The Woman in the Window (1944)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Nunnally Johnson (writer)
J.H. Wallis (novel)

Release Date:

3 November 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

It was the look in her eyes that made him think of murder.

Plot:

When a conservative middle-aged professor engages in a minor dalliance with a femme fatale, he is plunged into a nightmarish quicksand of blackmail and murder.

Plot Keywords:

Professor | Window | Portrait | Painting | College

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

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

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

West Germany:16 (nf) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Christie Corporation

Quotes:

[first lines]
Richard Wanley: [lecturing] The Biblical injunction "Thou shalt not kill" is one that requires qualification in view of our broader knowledge of impulses behind homicide. The various legal categories such as first and second degree murder, the various degrees of homicide, manslaughter, are civilized recognitions of impulses of various degrees of culpability. The man who kills in self defense, for instance, must not be judged by the same standards applied to the man who kills for gain.

Movie Connections:

Featured in A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers (2009) (TV)

Fine Film Noir

Following a chance meeting with a beautiful young woman, a forty-something professor unwittingly becomes involved in murder and blackmail while his family is away on vacation. Robinson is wonderful as always as the professor who is in over his head because of a moment's indiscretion. Bennett looks stunningly beautiful as the kind of woman who can lead any man astray. Duryea is appropriately slimy as a blackmailer. Lang is at the top of his form in this atmospheric and efficiently made film noir. Some feel cheated by the ending but it is actually quite clever. Interestingly enough, Lang reunited with Robinson, Bennett, and Duryea in his next film, "Scarlet Street."