The Woman in the Window

Fritz Lang’s famous film tells the story of Richard Wanley, a married college professor who falls head over heels in love with the beautiful Alice, whom he first saw in an oil painting. However, Alice’s jealous boyfriend appears on the scene and ends up dead after a confrontation with Wanley… How will the respectable professor get out of this mess? The Woman in the Window is one of the first Hollywood crime films to incorporate an element of surprise or twist into the narrative. Lang may have been partly inspired by the narrative structure of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), but the Production Code, which was designed to ensure that characters did not get away with their moral transgressions, had a greater influence on the script. Director Lang reunited with cinematographer Milton R. Krasner and the trio of actors Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea the following year for the filming of Scarlet Street. (mh)