Joan Has Her Portrait Hung

Professor Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson), an instructor of psychology at Gotham University, has just sent his family on an extended trip to Maine. He spends the evening with his friends, Dr. Barkstane (Edmond Breon) and New York District Attorney Frank Lalor (Raymond Massey).  Several hours - and drinks - later, Richard exits the club and pauses to admire The Woman in the Window (1944), a portrait in the gallery next to his club. He's stunned to realize that, standing next to him is THE woman (Joan Bennett), who after some conversation, invites him to her apartment. His response to her query will change his life forever.

At the 2019 Noir City DC, we were treated to an introduction to this film by film historian Foster Hirsch. The film, he said, was about submerged desires, and what happens when these desires bubble to the top. Certainly, there is a sexual aspect to the interactions between Alice and Professor Wanley (at least, on his part!). But I disagreed that this was the result of a loveless or sexless marriage. We see Professor Wanley seeing his wife (Dorothy Peterson) and children (Robert Blake and Carol Cameron). He gives his wife a warm departing kiss; we later see him writing to her, and starting the letter "My Dearest Darling". This is certainly a long-time marriage, but he clearly still loves his wife, and very much misses his family.

Seeing Edward G. Robinson in anything is a treat, but he really outdoes himself in this film.  The juxtaposition between the nebbishy professor and the calculating criminologist is fascinating to watch. This was Mr. Robinson’s first film with Joan Bennett, and the chemistry between them is perfect - so good, in fact that the two would be reunited the following year for the impressive Scarlet Street.  Given Mr. Robinson's career of playing vicious murderers, it is intriguing to see him as a victim - though one who has a real crime on his hands.

Merle Oberon was at one point considered for the role of Alice (AFI catalog), but it is hard to picture anyone but Joan Bennett in the role. She is so enormously sexy that it's easy to picture the three clubmen (Dr. Barkstane, Frank Lalor, and Professor Wanley) discussing their dream girl based merely on a picture in the window of an art gallery.  With her dark hair (a change she made in 1938, which opened a new range of films for her), deep voice, and her seductive tones, she is a siren, wooing men to their doom. Her interactions with both Mr. Robinson and Mr. Duryea are letter-perfect. It's no wonder that Hollywood wanted this dream team to be reunited the following year.

Ms. Bennett, her husband, Walter Wanger, and Fritz Lang were the producers on the film; this opened up new opportunities to director Lang, whose vision for film had being circumscribed by producers like Darryl F. Zanuck. (TCM article)  The film's ending was Lang's idea; producer and screenwriter Nunnally Johnson wanted a different ending, but he was overruled.

Dan Duryea  (Heidt) is appropriately smarmy as the bodyguard hired by his company to tail Claude Mazard (Arthur Loft) - a wealthy man who has a reputation for losing his short temper and getting into fights.  While we initially think Heidt will be easily fooled by the Professor and Alice, we find he is by no means stupid, though he is avaricious and vengeful. Mr. Duryea spent the greater part of his career playing the villain, but he's never boring. His scenes with Ms. Bennett sizzle with tension.

The film's initial title was Off Guard. It received a single Oscar nomination for Score (Hugo Friedhofer and Arthur Lange)., losing to  Miklós Rózsa's Spellbound. Ms. Bennet, Mr. Robinson, and Mr. Duryea reunited to perform a Lux Radio Theatre version in June of 1945.

If you've never seen Woman in the Window, do get hold of a copy. It's a real treat.  I'll leave with the trailer: