History Film / TheWomanInTheWindow1944

Not to be confused with the [[Literature/TheWomanInTheWindow 2018 thriller novel]] of the same name or its 2021 film adaptation.

* FilmNoir

See also ''Film/ScarletStreet'', the SpiritualAntithesis to this film, made one year later with the same director and same cast.

Not to be confused with [[Film/TheWomanInTheWindow2021 the 2021 film adaptation]] of the same-named novel.

Not to be confused with [[Film/TheWomanInTheWindow2021 the 2021 film of the same name]].

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Richard Wanley (Creator/EdwardGRobinson), a married, middle-aged psychology professor whose wife and children are away for the summer, falls in lust with a provocative portrait of a young woman. One evening the portrait's model, a budding FemmeFatale named Alice Reed (Creator/JoanBennett), catches him ogling it and invites him up to her apartment. The two are interrupted by her boyfriend, who tries to strangle Richard, and Richard kills him in self defense. Now the two must try to quietly dispose of the body to avoid scandal, but are hampered by their lack of trust for each other. Complications include Richard's friend Frank (Raymond Massey), a district attorney who investigates the man's disappearance, and a crooked ex-cop (Dan Duryea) scheming to blackmail them both.

See also ''Film/ScarletStreet'', the SpiritualSuccessor to this film, made one year later with the same director and same cast and a similar story.

* AllJustADream: A textbook version. The whole plot is a dream of Richard's. Yes, even the many scenes he's not in. This ending was controversial at the time and has remained so ever since. Many sources say that Lang filmed this ending to conform to UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, but Lang [[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xxX-epJIzo0C&pg=PA111&dq=fritz+lang+woman+in+the+window&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOhuKuhvPqAhVUr3EKHWSfCHYQ6AEITDAF#v=onepage&q=fritz%20lang%20woman%20in%20the%20window&f=true insisted]] that the ending was his idea. It's worth noting that the Hays Code really wouldn't have required such an ending, as Richard punishes himself. When Lang made ''Film/ScarletStreet'' the next year as a SpiritualSuccessor to this film, he didn't allow such an escape for Robinson's character.

* BodyWipe: How the AllJustADream ending is done. Richard falls asleep on a chair, the camera zooms in for a tight closeup of his face, then the camera zooms out to show him in a completely different place.
* ButYouWereThereAndYouAndYou: After waking up, Richard recognizes two employees from the club as main characters from his dream: Claude Mazard was Charlie, the club's hat check man; and Heidt the blackmailer was Tim, the club's doorman.

* CharacterFocus: The first two-thirds or so of the film are clearly focused on Richard, but after Alice renters the story just as much if not ''more'' of the rest of the screentime focuses on her perspective, including long stretches where Richard is not onscreen at all and even a couple where he ''is'' but Alice is still the character whose perspective we are following. What makes this odd is that the ending of film reveals all of this to have been Richard's dream and 'Alice' never existed at all.

* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Richard makes this error repeatedly when discussing the case.

* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: The adultery and the killing are regrettable, but it's the suicide that makes it a true tragedy; if Richard had just waited a little longer, he would have discovered it to be unnecessary, as Heidt is killed in a shootout, and the police afterwards believe that Heidt is Mazard's murderer. Of course, everything ends up being moot anyway with the reveal that it's AllJustADream.
* WeAreNotGoingThroughThatAgain: After Richard awakens in his chair at his club and realizes the entire adventure was a dream, he steps out on the street in front of the painting, when a woman asks him for a light in the same way Alice did in his dream. Having just gone through a hell of an ordeal in his dream for socializing with a woman like that, he adamantly refuses and runs down the street.

Not to be confused by [[Film/TheWomanInTheWindow2020 the 2020 film of the same name]].

* BodyWipe: How the AllJustADreamEnding is done. Richard falls asleep on a chair, the camera zooms in for a tight closeup of his face, then the camera zooms out to show him in a completely different place.

Not to be confused by the 2020 film of the same name.

* {{Fanservice}}: An extraordinary example for a movie released in 1944. Alice takes Richard home and takes off her wrap, revealing that she is wearing a see-through blouse underneath. Joan Bennett spends the next 20 minutes or so of the movie quasi-topless, with her nipples being clearly visible through her transparent shirt in every closeup. In 1944.

* AllJustADream: A textbook version. The whole plot is a dream of Richard's. Yes, even the many scenes he's not in. This ending was controversial at the time and has remained so ever since. Many sources say that Lang filmed this ending to conform to UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, but Lang [[http://books.google.com/books?id=jnxOaF6qZMoC&pg=PA247&dq=fritz+lang+the+woman+in+the+window&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YtSmU7e2LorcoASKi4DwCg&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=fritz%20lang%20the%20woman%20in%20the%20window&f=false insisted]] that the ending was his idea. It's worth noting that the Hays Code really wouldn't have required such an ending, as Richard punishes himself. When Lang made ''Film/ScarletStreet'' the next year as a SpiritualSuccessor to this film, he didn't allow such an escape for Robinson's character.

* WeAreNotGoingThroughThatAgain: After Richard awakens in his chair at his club and realizes the entire adventure was a dream, he steps out on the street in front of the painting, when a woman asks Wanley for a light in the same way Alice did in his dream. Having just gone through a hell of an ordeal in his dream for socializing with a woman like that, he adamantly refuses and runs down the street.

* ButYouWereThereAndYouAndYou: After waking up, Richard recognizes several employees from the club as main characters from his dream.

* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: The adultery and the killing are regrettable, but it's the suicide that makes it a true tragedy; if Richard had just waited a little longer, he would have discovered it to be unnecessary.

* {{Fanservice}}: An extraordinary example for a movie released in 1944. Alice takes Richard home and takes off her wrap, revealing that she is wearing a see-through blouse underneath. Joan Bennett spends the next 20 minutes or so of the movie quasi-topless, with her breasts visible in every closeup. In 1944.

* LoveBeforeFirstSight: Apparently, this is how Alice likes to meet men. She lurks near where her portrait is visible through a shop window, and listens for the WolfWhistle.

* CharacterFocus: The first two-thirds or so of the film are clearly focused on Richard, but after Alice renters the story just as much if not ''more'' of the rest of the screentime focuses on her point of view, including long stretches where Richard is not onscreen at all and even a couple where he is but Alice is still the character given the point of view. What makes this odd is that the ending of film reveals all of this to have been Richard's dream and 'Alice' never existed at all.

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* Chiaroscuro: When Richard is driving with Mazard's body in the back of his car, only the face of the dead man is lit, and everything else is dark.