THAT OTHER WOMAN

Virginia Gilmore and James Ellison

THAT OTHER WOMAN (1942). Director: Ray McCarey. 

Emily Borden (Virginia Gilmore of The Brotherhood of the Bell) is secretary to handsome Henry Summers (James Ellison of The Ghost Goes Wild), who seems to spend more of his time chasing women than getting work done. Knowing how she feels about her boss, Emily's grandmother (Alma Kruger of Saboteur) suggests she create an air of mystery about herself by sending Henry some mysterious letters. This all leads to busy but not terribly funny complications wherein Henry thinks this lady's gangster boyfriend wants to kill him even as Emily's sort-of fiance, Ralph (Dan Duryea) goes after him as well. Henry masquerades as the caretaker of his cabin in the woods even as he finally begins noticing Emily. But what will happen when he learns she is the architect of all of his problems? 

Henry Roquemore, Gilmore, Urecal, Ellison

That Other Woman is yet another mediocre James Ellison comedy. Ellison is always reasonably adept in these vehicles but the greatest comedian in the world can't triumph over an insufficient screenplay. As for the ladies, neither Gilmore nor Kruger are especially adapt at comedy. The movie does have one moment of fun, and that is when Emily and Henry check into a hotel that seems to cater strictly to the elderly and encounter the termagant manager Mrs. MacReady, with Minerva Urecal looking throughout as if she wants to kill anyone who dares to even look at her! Typical of these kind of movies, Duryea's character is treated horribly.

Gilmore did a few movies but had more credits on TV. She was married to Yul Brynner for 16 years. 

Verdict: Much running around to little effect. **. 

SCARLET STREET

Edward G. Robinson

SCARLET STREET (1945). Director: Fritz Lang. 

Christopher Cross (Edward G. Robinson of Barbary Coast) is a cashier for a large company, as well as a part-time painter, and is married to a harridan, Adele (Rosalind Ivan), who is still obsessed with her late husband. One evening he intercedes when he sees a young woman, Kitty (Joan Bennett of The Man Who Reclaimed His Head), being slapped around by a guy and she befriends him. He doesn't realize that the abusive fellow, Johnny (Dan Duryea), is Kitty's boyfriend, and he importunes her to take advantage of the situation when they both wrongly surmise that Cross is rich. Before long Cross is stealing from his company, and things get worse after that ...

Dan Duryea and Joan Bennett

If you haven't seen this film noir masterpiece I won't spoil it by saying anything more about the plot, other than to say that Scarlet Street is thoroughly unpredictable, full of surprising and completely unexpected and highly ironic developments. The acting is first-rate, with both Robinson and Bennett outstanding in their roles, and there is excellent support from Duryea, Ivan, and Margaret Lindsay [Emergency Hospital] as Kitty's initial roommate, Millie. The roles of Cross' friends and co-workers are also filled with fine character actors, and the film is well photographed by Milton R. Krasner. Hans J. Salter also contributed an interesting score. Then there's the great screenplay by Dudley Nichols, based on a French mystery novel.  For my money this is far superior to the earlier Lang-Bennett-Robinson-Duryea collaboration The Woman in the Window.Jean Renoir also filmed this story as La chienne. An added side note: Some paintings that figure in the story line and which are seen as great art by some of the characters are the very definition of kitsch!

Verdict: Absorbing and well-made, beautifully-acted melodrama. ***1/2. 

LARCENY

John Payne and Joan Caulfield

LARCENY (1948). Director: George Sherman.

"If she's your cousin, I'm a boa constrictor in high heels." -- Tory.

Rick Mason (John Payne of Hats Off) is part of a group of con men led by Silky Randall (Dan Duryea). Silky is nuts about blowsy blond Tory (Shelley Winters), but she is really crazy about Rick and vice versa. Silky tries to send Tory to Havana while Rick starts a new con involving a wealthy war widow, Deborah (Joan Caulfield), but Tory shows up in the same town. Now Rick not only has to keep Deborah from finding out about Tory, but Silky as well. Tory's presence could put paid to Rick's scheme to steal $100,000 earmarked for a youth center, but a different complication is that he finds that he's genuinely falling for Deborah.

