Professor Richard Wanley admires a woman's portrait in a gallery window, then meets her, and a night out ends in a killing. Hiding the body pulls him deeper. Worth watching for how Lang plays with who is looking at whom.
At a glance
The Woman in the Window is a 1944 film noir, thriller and crime film directed by Fritz Lang. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (1 cinematography, 2 narrative and 1 psychology), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Solaris uses several of the same techniques.
Using windows between characters to frame looking, longing and distance. The glass keeps people apart while showing them to each other.
How this film uses it
A portrait in a gallery window near Wanley's club draws him in. The glass frames looking and longing before the real woman appears.
Where to see it
The gallery window: Wanley admires the portrait, and its model, Alice Reed, meets him there.
Dropping a normal citizen with no special training into a conspiracy or crime. You identify with them because they are as unprepared as you would be.
How this film uses it
Wanley is a quiet professor with no criminal skills. When he has to hide a body, you feel how unprepared he is.
Where to see it
Hiding the body: after the self-defense killing, Wanley drives the body to the countryside and leaves clues behind.
Letting a character's guilt over a past wrong shape what they do now. The wrong may come out late or only be hinted at, but it colors every choice.
How this film uses it
Wanley's guilt over the killing drives him to slip up. He keeps leaving signs of what he did, as if he cannot hide it.
Where to see it
The blackmail: Heidt, a former cop, threatens Alice, and Wanley supplies poison.
Saving a reveal for the climax that changes the meaning of every scene before it. You have to rebuild the whole film in your head with the new knowledge.
How this film uses it
Lang persuaded the studio to drop the original tragic ending. The dream framing changes the meaning of everything you watched.
Where to see it
The ending: Wanley wakes in his club chair, the whole story was a dream, and on the street a woman asks him to light her cigarette. He refuses and runs.
Questions
Keep watching
Same era
