"The Woman in the Window" *** (out of ****) In my "300 Reviews & Counting" blog entry, I mentioned how there were still great filmmakers I've yet to discuss on this blog. Here now I will have the opportunity to perhaps introduce some readers to the work of Fritz Lang.
Lang was a German filmmaker who is perhaps best known for directing the silent science-fiction film "Metropolis" (1927), which has a heavy socialist slant, and the horror film "M" (1931) starring Peter Lorre as a child murderer.
Some critics and filmbuffs will say those are his best films. And I tend to agree. Lang did his best work in Germany. But in 1934 he left the country. It has been speculated he did so after having a meeting with Joseph Goebbels, who offered him the chance to head UFA studios. Supposedly Lang was against the Nazi regime and left that same night. None of this has ever been proven, but, it is at the very least a fun story.
Lang then came to America, where he directed "Fury" (1936), one of the greatest movies I've ever seen. He then became closely associated with film noir. It has been suggested he more than any other filmmaker established the genre creating films which dealt with paranoia, psychological conflicts and loose morals. These films include "Ministry of Fear" (1944) a minor attempt in my opinion, "Secret Beyond the Door" (1948) and "The Woman in the Window" (also 1944).
"The Woman in the Window" stars Edward G. Robinson as Professor Richard Wanley. A married man with two children. His wife and kids are going away on vacation while he stays at home. To pass the time he meets with some friends, one of them being a district attorney, Frank Lalor (Raymond Massey). They usually meet for drinks and discuss women. One woman in particular has caught their attention, only she isn't real. It is a woman they have seen in a portrait in a store window. They can't help but stare at it wondering what kind of woman she must be in real life.
At this point the conversation turns a bit risque for 1944. Wanley talks about how terrible it is to be in middle-age. His mind wants to do one thing while his body another. He'd love to chase after pretty girls and flirt, but, he realizes he is not a young man, and his body could not handle a wild partying lifestyle.
Later that same night, when on his way home, he stops at the window again to stare at the portrait, this time however he notices a figure standing next to him, a young woman. It is the same woman in the painting. Her name is Alice Reed (Joan Bennett). At first Wanley is embarrassed but they begin a conversation which leads to them going out for drinks and back to her place.
When at her place, where she wants to show Richard some sketches, her lover Claude Mazard (Arthur Loft) walks in and goes into a jealous rage. Richard, fighting for his life, stabs Mazard in the back with a pair of scissors. The scene is reminiscent to the murder scene in Hitchcock's "Dial M For Murder" (1954).
With the dead body in Alice's apartment they hatch a plan. Alice reveals that no one knew she was seeing Mazard. No one had ever seen the two together. So Richard decides they should move the body out of her apartment and leave it far away and promise never to see each other again.
The plan is Richard will go back to his apartment to get his car and he will take the body and drop it off in the woods. In these scenes Lang and screenwriter Nunnally Johnson, are creating a lot of suspense and tension before anything really happens. Richard's trip to his apartment and back to Alice's is filled with mishap after mishap creating nothing but witnesses for Richard who can remark on his strange behavior. At one point a police officer even stops him. It seems as if their plan is going to backfire.
At this point in the film I was thinking of two things. First everything resembled a Hitchcock film, the theme of an innocent man caught in a web. Richard didn't do anything wrong. He killed the man out of self-defense, but he wants to avoid a scandal thus digging a hole deeper for himself. And because of Robinson's appearance as a man trying to get away with the perfect murder, how can one not think of Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity" (1944). Here Robinson is playing the reverse of his character in that film. This time around he is Fred MacMurray.
Much of "The Woman in the Window" feels right. Lang does what you'd expect in a noir film. After dropping off the body Richard reads in the paper the body has been discovered, and his district attorney friend seems to have everything figured out except for who did it. He figures out the man did not die at that location but was brought there afterwards. He also tells Richard they found tire tracks and blood stains. Richard cut himself on some barb-wire.
Here Lang seems to be having some fun with the story. It becomes slightly humorous. Richard and Lalor have some friendly banter as Richard becomes more and more of the ideal suspect. In one scene Lalor invites Richard to come with him to the crime scene and without realizing it Richard is leading him to the body without anyone telling him where to go.
For much of the film I was enjoying what Lang and Johnson, who adapted a novel by J.H. Wallis called "Once Off Guard", were doing. Robinson, as usual, was giving a fine performance playing with his image as a gangster. For my younger readers, Robinson did break out in Hollywood for his roles in crime movies such as "Little Caesar" (1931) and John Huston's "Key Largo" (1948) opposite Humphrey Bogart. He even played a gangster for laughs in "Larceny Inc." (1942).
But then there is that ending. Right up until that point I thought this was going to be a very successful Lang film. It seemed to be pushing the limits of the Hollywood censorship board. Here was a movie that wasn't playing by the rules suggesting an ending we normally did not see in films from that period. Without revealing what actually happens, the film cops out. It was such a letdown. It goes from being a noir film to being a film about a male fantasy ego trip. It even turns to comedy. The comedy is completely out of place. The film actually wanted to be an examination of the male mid-life crisis.
A lot of people won't have the same bad reaction I had to the film's ending. Most people actually like it, thinking it is a sharp twist. But Lang never wanted that ending. He was pressured by the Hollywood censors to add additional footage. Lang originally wanted the bleak ending the film, at first, suggest. Instead we get this cheerful more upbeat ending. To me the ending serves as a reminder of the needless production code which interfered with artistic vision. Lang could have made a daring bold film but because of censorship he had to compromise his vision.
"The Woman in the Window" is not a bad movie. As I have said, it does have traits which I do recommend. It is not Fritz Lang's best film and probably should not be your introduction into his films either. Watch "M" or "Metropolis" first. If you want to see this noir material played correctly I'd advise you to watch "Double Indemnity" instead.
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