Shelley Winters and John Payne

Larceny is an absorbing melodrama with solid performances from the entire cast, although Shelley Winters pretty much walks off with the movie with her zesty and sexy portrayal of Tory. Tory is given the best and most amusing lines (by Margolis, Morheim and Bowers) and Winter's sassy performance makes the most of them. She gets some competition from Dorothy Hart [Tarzqn's Savage Fury] as Madeline, a secretary who can wear glasses and still get passes -- and make some of her own. Patricia Alphin is yet another lady, a waitress, who makes eyes and more at handsome Rick. There are other notable performances from Percy Helton (playing a sweet old guy for a change); Dan O'Herlihy as another con man; and Richard Rober as Max, another one of Silky's associates. Percy and Payne had a different kind of interaction in The Crooked Way. Don Wilson and Gene Evans have smaller roles. The con man who goes soft for love is an old, old stereotype but this is one of the better movies on that theme, even if the conversion isn't entirely believable, and the characters aren't as dimensional as you might like.

Verdict: Absorbing and snappy film noir. ***. 

THE BURGLAR

Jayne Mansfield and Dan Duryea

THE BURGLAR (1957). Director: Paul Wendkos.

Nat Harbin (Dan Duryea) leads a small gang of criminals, including Gladden (Jayne Mansfield), the girl he was raised with. They steal a very valuable necklace from a old lady spiritualist, Sister Sarah (Phoebe MacKay), who lives in a sprawling mansion. Now the question is whether to sell the necklace at a great loss or wait until the heat is off, a suggestion that does not sit well with Baylock (Peter Capell of The Fury of the Cocoon), who is desperate to get out of the country. None of them are aware that another person is watching them and scheming ...

Martha Vickers and Dan Duryea

The Burglar is an interesting crime melodrama that just misses being special. Duryea gives a solid performance, although Mansfield comes off like an amateur, and one doesn't buy that she "hungers" for Duryea (the only actor billed above the title). Stewart Bradley, who was "introduced" in this picture (he had had previous TV credits but this was his first movie role) makes a definite impression as the cop, Charlie. Martha Vickers (one of Mickey Rooney's ex-wives and who also appeared in The Big Bluff) also makes an impression as Della, a woman who picks up Nat in a bar and has a few secrets of her own. Mickey Shaughnessy  plays Dohmer, another member of the gang who is a little too trigger-happy. The Burglar features interesting settings in Philly and Atlantic City, such as a shack on the lonely coast and a fun house where the climax takes place. Paul Wendkos also directed the excellent Brotherhood of the Bell.

Verdict: Not quite top-drawer but it does hold the attention. **3/4. 

BLACK ANGEL

Dan Duryea and June Vincent

BLACK ANGEL (1946). Director: Roy William Neill. Based on a novel by Cornell Woolrich.

When sexy singer Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling) is murdered, the chief suspect is her lover, Kirk Bennett (John Phillips), who was being blackmailed by her. In spite of his affair, his wife, Catherine (June Vincent), remains loyal, as well as convinced that he is innocent. When he winds up convicted and on death row, with time running out, she makes up her mind to uncover the real murderer, and winds up working with the victim's ex-husband, Martin Blair (Dan Duryea of Terror Street), who was investigated by police and cleared. Catherine and Martin get a job as a singer and accompanist at a night spot owned by Mr. Marko (Peter Lorre of The Verdict), whom Martin swears he saw at Mavis' apartment house the night she was killed. Can the couple uncover the truth before they become more of his victims ,..? Black Angel is an absorbing, nominal film noir with some fine performances and a degree of suspense. Although June Vincent [Shed No Tears] is better cast as a bad girl and at first seems out of place in the movie, she has her typically sharp and unusual delivery to set her apart from the standard heroine. Duryea is, as ever, first-rate for the most part, and Lorre, in another in a long line of supporting roles that wasted his talent, is effortlessly excellent. Broderick Crawford plays the investigator on the case and is about as usual. There's a good score by Frank Skinner, and a snappy number called "I Wanna be Talked About" warbled by a dubbed Vincent. The ending is strangely moving, but you may be scratching your head at a couple of loose ends that make the denouement a bit suspect.

