The Woman in the Window (1944)
Genre: Filmnoir / Thriller
Duration: 99 minuten
Alternative title: De Vrouw in het Venster
Country:
United States
Directed by: Fritz Lang
Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett and Raymond Massey
IMDb score:
7,6 (19.340)
Releasedate: 25 October 1944
The Woman in the Window plot
"It was the look in her eyes that made him think of murder."
In a gallery on New York's Fifth Avenue, crime psychologist Richard Wanley is deeply impressed by a portrait of a beautiful woman. Shortly afterwards he meets this woman and she invites him to her apartment where more works by the artist hang. Then suddenly the woman's jealous lover shows up and to prevent him from being strangled, Wanley has to kill him.
Actors and actresses
Professor Richard Wanley
Alice Reed
Dist. Attorney Frank Lalor
Dr. Michael Barkstane
Heidt / Tim, the Doorman
Inspector Jackson
Mrs. Wanley
Claude Mazard / Frank Howard / Charlie the Hatcheck Man
Collins, the Steward
Dickie Wanley (uncredited)
Reviews & comments
Spetie
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- 38871 messages
- 8251 votes
Nice film noir by Fritz Lang, which is very entertaining from start to finish, but the really good scenes are missing, to make this a really great one.
Edward G. Robinson is in any case a fine actor, which I always like to watch. Here he plays a good leading role as a sympathetic, but sometimes somewhat clumsy psychologist. Lang manages to combine the tension with the humor nicely, although at a certain point Robinson slips up just once too much. The dialogues are good and the moments when Robinson and his friends visited the murder scene were a nice highlight of the film.
The great thing about Robinson's role is that I was constantly hoping that he wouldn't get caught. The ending, where it turns out that everything was just a dream, may be Lang's complacency, but for me it doesn't detract much from the quality of the rest of the story. It fits in well with the rest of the humor that is woven through it.
In any case, The Woman in the Window is an above-average film noir, with a nice story, excellent acting, good dialogues and a constant level, without being bored for a second. However, it lacks the finesse of a real topper.
3.5*
Translated from Dutch · View original
Corran
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- 369 messages
- 388 votes
Lang has always been a great director, but I think this is part of his weaker work. Not a fan of the rather easy ending, but what came before that wasn't that much stronger. In itself it could be interesting to have a film in which the killer is involved in the investigation due to circumstances and occasionally makes a small mistake that could cause an inspector to suspect him. Here, however, the protagonist says virtually nothing that is not suspicious. If he opens his mouth 5 times, then there are 4 very suspicious blunders, that was a bit clownish for someone who should be intelligent. Sometimes he manages to pull himself out with a trick, but it was all a bit much for me to be credible. Robinson of course does his best to bring it as good as possible, but it's all just not the same.
Translated from Dutch · View original
starbright boy (moderator films)
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- 22474 messages
- 5144 votes
The term Film Noir comes from France and comes from what happened just after the war. In occupied France it was not possible to show American films during the war. So just after that, many American movies were unleashed on the public at once and certain movie buffs found certain similarities in tone and style. One of those delayed premieres was this film by Fritz Lang.
I've seen far too little Lang. This is only my fifth, but since there are few directors who have made as many noirs as he has, there are even more coming this month. This movie features Edward G. Robinson, one of the more unlikely stars of this period. At first glance, he doesn't look much like a star. Robinson is not a particularly beautiful man, certainly not young, not physically strong or very frightening. But strangely enough, his acting talent is such that he gets away with playing a gangster or a father or, like here, a somewhat clumsy professor who gets carried away in his fairly innocent fantasies but is immediately punished for his noirs.
The film also convinces by the tons of atmosphere it has. The expressive lighting. The rainy studio streets in a bath with beautiful film music. It gives the pleasantly simple film considerable added value.
And then the much-discussed ending —the suicide ending would have been appropriate and would have suited the film's fatalistic atmosphere. The current ending plays with the fact that at his age he should no longer engage in adventures. Somehow the movie gets away with it for me. But I think the ending three minutes earlier would have made more of an impression.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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