The Woman in the Window (1944 film)

The Woman in the Window
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Fritz Lang
Screenplay by	Nunnally Johnson
Produced by	Nunnally Johnson
Starring	Edward G. Robinson Joan Bennett Raymond Massey Dan Duryea
Cinematography	Milton R. Krasner
Edited by	Gene Fowler Jr. Marjorie Johnson
Music by	Arthur Lange
Production company	International Pictures
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release date	November 3, 1944 (1944-11-03) (United States)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Woman in the Window is a 1944 film noir directed by Fritz Lang that tells the story of psychology professor Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson) who meets and becomes enamored of a young femme fatale.

Based on J. H. Wallis' novel Once Off Guard, the story features two surprise twists at the end. Scriptwriter Nunnally Johnson founded International Pictures (his own independent production company) after writing successful films such as The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and other John Ford films, and chose The Woman in the Window as its premiere project. Director Fritz Lang substituted the film's dream ending in place of the originally scripted suicide ending, to conform with the moralistic Production Code of the time.

The term "film noir" originated as a genre description, in part, because of this movie. The term first was applied to American films in French film magazines in 1946, the year when The Maltese Falcon (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), Laura (1944), Murder, My Sweet (1944), and The Woman in the Window were released in France.

Plot

After criminology professor Richard Wanley sends his wife and two children off on vacation, he goes to his club to meet friends. Next door, Wanley sees a striking oil portrait of Alice Reed (Joan Bennett) in a storefront window. He and his friends talk about the beautiful painting and its subject. Wanley stays at the club and reads Song of Songs. When he leaves, Wanley stops at the portrait and meets Reed, who is standing near the painting watching people watch it. Reed convinces Wanley to join her for drinks.

Later, they go to Reed's home, but an unexpected visit from her rich lover Claude Mazard (Arthur Loft) leads to a fight in which Wanley kills Mazard. Wanley and Reed conspire to cover up the murder, and Wanley disposes Mazard's body in the country. However, Wanley leaves many clues, and there are a number of witnesses. One of Wanley's friends from the club, district attorney Frank Lalor (Raymond Massey) has knowledge of the investigation, and Wanley is invited back to the crime scene, as Lalor's friend, but not as a suspect. There are several comic dialogues in which Wanley appears to know more about the murder than he should. As the police gather more evidence, Reed is blackmailed by Heidt (Dan Duryea), a crooked ex-cop who was Mazard's bodyguard. Reed attempts to poison Heidt with a prescription overdose when he returns the next day, but Heidt is suspicious and takes the money without drinking the drugs. Reed tells Wanley, who overdoses on the remaining prescription medicine.

Heidt is killed in a shootout immediately after leaving Reed's home, and police believe Heidt is Mazard's murderer. Reed, seeing that the police have killed Heidt, races to her home to call Wanley, who is slumped over in his chair, and apparently he dies. In an impossible match on action, Wanley awakens in his chair at his club, and he realizes the entire adventure was a dream in which employees from the club were main characters in the dream. As he steps out on the street in front of the painting, a woman asks Wanley for a light. He adamantly refuses and runs down the street.

Cast

• Edward G. Robinson as Professor Richard Wanley
• Joan Bennett as Alice Reed
• Raymond Massey as Dist. Atty. Frank Lalor
• Edmund Breon as Dr. Michael Barkstane
• Dan Duryea as Heidt/Tim, the Doorman
• Thomas E. Jackson as Inspector Jackson, Homicide Bureau
• Dorothy Peterson as Mrs. Wanley
• Arthur Loft as Claude Mazard/Frank Howard/Charlie the Hat check Man
• Iris Adrian as Woman who asks for a light

Background

As in Lang's Scarlet Street, released a year later, Edward G. Robinson plays the lonely middle-aged man and Duryea and Bennett co-star as the criminal elements. The two films also share the same cinematographer - Milton R. Krasner - and several supporting actors.

Reception

Critical response

Joan Bennett as Alice Reed

When the film was released, the staff at Variety magazine lauded the film and wrote, "Nunnally Johnson whips up a strong and decidedly suspenseful murder melodrama in Woman in the Window. The producer, who also prepared the screenplay (from the novel Once off Guard by J.H. Wallis), continually punches across the suspense for constant and maximum audience reaction. Added are especially fine timing in the direction by Fritz Lang and outstanding performances by Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Raymond Massey and Dan Duryea."

The film holds a 95% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes as of July 2016. In August 2015, the online entertainment magazine Paste named the film as the best film noir of all time.

External links

• The Woman in the Window at the American Film Institute Catalog
• The Woman in the Window at IMDb
• The Woman in the Window at AllMovie
• The Woman in the Window at the TCM Movie Database
• The Woman in the Window essay by Spencer Selby at Film Noir of the Week
• The Woman in the Window film trailer on YouTube

Streaming audio

• The Woman in the Window on Lux Radio Theater: June 25, 1945
• The Woman in the Window on Theater of Romance: March 26, 1946