Verdict: Credible mystery with interesting cast. ***. 

THIS IS MY LOVE

Linda Darnell and Rick Jason

THIS IS MY LOVE (1954). Director: Stuart Heisler.

Vida Dove (Linda Darnell) lives with her sister, Evelyn (Fatih Domergue) and brother-in-law, Murray (Dan Duryea), and their two small and adorable children.  Vida was originally Murray's girlfriend, but he married Evelyn instead and the two formed a dance team until Murray was in a car crash. Now a bitter and often nasty paraplegic, Murray owns a coffee shop where the two sisters are waitresses. Vida has been engaged for several years to a likable lunkhead named Eddie (Hal Baylor), but one day Eddie brings a handsome friend, Glenn (Rick Jason) into the restaurant with him. Suddenly all of Vida's romantic fantasies center on Glenn, but she may have to contend with her own sister's desires just as she had once before, all leading up to one unspeakable act ... The fascinating and unfairly forgotten This Is My Love combines seriously dysfunctional families, unrequited love triangles, sibling rivalry, twisted passions, extreme loneliness and jealousy, and even cold-blooded murder into an absorbing and unpredictable 90 minutes of melodrama. The movie and the performances are on occasion more overwrought than they need to be, but given the situations and the raw emotions they engender that can certainly be forgiven. Linda Darnell gives an excellent performance, and a highlight is an absolute meltdown she has when she realizes she may again have to take a back seat to her sister. Although comparatively inexperienced next to Darnell, Rick Jason (of TV's Combat) not only looks swell but is right up there with his more famous co-star in the scenes they have together. (I confess that while |I watched this movie, I was convinced that Glenn was being played by serial star Judd Holdren, who is also in the movie, and who greatly resembles Rick Jason. Apparently Holdren has the very small role of a doctor; I blinked and missed him.)  Domergue [Young Widow] is also very effective as the not necessarily bad but clueless sister, and Dan Duryea almost walks off with the movie as the crippled man who loves his wife desperately but is also so terrified of losing her that he takes it out on everyone around him. Hal Baylor makes the most of his role as nice guy Eddie, whose only crime is that he's just not the romantic figure of Vida's dreams. William Hopper of Perry Mason fame shows up briefly as a district attorney, and the little boy is played by Jerry Mathers of Leave It to Beaver fame. Franz Waxman's score features an excellent opening theme that underscores Vida's romantic thoughts and is nicely warbled at one point by Connie Russell [Nightmare].

Verdict: While many things are left unsaid and unexplored -- let's not forget there are children involved -- and this is not exactly Clifford Odets, it is still a highly interesting and worthwhile picture. ***. 

TERROR STREET

Dan Duryea

TERROR STREET (1953). Director: Montgomery Tully.

At the end of WW2 American Major Bill Rogers (Dan Duryea) falls in love with pretty Katie (Elsie Albiin). They get married, but shortly afterward Bill takes off for the U.S. to teach a course that will last three months; for some reason he can't take her with him. Three months stretches into a year, and Katie quite sensibly moves out and into her own apartment, where she falls in with the wrong crowd. When she is murdered, Bill goes on the run, getting help from a rather stupid mission lady named Jenny (Gudrun Ure). Then there's this business with smuggled diamonds and blackmail, none of which is very interesting. There is no suspense whatsoever since the real killer is revealed right during the scene when Katie is murdered. The  mis-titled Terror Street features an utterly unsympathetic lead character, and the script is quite poor, even for a Hammer film noir. Duryea [Chicago Calling] gives a comparatively indifferent performance, although he does have a nice moment when he goes over the mementos of their brief married life that Katie kept in a safety deposit box. The supporting performances are okay, with Kenneth Griffith a stand out as the very nervous Henry Slosson, whose uncle (Eric Pohlmann of The Gambler and the Lady) is an antique dealer with a decidedly dubious sideline. John Chandos is cast as Orville Hart, a crook who masquerades as a customs official. Harold Lang (not to be confused with the American actor) makes his mark as a room clerk who loves to listen in to other people's phone conversations.  Montgomery Tully also directed Battle Beneath the Earth.

