Undescribable Perfection

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Joan Bennett (Alice Reed), Edward G. Robinson (Wanley), Raymond Massey (Lalor), Dan Duryea (Heidt), Edmond Breon (Dr. Barkstone), Dorothy Peterson (Mrs. Wanley), Arthur Space (Kennedy), Arthur Loft.Director: FRITZ LANG. Producer/screenplay: Nunnally Johnson, based on the 1942 novel by J.H. Wallis. Photography: Milton Krasner. Film editor: Paul Weatherwax. Art director: Duncan Kramer. Music: Arthur Lange.Copyright 11 October 1944. New York opening at the Palace: 25 January 1945. Released: 5 March (U.K.), 12 July (Australia). 99 minutes. (The excellent MGM DVD rates 10/10). COMMENT: Although the viewer encounters some problems in dealing with the screenplay, particularly as regards the surprise ending, there's no doubting the movie is otherwise a masterpiece of charismatic acting, tense direction and atmospherically film noir lighting. Fritz Lang is a great pictorialist, and here his incisively powerful vision is directed towards illuminating the remorseless twists of fate that place Robinson's mild-mannered college professor in jeopardy. The woman in the window, suggestively played by Joan Bennett, is the catalyst; while Dan Duryea, in a typical role, is the immediate aggressor. Krasner's moody camera-work aids Lang's vision: Fluid, dramatically composed and strikingly lit.

Once I started doing these reviews on the IMDb, the first movie I came across that had a cop-out ending like this one was 1953's "The Limping Man" with Lloyd Bridges in the lead. I was so po'd by that ending that I gave it a moot review with the feeling that it came off as a cheat. Another one is 1942's "Man With Two Lives", but that one was made a bit more entertaining by the presence of a lot of scientific looking lab gizmos in support of a story that starts out like a sci-fi film and then turns into a gangster flick. This time, Edward G. Robinson really had me hooked with his predicament when right at the very end, the museum steward wakes him up! Nooooo - you're killing me!!!! I should have known it, Professor Wanley (Robinson) gives himself away just too many times, starting with the 'murdered' comment to District Attorney Lalor (Raymond Massey). Then, as the D.A. comments on the blood found where the body was located, Wanley shows him the scratch on his arm. Why? Later, while physically at the location where Claude Mazard was found, Wanley heads right for the exact spot, inadvertently commenting that the body was dumped at night. You know, for a college professor teaching a class on the psychological aspects of homicide, you would think he'd play his cards closer to the vest.But in the end, it just doesn't matter, because the whole thing never happened. Reading the other reviews on this board, it seems like this little factoid was missed by four out of five viewers who think the picture was just great. I would have too if they hadn't tacked on the last couple of minutes and just let Wanley nod off in his chair just a couple of seconds late on that telephone call from Joan Bennett. Honestly, didn't you get just a little impatient with her dealing with that dial telephone?

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, coupled with SCARLET STREET, form a formidable duo in Lang's mature American style. The director who may have singlehandedly developed the style that would come to be known as "noir" never relented. Even his latest Indian films are forceful and dense with Lang's characteristic fatalism. He may be more recalled for his work in erecting German cinema, but his cross-pollination with American studio mandate produced a series, from FURY to BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT, containing some of the most influential and memorable films from the 30's, 40's, and 50's. Underneath an ideal surface example of the "noir" construct, Lang interjects a deft psychological evaluation of the increasing voyeurism in American culture -- perhaps encouraged by cinema? Robinson's plunge into fate's grip is all suggested by his fixation on a portrait. Here, Lang smartly plays on the same construct on which Hollywood operates -- the relationship between image and audience. Most potently, he understands that this relationship is a sexual one. A connection between idealized and unreachable models cinema has taught us to build. The kind of kernel that has been gnawing away self-image for a century. However, instead of glorifying and capitalizing on this relationship, Lang inverts it and demonstrates how it can hijack common sense. HOUSE BY THE RIVER shows the same obsession with the human connection with ideals and sex. Furthermore, it introduces a concept key to Lang's greater ideology -- sex and death are forever entwined as basic necessities.We must immediately forgive the ending, like we must do for countless other pictures of this era. It is remarkable that Lang even managed to cultivate such an unforgiving portrait of Americana. In fact the ending only serves to further his evaluation of the viewer's fatal, sexual relationship with art.Like they would repeat in SCARLET STREET, Robinson and Bennett turn in a fine chemistry. Robinson is not an attractive man. But he rejects our need for such a character by inspiring the bumbling, nervous moments of idiocy that we all know in ourselves. There is something about the way Bennett lights her cigarettes that signal danger. WOMAN IN THE WINDOW does not present her as the appalling bitch that she would be in SCARLET STREET, but the smoke hovers around her like an evaporating halo. And her youthful power complex is just right for dragging Robinson into the abyss.Lang managed to be so damning and so hateful while simultaneously constructing a new American style. So many of these films demand a viewing and so few of them get one. A renaissance of this formidable cycle is needed.88.0

This movie is a cinematic masterpiece. There is nothing that can be done to improve this movie. It is as close to perfection as is humanly possible to achieve. Outstanding acting, a wonderfully engaging story, snappy dialog, and terrific cinematography make this movie one of the best ever. Edward G. Robinson shows why he is one of the greatest actors in history and Joan Bennett was fantastic as the woman who is the center of all the ruckus. But it was Dan Duryea's performance that is particularly noteworthy. Further compliments are superfluous. The movie speaks for itself. Its continuity, marvelous acting and fast pace are evidence of great direction. What a great movie!