro and saxophonist Chris Potter teaming up to perform the Jerome Kern song “All The Things You Are” from the musical Very Warm for May.

This performance was in Paris in 2018.

You voted in the BCB Winter Hitchcock Classic and North by Northwest became the first film to reach the final four with a victory over Strangers on a Train. Which Hitchcock film will join it next?

Tonight the number-three seed Rear Window (1954) takes on the number-six seed, Notorious (1946). Oh my. Stewart versus Grant. Kelly versus Bergman. Ritter versus Rains.

Rear Window (1954). Starring James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey and Thelma Ritter.

Here’s what I wrote last time about Rear Window.

In the preface to the revised edition of Hitchcock/Truffaut, French new wave director François Truffaut relates an incident that happened in 1962 as he was promoting his film Jules et Jim:

“I noticed that every journalist asked me the same question: ‘Why do the critics of Cahiers du Cinéma take Hitchcock so seriously? He’s rich and successful, but his movies have no substance.’ In the course of an interview during which I praised Rear Window to the skies, an American critic surprised me by commenting ‘You love Rear Window because, as a stranger to New York, you know nothing about Greenwich Village.’ To this absurd statement, I replied ‘Rear Window is not about Greenwich Village, it is a film about cinema, and I do know cinema.’”

And really, that sums up what Rear Window is all about. It’s about us, the audience, and the visceral pleasure we get from just watching the lives of others. Of course, we also love it because it looks glorious and it features Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey, Raymond Burr and the guy who would go on to create Alvin and the Chipmunks (Ross Bagdasarian). But most of all, we love Rear Window because it shares with us the sheer pleasure we get from watching the movies.

Next time you watch Rear Window, notice the way that Hitchcock frames the action. Every scene is shot from the point of view or apartment of Jeff (Stewart), the wheelchair-bound voyeur who immerses himself in the lives of his neighbors, with two exceptions. One is the climax when Jeff falls out the window, naturally enough. The other scene to take a more general point of view is the crucial turning point when the death of the dog is discovered. That one change of perspective is a way of telling us that something really important has happened, even if it’s not immediately apparent why it’s important.

The setup of Rear Window is easy enough to understand. Jeff is a jet-setting photographer who is going crazy because he’s stuck in his room after a serious accident broke his leg. His beautiful and rich model girlfriend Lisa (Kelly) is deeply in love with him and wants to marry him. Jeff doesn’t want to get married and he claims the reason is that Lisa is just too perfect. But the real reason is that Jeff has some very traditional ideas about women and marriage and he simply doesn’t want to be tied down to a woman who doesn’t share his adventurous outlook. Jeff doesn’t want to be domesticated. Yet while he’s recovering, he immerses himself in the sheer domesticity of all of his neighbors.