Verdict: Dull, dull, dull with only a couple of bright spots. *1/2.

ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST

Ann Blythe, Edmund O'Brien and Fredric March

ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST (1948). Director: Michael Gordon. From the stage play by Lillian Hellman,.

"I don't like you, Ben. I don't like any of my children. I just feel sorry for you." -- Lavinia Hubbard.

In this prequel to The Little Foxes set in the post-Civil War period, war profiteer Marcus Hubbard (Fredric March) is father of young Regina (Ann Blyth), who has set her cap for John Bagtry (John Dall); Oscar (Dan Duryea), who is basically a screw-up; and Ben (Edmond O'Brien), who is of the same diabolical mind-set as his father. The story begins on Confederate Day, when the town remembers the slaughter of many rebel soldiers because an unknown person sold them out [it seems hard to believe that the entire town wouldn't know right away who the traitor was]. Oscar has fallen for Laurette (Dona Drake of Beyond the Forest), a woman from the wrong side of the tracks, and things are quite unpleasant when she meets his father at a party at the Hubbards. Birdie Bagtry (Betsy Blair of The Snake Pit) hopes to get a very important loan from Marcus, a situation that Ben hopes to take distinct advantage of. In the meantime, the tired matriarch, Lavinia Hubbard (Florence Eldridge), reminds her husband that she still remembers where the bodies are buried ... William Wyler could have probably made this a more powerful and memorable movie, but as it is it features some fine acting, especially from Duryea, Eldridge, Blair and Drake. March is good but seems to lose his footing toward the end; it's not one of his best performances in any case. Some great dialogue throughout. Eldridge, who was married to March in real life, also played his wife in Inherit the Wind and other movies.

Verdict: Portrait of a fairly appalling family. ***.

CHICAGO CALLING

Dan Duryea on the phone while Gordon Gebert listens

CHICAGO CALLING (1951). Director: John Reinhardt.

In this undeservedly forgotten and unusual drama, Dan Duryea [Too Late for Tears] plays Bill Cannon, an unemployed husband and father in L.A. who at times drinks a little too much. His wife takes their little girl and leaves for Chicago, after which he gets a telegram saying that the child was injured in a car accident, and that his wife, Mary (Mary Anderson) will call with news the next day. There are two problems, however: a man (Ross Elliott) has come from the phone company to remove the phone due to an overdue bill; and Cannon has no idea which hospital his daughter is in or how to reach his wife. What follows are his attempts to get money to pay the phone company, eventually putting him in contact with a fatherless boy, Bobby (Gordon Gebert), who hits Cannon's dog with his bicycle and wants to give him his savings to pay the phone company. [Cannon's interactions with the boy would raise eyebrows today, but in this film it's all very innocent, although some might argue that even in 1951 Cannon's hanging around with Bobby, entering his bedroom at night, and so on would be questionable behavior.] Things spiral down inexorably to a very moving conclusion. Director Reinhardt isn't able to sustain the tension all the way through, however, and while Duryea's performance is quite good, at times he seems a little too calm considering the feelings his character is going through; he is wonderful in the final quarter, though, when he has to pull out all the stops. Gebert is one of the most talented child actors I've ever seen, and Anderson [Lifeboat], Elliott [Tarantula], and the rest of the supporting cast are all notable. Gritty location filming adds to the film's impact as well.

