The Woman in the Window is a 1944 American film noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Raymond Massey, and Dan Duryea. It tells the story of psychology professor Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson) who meets and becomes enamored with a young femme fatale.
Based on J. H. Wallis' novel Once Off Guard, the story features two surprise twists at the end. Scriptwriter Nunnally Johnson was invited by International Pictures (an independent production company founded by erstwhile 20th Century-Fox personnel William Goetz and RKO executive Leo Spitz) to a picture deal after writing successful films such as The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and other John Ford films, and chose The Woman in the Window as its premiere project. Director Fritz Lang substituted the film's dream ending in place of the originally scripted suicide ending, to conform with the moralistic Production Code of the time.
The term "film noir" originated as a genre description, in part, because of The Woman in the Window.
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Plot
After psychology professor Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson) sends his wife and two children off on vacation, he goes to his club to meet friends. Next door, Wanley sees a striking oil portrait of Alice Reed (Joan Bennett) in a storefront window. He and his friends talk about the beautiful painting and its subject. Wanley stays at the club and reads Song of Songs. When he leaves, Wanley stops at the portrait and meets Reed, who is standing near the painting watching people gaze at it. Reed convinces Wanley to join her for drinks.
Later, they go to Reed's home, but an unexpected visit from her rich clandestine lover Claude Mazard, known to Reed initially only as 'Frank Howard' (Arthur Loft), leads to a fight in which Wanley kills Mazard. Wanley and Reed conspire to cover up the murder, and Wanley disposes of Mazard's body in the country. However, Wanley leaves many clues, and there are a number of witnesses. One of Wanley's friends from the club, district attorney Frank Lalor (Raymond Massey) has knowledge of the investigation, and Wanley is invited back to the crime scene, as Lalor's friend, but not as a suspect.
There are several comic dialogues in which Wanley appears to know more about the murder than he should. As the police gather more evidence, Reed is blackmailed by Heidt (Dan Duryea), a crooked ex-cop who was Mazard's bodyguard. Reed attempts to poison Heidt with a prescription overdose when he returns the next day, but Heidt is suspicious and takes the money without drinking the drugs. Reed tells Wanley, who overdoses on the remaining prescription medicine.
Heidt is killed in a shootout immediately after leaving Reed's home, and police believe Heidt is Mazard's murderer. Reed, seeing that the police have killed Heidt, races to her home to call Wanley, who is slumped over in his chair, and apparently he dies. In an impossible match on action, Wanley awakens in his chair at his club, and he realizes the entire adventure was a dream in which employees from the club were main characters in the dream. As he steps out on the street in front of the painting, a woman asks Wanley for a light. He adamantly refuses and runs down the street.
Cast
- Edward G. Robinson as Professor Richard Wanley
- Joan Bennett as Alice Reed
- Raymond Massey as Dist. Atty. Frank Lalor
- Edmund Breon as Dr. Michael Barkstane
- Dan Duryea as Heidt/Tim, the Doorman
- Thomas E. Jackson as Inspector Jackson, Homicide Bureau
- Dorothy Peterson as Mrs. Wanley
- Arthur Loft as Claude Mazard/Frank Howard/Charlie the Hat check Man
- Iris Adrian as Woman who asks for a light
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For your viewing pleasure the full 1 hour 39 minutes movie
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