ENLARGING THE FRAME

Enough about Robert Harris and Jim Katz already (“ ‘Window’ Dressing,” by Bill Desowitz, Sept. 28). Their relentless self-promotion has reached a new height--they are already patting themselves on the back for a “Rear Window” restoration that hasn’t truly begun yet, and which will probably not be seen on the screen until the year 2000!

After their freewheeling approach to “Vertigo,” particularly their tampering with that film’s soundtrack to justify a 70-millimeter release, purists will be cringing in anticipation of their work on “Rear Window.”

There are dozens of talented people at work daily in the restoration field who never seek to promote themselves over or above the project they are restoring. To my mind, these are the true professionals.

SEAN FARRELL

Studio City

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Desowitz mentions that “Rear Window” was one of Hitchcock’s favorites and that it was Hitchcock’s most successful movie of the 1950s. He also states that “The Man Who Knew Too Much” will be restored at a later date.

Yet he never mentions the name of the screenwriter who wrote both films plus two other Hitchcock movies: John Michael Hayes, who is currently a professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.

RALPH S. BRAUDY

Los Angeles