Fritz on Fridays: The Woman in the Window (1944)
The Woman in the Window might be the most important film the director made after leaving the German industry.
On the first Friday of every month, this column by critic Joshua Polanski will feature a short review or essay on a film directed by Fritz Lang (1890-1976), the great Austrian “Master of Darkness.” Occasionally (but not too occasionally), Fritz on Fridays will also feature interviews and conversations with relevant critics, scholars and filmmakers about Lang’s influence and filmography.
One of Fritz Lang’s rare financially successful Hollywood films, The Woman in the Window might be the most important film the director made after leaving the German industry. The Austrian émigré formed his own production company to make the film oft considered to have contributed to the origins of the film noir (somewhat ironically, considering the main female character is hardly a femme fatale) and, according to Paste Magazine, with this film, he made the greatest noir in cinema history. The other film he made the same year? Ministry of Fear, one of the boldest anti-fascist statements to ever come out of a Hollywood picture. As disaster ravaged Lang’s homeland, 1944 was a good year for his artistic career.
Psychology professor Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson) opens The Woman in the Window with a lecture intended for no one in the room (we never meet a student of his) but only the audience: The professor instructs that the biblical commandment “thou shalt not kill” needs to be qualified in the face of modern legal standards associated with homicide. As quickly as he remarks about self-defense and the various degrees of murder, Lang and editor Marjorie (Johnson) Fowler cut the lecture mid-sentence. The twist ending questions this lecture with the emotional reckoning of actually taking the life of another. Regardless of legal distinctions or moral outs, taking a life can ruin your own.
Continue reading at the Midwest Film Journal.