The Woman in the Window (1944) - Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang was a filmmaker born to make noir. The movement effectively grew out of the expressionist style of German film, and Lang was with it from the beginning. Some of his films were noir before noir was even a style or trend. His earliest American films implore the same use of hard boiled plots and stark lighting. Lang's films always had a symbolic use of light, primarily the reflection of bars. So by the time the movement actually began it seemed like Lang should be its forerunner.

The Woman in the Window, along with the same year's Ministry of Fear were the first two films Fritz Lang made that fell into the "period" of film noir, that being 1944. This year will forever be cited as the starting point for the style because it saw the release of Otto Preminger's Laura as well as Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity. Those two films helped define the genre, and these two efforts from Lang easily slipped in amongst them. In many ways Lang's films were even truer to the movement, for he set up what would be the future trend in noir.

Laura and Double Indemnity were studio productions, they were lush pieces with stars high production values and plenty of publicity. Fritz Lang's films were independent productions, with a few names (including Edward G. Robinson of Double Indemnity), and they were financed by International Picture, a B-wing of the already B level RKO. The crew weren't legendary names in their fields and only cinematographer Milton Krasner might ring a bell today. Lang wasn't making a lush romantic melodrama for a studio, he was a hired hand making a cheap, quick movie under the guise of an exploitative plot.

The plot however isn't necessarily the stuff of pulp. Prof. Richard Wanley (Robinson) becomes a murderer not from the evil influence of a seductress, but out of self defense. His victim was trying to kill him. Where the noir element comes in is how they attempt to cover it up, rather than do what certainly seems most rational, which is to report it. The crime effectively in this film is two fold, one is the lie of the cover up, and the other is the intent of Wanley. Sure he's a happily married man, but as we already established Alice Reed (Joan Bennett) is his dream girl, and he most certainly has desires for her, regardless of his actions.

Now reality plays a big role, but there are a few clues that let up to the "twist" at the end. The first is what seems to be Alice's unexplainable attraction to Wanley. Sure we know what he's thinking, but we can't quite fathom how she would feel any attraction towards him. Now this isn't to say she blatantly and openly comes on to him, but there is a desire in her eyes, and she is the one who seems upset about their relationship being severed. It is also her who breaks down and calls him, which may be a misogynist undertone at the hands of the writer, but is most likely a representation of how Wanley wishes to be perceived.

However, like the dreadfully lackluster Derailed the two don't actually do anything. The moral code of Hollywood demands that not only killers, but adulterers be punished. So the mystery in this film is to see what will happen to these two who didn't commit adultery, and who only killed in self defense, hardly making them cold blooded murderers. Their crime is in disposing of the body, and there is no bylaw stating that they have to go to the gallows for that. On the other hand there's nothing saying they'll get away with it.

*spoiler*
Now the twist is similar to the one used in DePalma's Femme Fatale (2002), and this time it is slightly more effective. Its more effective because rather than an escapist bit of nonsense, it is used more to comedic effect for its conclusion. However both film suffer for the same flaws in construction. If the events of this film are to be a dream, then how could they be so logical and linear? There isn't anytying really in this film or DePalma's to lend itself to surrealism. However Lang's film helps to explain the cast of characters in a realistic way (for dreams anyways). 

The Woman in the Window is a step from The Ministry of Fear, a rather predictable propoganda piece with Ray Milland. However it is a flawed film, and rarely do you get a feeling that Lang was making the film he wanted, only a few times does he get to do anything really interesting. He would reunite the next year with his two leading actors for Scarlet Street, which will be soon to come to the film noir journals.

Grade B -