The Woman in the Window
Recently it seems like my blog postings have become longer. When I compare that with some of my older postings, which I revisit when the occasion presents itself, I always feel like I used to have nothing about films. Now, even when I know that I don’t actually have much to say, I still end up writing lots. That is a bad sign.
“The Woman in the Window” is another film which you shouldn’t say too much about. The film itself is interesting, suspenseful and led by a great actor to incorporate the main character. Oh, and the woman is absolutely stunning – I don’t understand why Joan Bennett is not a major star. But I suppose most actresses in film noirs aren’t. All in all, that is all you need to know about the film. If you like film noirs, this is a quintessential one. I read somewhere that this is the movie which basically coined the term film noir, I am actually not surprised. There are some elements ‘lacking’ in this film to be a stereotypical film noir (namely the conniving evil intent of the femme fatale character), but overall this film seems to be for film noir what “It happened one night” was for screwball comedies. It’s where the genre is still trying to define itself.
Much more importantly, this film marks the first time in years I have seen a Fritz Lang movie. That is even more shocking since “M” is amongst my favorite films, yet the slight disappointment of “Metropolis” and my general aversion against films I consider old-fashioned kept me up from watching anything else he did. Against my better knowledge, I also always associate Lang with the 20s and early 30s, completely forgetting that his film noirs are famous too. It may even be possible that “Le Mépris” contributed to my impression that Fritz Lang makes ‘out-dated’ movies. “The Woman in the Window” shows that this is the case only on a superficial level. Maybe the storytelling in the film is very classic, but it is the one that others have imitated after all.
Concerning the title of this review, the ending was so dumb it’s almost hilarious, not even the little twist with the club employees can possibly change that. Without a doubt it would have been better if they had kept the tragic ending, but I don’t blame them for trying to escape censorship, even though the attempt is a rather silly one.
I definitely want to see “Scarlet Street” now. Lang’s films are never the personal type which touches me on some emotional level (like “Drugstore Cowboy” did), but it is certainly an example of fine storytelling and intense suspense.