Customer Reviews

The Woman in the Window (MGM Film Noir)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Very good movie! I had seen it before and had to have for my collection...Rainy afternoon, a cup of tea and a great old movie ( my knitting too)...

The Woman in the Window is one of the film noirs that contributed to the reputation of Fritz Lang as one of the all time great film noir directors. A relatively simple story, it nevertheless gives the marvellous entertainment one expects from such a film noir by the charisma of its characters and the suspense driven direction of its director.

This film has one of the best film noir casts you'll ever find. Edward G. Robinson, Raymond Massey, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duyrea are exceptional in this film. It is particularly a real treat to view Dan Duyrea at his sinister best and Raymond Massey looking suspiciously at Edward G. Robinson. Joan Bennett appears to be too nice a gal to play the mistress/call girl, but she still does a fine job in her role.

This film, along with Scarlet Street, is probably the best film noir Fritz Lang ever directed. Simply one of the best film noirs you are ever going to view.

RKO Radio Pictures presents "THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW" (3 November 1944) (107 min/B&W) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) -- College professor Wanley (Robinson) and his friends become obsessed with the portrait of a woman in the window next to the men's club --- Wanley happens to meet the woman while admiring her portrait, and ends up in her apartment for talk and a bit of champagne --- Her boyfriend bursts in and misinterprets Wanley's presence, whereupon a scuffle ensues and the boyfriend gets killed --- In order to protect his reputation, the professor agrees to dump the body and help cover up the killing, but becomes increasingly suspect as the police uncover more and more clues and a blackmailer begins leaning on the woman.

Only after the film is over does the viewer realize that importance of that first conversation between Wanley and his two middle-aged friends --- Wanley's dream is the direct result of their discussion regarding the dangers and risks of succumbing to temptation.

Robinson's performance was believable and Bennet's was just as realistic as two people desperate to cover up a crime --- It's suspenseful and dramatic --- Get ready for that roller coaster ride and just try to get off.

Under the production staff of:
Fritz Lang [Director]
J.H. Wallis [novel "Once Off Guard"]
Nunnally Johnson ['Producer/Screenplay]
Arthur Lange [Original Music]
Milton R. Krasner [Cinematographer]
Gene Fowler Jr. [Film Editor]

BIOS:
1. Fritz Lang [Friedrich Christian Anton Lang] [Director]
Date of Birth: 5 December 1890 - Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]
Date of Death: 2 August 1976 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California

2. Edward G. Robinson [aka: Emmanuel Goldenberg]
Date of Birth: 12 December 1893 - Bucharest, Romania
Date of Death: 26 January 1973 - Hollywood, California

3. Joan Bennett
Date of Birth: 27 February 1910 - Palisades, New Jersey
Date of Death: 7 December 1990 - Scarsdale, New York

the cast includes:
Edward G. Robinson - Professor Richard Wanley
Joan Bennett - Alice Reed
Raymond Massey - Dist. Atty. Frank Lalor
Edmund Breon - Dr. Michael Barkstane
Dan Duryea - Heidt / Tim, the Doorman
Thomas E. Jackson - Inspector Jackson, Homicide Bureau
Dorothy Peterson - Mrs. Wanley
Arthur Loft - Claude Mazard / Frank Howard / Charlie the Hatcheck Man
Frank Dawson - Collins, the Steward

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 5 Stars
Performance: 5 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 5 Stars
Overall: 5 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 107 min on DVD ~ RKO Radio Pictures ~ (07/10/2007)

Robinson and Bennett are terrific in the Fritz Lang movie, but the cop-out ending shatters what could have been among the best of the film noir genre ever.

This movie is done very good, the only thing I didn't like was the surprise ending. It's like taking away all that you experienced before. Why would anyone like that?

Edward G. Robinson gave a superb performance in "The Woman in the Window" which he made the same year as he starred in Billy Wilder's classic movie "Double Indemnity" (1944). To have two great parts such as these in the same year was a remarkable achievement but Robinson was a talented actor and played a variety of roles in a long and successful career. He started out at Warner Bros. in typical gangster roles (along with Bogart and Cagney) but by the 40's had branched out into other more satisfying characterisations. In "The Woman in the Window" he was outstanding as Professor Richard Wanley and had excellent support from Joan Bennett as the seductive Alice Reed and Dan Duryea was suitably menacing as the villainous Heidt. The film was powerfully directed by Fritz Lang with an unexpected surprise twist at the end!!

