The Woman in the Window (1944)

The Worst Film Ever

Best movie ever!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

. . . so there might have been "no place like home" for little Dottie Gale of Kansas, but there was no place like the club as far as psych prof "Dick Wanley" was concerned as MGM recycled a denouement from its back catalog to close THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW. Just five years after Judy Garland clicked her ruby red slippers so she could follow Frank Morgan home in the WIZARD OF OZ, Edward G. Robinson fingers his magic monogrammed pencil reclining in his club's Lazy-Boy to accomplish a similar feat. Just as an ice pack was enough to turn the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion back into Hickory, Zeke, and Hunk, a little rub of the led turns Robinson's business tycoon murder victim into his club's hatcheck guy, with his slick blackmailer morphing into the club's harmless doorman. My biggest disappointment is that MGM chose not to apply this winning formula to GONE WITH THE WIND. That would have been a much better film if it had ended with Vivian Leigh being woken up from her afternoon beauty rest at Antebellum Tara by all her beaus rushing in, shouting "Peace at last--Jeff Davis has freed the slaves!" Leslie Howard would turn out to be her family priest, and Clark Gable would be unmasked as the local tax collector.

Edward G. and Joan Bennett star in a noirish crime drama that feels almost surreal (with god reason, as the ending makes plain). Robinson is a staid professor whose family is off on a weekend jaunt. He meets an alluring woman who invites him to he apartment for "drinks and." When her psycho boyfriend unexpectedly shows up, the prof ends up killing him during a scuffle. To protect himself and the gal, he gets rid of the body. Then the fun really starts. Edward G. is at the top of his form here, and Bennett is sexy and ever so slightly tawdry, even fully clothed. The ending, which has been used or misused in many movies before and since, here works beautifully. I am surprised I had never seen this particular melodrama until now. I am no spring chicken, and used to be a film critic, to boot.

The Woman in the Window is directed by Fritz Lang and adapted by Nunnally Johnson from the novel "Once off Guard" written by J.H. Wallis. It stars Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Raymond Massey & Dan Duryea. Music is by Arthur Lange and Milton R. Krasner is the cinematographer.After admiring a portrait of Alice Reed (Bennett) in the storefront window of the shop next to his Gentleman's Club, Professor Richard Wanley (Robinson) is shocked to actually meet her in person on the street. It's a meeting that leads to a killing, recrimination and blackmail.Time has shown The Woman in the Window to be one of the most significant movies in the film noir cycle. It was part of the original group identified by Cahiers du Cinéma that formed the cornerstone of film noir (the others were The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, Laura and Murder My Sweet). Its reputation set in stone, it's a film that boasts many of the key noir ingredients: man meets woman and finds his life flipped upside down, shifty characters, a killing, shadows and low lights, and of course an atmosphere thick with suspense. Yet the ending to this day is divisive and, depending what side of the camp you side with, it makes the film either a high rank classic noir or a nearly high rank classic noir. Personally it bothers me does the finale, it comes off as something that Rod Serling could have used on The Twilight Zone but decided to discard. No doubt to my mind that had Lang put in the ending from the source, this would be a 10/10 movie, for everything else in it is top draw stuff.At its core the film is about the dangers of stepping out of the normal, a peril of wish fulfilment in middle age, with Lang gleefully smothering the themes with the onset of a devilish fate and the stark warning that being caught just "once off guard" can doom you to the unthinkable. There's even the odd Freudian interpretation to sample. All of which is aided by the excellent work of Krasner, who along with his director paints a shadowy world consisting of mirrors, clocks and Venetian blinds. The cast are very strong, strong enough in fact for Robinson, Bennett and Duryea to re-team with Lang the following year for the similar, but better, Scarlet Street, while Lang's direction doesn't miss a beat.A great film regardless of the Production Code appeasing ending, with its importance in the pantheon of film noir well deserved. But you sense that watching it as a companion piece to Scarlet Street, that Lang finally made the film that this sort of story deserved. The Woman in the Window: essential but not essentially the best of its type. 8/10

I expect a lot of hookers went hungry after this cautionary tale was released. It's enough to frighten most any philandering husband into permanent fidelity. Because once the screenplay finishes with Prof. Wanley (Robinson), he's not even going to think about straying, blonde, brunette, or redhead. And that controversial ending is especially effective at driving the point home.I like the way the screenplay makes use of "doubles". After all, a part of the professor peels off in his dream and has the romantic adventure the real guy can only fantasize about. At the same time, the sexy portrait peels off into the "real" woman such that the two doubles meet in a twilight world of fantasy.No wonder the professor is restive. He's a highly respectable family man in a highly respectable profession with highly respectable friends, undergoing what we would now call a mid-life crisis. His body may feel trapped, but his imagination isn't. And get a load of Bennett—she's one delectable package, especially in that clinging gown. She's certainly no streetwalker, more like a kept-woman with a list of prestigious clients. Note how the Production Code screenplay stays vague about her means of support. Still, she and her ritzy apartment are just the kind of set-up a guy like Wanley (note that the name begins with 'wan') would dream about, that is, until things get out of hand.The middle part sags a bit as police procedure takes over, and the prof's conscience begins to drop hints to the authorities. It's clear, even then, that not even his double can escape the respectable man himself, as the climax reaffirms.But that showdown between Bennett and Duryea amounts to a little gem of scripting and acting. It's a cat and mouse contest all the way, except it's unclear which is which. Bennett is so good at being a silken conniver, while Duryea is the last word in slimy schemer. Watching them maneuver is fascinating, and in my book, the movie's high point.What a fine turn by Robinson as the under-stated professor. Hard to believe his unimposing figure could also snarl with the best of them, e.g. Little Caesar (1930). Here, his homely little man yearning beyond respectability is so believable. For that matter, so is the nightmarish lesson he's taught himself. As a result, when he runs from the blonde streetwalker at movie's end, I expect more than a few guys were running with him. All in all, if Family Council Oscars were given out, this crafty screenplay would deserve a big one. More importantly, the 90-minutes amounts to a darn good film noir.