The Woman in the Window (1944)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Professor Richad Wanley	Edward G. Robinson	½
Alice Reed	Joan Bennett
Dist. Atty. Frank Lalor	Raymond Massey	½
Dr. Michael Barkstane	Edmund Breon
Heidt/Tim	Dan Duryea	½

Review

Compared with Fritz Lang's best films, The Woman in the Window has not stood the test of time equally well. It is a clever but meek and soft-boiled film noir about an easy-going middle-aged professor (Edward G. Robinson) who after a chance encounter with a beautiful young woman ends up killing her brutal partner in self-defense, and soon finds himself dragged into a web of lies, blackmail and a murder investigation conducted by his best friend. The film is attractive to look at and is directed with an agreeable pace, but the plot twists are often too contrived and melodramatic to create a suspense level close to the best films in this genre. The Woman in the Window is constantly engaging, but lacks that final touch of brilliance (even though Lang tries to add it in a somewhat anticlimactic twist ending).