elvircorhodzic THE WOMAN IN WINDOW is pretty interesting mystery melodrama. I think the script is very good and sophisticated so that the unusual and satirical way circumscribes a criminal story. I am aware of the fact that the last scenes of the film divided audiences. I'm thrilled. The original and a little magic.I'm sure it's a surprise that brings the end of the film in most people turned into disappointment. Classic denouement murder in this case no. Mr. Lang and his team were well played. The story is simple. Acting is at a high level.Edward G. Robinson as Professor Richard Wanley is simply good. His appearance will not leave anyone breathless, but it's hard to find a complaint. Simply good. Joan Bennett as Alice Reed has afforded us a very good performance. A woman came out of the image. Impressive is it seen as a frightened and vulnerable woman on one side and a very skillful and enthusiastic negotiator on the other side. Raymond Massey as Dist. Atty. Frank Lalor was in a little satirical police investigation flawless. Dan Duryea as Heidt/Tim, the Doorman is very good in the role of the blackmailer. The dog who smelled burnt. It would be wonderful if this film misses a classic villain. But I am satisfied with the fact that the only villain paid with his life for something he did not do.This film works honestly. Why dream would not be honest? Elaboration is infallible. The focus is on the investigation of the murder, in which indirectly participate killer himself. Uncertainty is a constant. Awakening is certain.

mark.waltz It is only by chance that assistant professor of criminology Edward G. Robinson encounters the beautiful Joan Bennett. He is admiring her portrait in the gallery window and it is certainly a surprise to him when he sees her reflection behind her. She innocently invites him over to her apartment to show him drawings by the same artist, and all of a sudden, he finds himself plummeting a pair of scissors into a man's back who interrupted them and presumed something else was going on. He only thought that he was trying to get the man to stop beating him when Bennett conveniently placed the scissors in his hand. Now, determined not to be involved in a murder wrap, Robinson and Bennett conspire to get rid of the body, thus (with his expertise) committing the perfect crime.But crime, no matter the circumstances, never goes undetected, and when the body is discovered, Robinson's pal (Raymond Massey) is involved in the case and asks Robinson to aide him in putting together the clues. The fact that certain aspects of the case Robinson innocently reveals and the fact that certain clues show up implicating Robinson doesn't make him a suspect, but his own guilt gets him back together to conspire with Bennett, especially when a shady blackmailer (Dan Duryea) gets involved.This is a tight little film noir, sometimes slow moving, but always intriguing, only marred by a trick ending. The first half of the film focuses on Robinson's efforts to keep himself from being exposed; the second half focuses on Bennett's dealings with the sinister Duryea. Bennett moved from light-hearted leading lady into film noir vixen with ease, proving that she was more than just a former blonde beauty who became brunette to capitalize on her Hedy Lamarr similar looks. Actually, I had always known that Bennett was a better actress than the types of roles she had been doing up to this point, and as film noir became a major part of American cinema, her status in Hollywood rose, proving that even in the age-defined movie capital, re-defining yourself can stretch your career and keep you going, something very rare, especially for women heading past their mid 30's.As for Edward G. Robinson, he had always mixed his tough guy gangsters with the milquetoast characters he played in such classics as "The Whole Town's Talking" and "Mr. Winkle Goes to War". Robinson proves once again that he was one of the most versatile actors in film and could handle both leads and supporting parts with equal vigor. Director Fritz Lang provides enough thrills here, and while the final denouncement is a bit inconclusive (even before the trick ending), there's a nice touch involving character actress Iris Adrian that will make you forgive the writers for fooling you and being slightly cheap in bringing the film to its conclusion.

chaos-rampant I don't hold Lang in particularly high esteem, he has a bit of a rough hand for my taste. But he's one of few who can claim they invented noir as far back as the silent era, or laid all the groundwork for others to decorate with shadows and dames, so I will watch anything he does in this field with some interest.This is a very taut thing to say the least, a thriller par excellance. It has all the hallmarks; concentrated space, unfolds in real time, simple but smart setups of the bomb ticking beneath the table, to quote from Hitchcock.So it's not just that the noir schmuck has to sneak out of town with a corpse on his backseat, across empty streets at night, while omens abound everywhere he looks. He's also the most unlikely guy to ever find himself in this situation, a quaint college professor who had one drink too much with the wrong woman. And this explains perhaps why it's no more well known, say on par with Hitchcock. Edward Robinson is short, stocky, mousy, just perfect for the occasion but really far from the ideal leading man, Joan Bennett on the other hand is beautiful and fragile but is neither as radiant as a Gene Tierney.The main idea is twofold tension; on one hand the culprit is kept up to date every step of the investigation leading back to him, because his friend is the DA, on the other hand police are looking for who's in plain sight of them all this time. It works, even as a few of the slip-ups come across as forced and because we need the noose to tighten fast.But there is something else here that deserves mention. Oh, the final twist spells it out for us, but an observant viewer will have noted what goes on as soon as the professor is asleep and meets the woman in the picture.Between sleeps, we have a deliciously moral anxiety; a nightmare that vividly steers a middle-aged man away from desire that his friends openly indulge in, and no doubt he would as well, and back into social order.Oh, the message is stridently cautionary as was customary in Hollywood, even if a bit humorous. Watch Jacques Rivette's Celine and Julie for the same motif - the mind asleep - improvised with more breath and soul.

evanston_dad A nearly unbearably tense and fantastic film noir from Fritz Lang.Edward G. Robinson plays a college professor who strays one night when his wife is away and finds himself in a married man's worst nightmare. Joan Bennett is the hotsy-totsy lady he finds there. He commits a murder that he and Bennett try to cover up, and we spend the rest of the film painfully watching as the investigation closes in on him, not helped by the fact that the detective leading it is one of his own friends.Robinson is a hugely likable actor, and we want to see him come away clean even though he's technically guilty. The movie throws in a surprise ending that should have left me feeling cheated, but instead left me laughing and loving this film.One of the best films noir I've seen.Grade: A