The Woman in the Window ***** (1944, Edward G Robinson, Joan Bennett, Raymond Massey, Dan Duryea) – Classic Movie Review 2,174

Fritz Lang’s superb 1944 film noir thriller The Woman in the Window stars Edward G Robinson as a professor obsessed with the portrait of a woman in the window next to his men’s club. While admiring her portrait, he meets the beautiful model (Joan Bennett).

Director Fritz Lang’s superb 1944 film noir thriller The Woman in the Window stars Edward G Robinson as a gentle middle-aged psychology professor called Richard Wanley, who is lonely in New York when his wife and children go on holiday. He becomes obsessed with the portrait of a woman in the window next to his men’s club.

While admiring her portrait, he meets the beautiful model young woman Alice Reed (Joan Bennett) he sees in the painting. So then he becomes embroiled with her when she invites him into her apartment and he ends up enjoying some sweet talk over champagne.

But suddenly in rushes her angry boyfriend, who tries to strangle him, but then Robinson kills him in self defence. The professor agrees to dump the body and help cover up the killing but the police start to uncover more and more clues that point to him. Then the blackmailing little weasel Heidt or Tim the Doorman (Dan Duryea) begins leaning on the woman.

Lang directs a superbly taut, brilliantly atmospheric and highly enjoyable thriller that is now recognised as an admired classic of film noir, with its odd passions and obsessions, sudden bursts of fatal violence, desperately flawed or venal characters, and its effectively conjured-up surreal dream-like mood.

The three stars are all seen at their best, giving ideally realised, resonant lead performances, with Robinson perfect as a sad, gentle and pathetic creature driven by weakness and obsession to murder, Bennett a tremendous, alluring, hard-boiled femme fatale, and Duryea a magnetic weasel. Plus a fourth star, Raymond Massey, gives an outstanding performance of grave authority as District Attorney Frank Lalor.

There is a great Oscar nominated score by Arthur Lange and Hugo Friedhofer, as well as striking noir cinematography by Milton R Krasner.

Arthur Lange and Hugo Friedhofer were nominated for Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture at the 18th Academy Awards, but Miklós Rózsa won for Spellbound (1945), a rare win for a Hitchcock picture.

The Woman in the Window is produced by Nunnally Johnson, who also wrote the crisp screenplay loosely based on the 1942 best-selling novel Once Off Guard by J H Wallis. Writer James Harold Wallis (1885-1958) was born in Iowa, educated at Yale, became a newspaperman in Iowa, then wrote books in New York.

Among others in the cast are Edmund Breon, Thomas E Jackson, Dorothy Peterson, Arthur Loft, Frank Dawson, Robert Blake, Ralph Dunn, Joe Devlin, Iris Adrian, Brandon Beach, Paul Bradley, Don Brodie, Carol Cameron, Claire Carleton, James Carlisle, Eddy Chandler, Freddie Chapman, Alec Craig, Hal Craig, Bess Flowers, Jack Gardner, Tom Dillon, Jack Gargan.

The three stars reunited with Lang for his next film Scarlet Street (1945), with all three cast in similar kinds of characters. The films also have the same cinematographer and some supporting actors.

The cast

The cast are Edward G Robinson as Professor Richard Wanley, Joan Bennett as Alice Reed, Raymond Massey as District Attorney Frank Lalor, Dan Duryea as Heidt/ Ted the Doorman, Edmund Breon as Dr Michael Barkstane, Thomas E Jackson as Inspector Jackson, Dorothy Peterson as Mrs Wanley, Arthur Loft as Claude Mazard/ Frank Howard/ Charlie the Hat-Check Man, Iris Adrian as Streetwalker, Frank Dawson, Robert Blake, Ralph Dunn, Joe Devlin, Brandon Beach, Paul Bradley, Don Brodie, Carol Cameron, Claire Carleton, James Carlisle, Eddy Chandler, Freddie Chapman, Alec Craig, Hal Craig, Bess Flowers, Jack Gardner, Tom Dillon, Jack Gargan, Fred Graham, Tom Hanlon, James H Harrison, Harry Hayden, William J Holmes, Fred Hueston, Sheldon Jett, Jack W Johnston, Donald Kerr, Anna Loos, Frank McClure, George McFarland, Joel McGinnis, Harold McNulty, Charles Meakin, Frank Melton, Frank Mills, Harold Minjir, Frances Morris, Ralph Norwood, Wedgewood Nowell, Anne O’Neal, Louis Payne, Alex Pollard, Fred Rapport, Scott Seaton, Arthur Space, Wyndham Standing, Larry Steers, Ruth Valmy, Lane Watson.

The Woman in the Window is directed by Fritz Lang, runs 99 minutes, is made by International Pictures, is released by RKO  Pictures, is written by Nunnally Johnson, is shot in black and white by Milton R Krasner, is produced by Nunnally Johnson, is scored by Arthur Lange and Hugo Friedhofer, and is designed by Duncan Cramer.

Release date: November 3, 1944 (US).

Joan Bennett

Joan Bennett (February 27, 1910 – December 7, 1990) is highly regarded for her film noir femme fatale roles in three of Fritz Lang’s films: Man Hunt (1941), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Scarlet Street (1945).

© Derek Winnert 2015 – Classic Movie Review 2,174

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