The Woman in the Window

The description and codification of the film noir genre came about in part due to this film, which came amongst a wave of similar crime films in 1943 and 1944. I've spoken about this in other reviews, but the film noir genre was a result of a very specific time and place, being America/Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s. These films rose from an atmosphere tied into a wartime and post-war mindset linked to the heightened morality of the homefront during WWII, a theme compounded by the Hays Code. The Hays Code was an oppressive set of rules imposed on American films between 1933 and the 1960s by a conservative morality designed to enforce Christian ideals and the 'American way'. I only mention this because throughout The Woman in the Window the Hays Code is very much an unseen character that shapes the film and the actions of the characters therein.

Edward Robinson plays Richard Wanley, a university professor with a keen understanding of the law who is suddenly thrust out of his depth and plunged into a situation where he's forced to kill in self-defence. This one moment of inexplicable bad luck leads him further and further down a black rabbit hole, where his actions progress from self-defence to pre-meditated in order to keep his incriminating actions secret. Of course, after disposing of the body there are further complications. All these little hiccups contribute to the stress placed on Richard, a tense atmosphere where the viewer wonders what mistakes in particular will come back to haunt him. Will it be the cops who stopped him? The garage attendent? The tyre tracks? Or even the identity of the victim?

Richard almost seems too calm and level headed in the situation, but he's a man whose intellect is forced into a realm of practicality for the first time. Astoundingly, he's forced to employ sheepishly anti-suspicious behaviour in a situation that arises from the novelty of himself (the killer) being led through a crimescene (as a curious colleague) by the investigators. For Robinson, a cultured admirer of art, it's a role closer to his real self than any of his vicious gangster characters. In The Woman in the Window, he's a gentle professor who resents the ageing process. A midlife crisis arises from his awareness that he's not getting any younger, a feeling that allows for certain dalliances that will be his undoing.

Film noir is all about the hell that results from flirting with immorality. Richard entertains thoughts of adultery and this nightmare is what happens to him as a result. Due to the active presence of the Hays Code and the strictures it places on 1940s films, we know that there's no way out for these characters from the very outset. The Hays Code requires Richard to be punished, it's impossible for him to get away with murder because the rules of filmmaking at the time don't allow for it. So there's always this sense that his comeuppance is inevitable, which only adds to the tension. I won't give the ending ot the film away but I will say that it takes the quirky, bleak story into some seriously cheesy copout territory with a final groanworthy twist.

DIRECTOR: Fritz Lang
WRITER/SOURCE: Nunnally Johnson.
KEY ACTORS: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Raymond Massey, Dan Duryea, Edmund Breon

RELATED TEXTS:
- Wikipedia cites the The Woman in the Window alongside four other key films that influenced the coining of the term 'film noir' in France, these other films are: The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, Murder My Sweet and Laura.
- The same actors and director reunited for the film noir Scarlet Street.
- See also: The Woman on the Beach, Vertigo and Black Widow for similar themes and plots.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - nominated for Best Music.