Robinson plays decent and respectable Richard Wanley whose family life is very straightforward and orderly. However, his peaceful routine is about to be devastated by sinister events completely beyond his control. With his wife and children away on holiday he is visiting his club for a quiet drink with colleagues when he stops to admire the painting of a woman in the window of an art gallery nearby. Much to his astonishment he sees the glamorous model (Joan Bennett) watching him carefully. She explains that she often visits the gallery to check on people's reactions to her painting in the window. After a few minutes conversation they go for a drink and then continue on to her apartment which turns out to be Robinson's biggest mistake. The events which follow lead to violence, murder and blackmail made even more complicated when Wanley's friend District Attorney Lalor (Raymond Massey) is assigned to the investigation.

Some favourite lines from the film:

Joan Bennett (to Edward G. Robinson): "I'm not married. I have no designs on you and one drink is all I care for".

Robinson (to Bennett): "I should never have stopped to talk with you - I should never have come here to drink with you". Bennett (to Robinson): "Never?".

Raymond Massey (to Robinson): "It's all right Richard - don't get excited. We rarely arrest people just for knowing where the body was".

"The Woman in the Window" has a gripping storyline with many surprises along the way and edge of the seat suspense. The viewer is completely riveted by Wanley's predicament as he is drawn deeper and deeper into a situation he can't understand or explain and is unable to get out of. Just when it seems that Wanley's troubles can't get any worse there is a totally unexpected twist at the end of the film which was certainly a surprise to me! The success of this film encouraged director Fritz Lang to reunite with his three leading players the following year for another classic thriller "Scarlet Street". See them both. Clive Roberts.

I do not know have I've managed to miss seeing this film up to now. It has all the elements that film noir fans want--atmosphere, mystery, murder, wet streets and femmes. Shadows are terrific. Music very good. Seeing this movie will likely remind you again why you like this genre so much.

Edward G. Robinson plays a straight-laced professor of psychology who gets involved in a difficult situation. Or does he? Memorably casted with Robinson, Joan Bennett as the high-class companion to the rich man that Robinson murders in the heat of passion, and Dan Duryea as the semi-sleazy private detective who tries to blackmail the pair. (Fans of Fritz Lang or any film noir should also check out "Scarlet Street," directed by Lang a year later with the same actors).

One of the best of Fritz Lang's American movies - a thriller with the logic and plausibility of a nightmare. Lang's technique is so sure and so seductive that the viewer completely identifies with the safe, serene protagonist (Edward G. Robinson), an associate professor of psychology in a New York City college, and shares his shock and fear when he's caught in a trap. The professor is interested in the relation of motive to homicide - an interest that's purely a matter of intellectual curiosity. Then, when his wife and child are out of town, he visits a woman's apartment; her lover comes in and unexpectedly attacts him, and he kills the intruder with a pair of scissors.............. Cleverly, Bennett is the alluring subject of a painting he admires; (the woman in the window, natch). A refreshing, intelligent little thriller-melodrama with a surprise ending.

Fritz Langs great, clever movie about fidelity, of all things, wrapped in a murder melodrama. Robinson plays a meek, well-respected man of standing who after sending his wife and child away for the summer (a common practice of well-off New Yorkers in the days befor air conditioners)lusts after the painting of a beautiful woman in the window of an art store.

The conservative, reliable Robinson imagines what it would be like if he were presented with the opportunity to be impetuous for once. Oh, what he would do if he ever met this woman.

Lang obliges, or shall we say lets him have it, and Robinson's dream turns into a nightmare. A lesson actually. Remember what your mother told you about what happens to little boys who smoke?

Maltin calls this a melodrama. It's actually a very subtle, dark comedy, one without any jokes. Just a scenario that gets out of hand as it rolls along. I can't explain why without giving it away, just a terrific storyline.