Verdict: It this had been made in Italy it would probably be considered a classic. ***.

FOXFIRE

Jane Russell, Dan Duryea and Jeff Chandler

FOXFIRE (1955). Director: Joseph Pevney.

A wealthy young woman named Amanda (Jane Russell) gets a lift from a handsome half-Apache mining engineer [who seems to have mixed emotions about his heritage], Jonathan "Dart" Dartland (Jeff Chandler), and the two rapidly fall in love and get married. Amanda must deal with the culture shock of moving out of luxury to a comparative shack in a mining town, and Dart has to deal with jealousy and a certain void in his emotions, as well as some self-esteem issues. The movie doesn't bang you on the head with the characters' problems, which is all the better, and the leads give good performances. Chandler has a limited bag of tricks but he makes them work within the role, and Jane gives a vital, warm and appealingly feminine performance instead of playing it hooker-hard as she often does in other movies. She and Chandler work up a lot of chemistry, which the latter didn't have with all of his leading ladies [such as the unfortunate June Allyson]. Frieda Inescort [The Alligator People] is fine as Russell's high society mother, but Austrian Celia Lovksy is ludicrously miscast as Dart's Native American mother, especially with that thick Viennese accent! Dan Duryea scores as the alcoholic doctor in the mining camp as does Mara Corday as his nurse, Maria, even if it makes no sense that the doc is smitten with Amanda but can't see the even more gorgeous and buxom Maria for dust. "Foxfire" refers to an abandoned Indian mine that Dart suspects has hidden gold in it, and wants to work. When all is said and done, however, Foxfire can't quite rise above its minor melodrama-romance status, despite some unusual and interesting elements. Whether Foxfire is accurate as regards to Native American affairs and attitudes in the fifties is debatable. NOTE: Jeff Chander wrote the lyrics for the title tune (with music by Henry Mancini) and also did the vocal, quite creditably. Nice score by Frank Skinner.

Verdict: Nice technicolor and a solid cast never hurt. **1/2. 

LADY ON A TRAIN

David Bruce and Deanna Durbin

LADY ON A TRAIN (1945). Director: Charles David.

Nikki Collins (Deanna Durbin) is on a train a few minutes from Grand Central Station when she sees a man being murdered from the window. [Agatha Christie used a similar premise -- on an English train, of course -- 12 years later, and did a lot more with it.] Unable to explain the situation with any intelligence to the police due to her "cute" ditsyness, she decides to take her problem to a well-known mystery writer, Wayne Morgan (David Bruce), but his girlfriend (Patricia Morison) objects to her presence. Learning the identity of the murdered man, she attends the reading of his will, and is mistaken for his paramour as in Something in the Wind. [And this takes place at Christmas time as in Durbin's Christmas Holiday.] The actual paramour is Margo Martin (Maria Palmer), a singer at the Circus nightclub, where some of the action  takes place. And so on. This is a fairly dull comedy-mystery, but at least the identity of the murderer may come as a slight surprise. Edward Everett Horton nearly walks off with the picture as an apoplectic employee of Nikki's father; Elizabeth Patterson gives Durbin a good whack in the face at one point when she thinks she's gotten all of the dead man's money; and William Frawley [Fred Mertz] is funny as a desk sergeant who thinks Nikki is nuts. Otherwise, there are only a couple of chuckles in this. Dan Duryea, Ralph Bellamy and Allan Jenkins are also in the cast, and dour George Coulouris seems to be in another movie entirely. Durbin warbles "Silent Night," "Give Me a Little Kiss" [in the nightclub], and "Night and Day" and does a fine job with all of them. Her acting is only so-so, however. Durbin later married the director.

Verdict: Some nice things but it isn't very good all told. **.

THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX

THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX (1965). Producer/director: Robert Aldrich.

"The little men with the slide rules and computers are going to inherit the earth."

This movie gets right into the action, without taking time to even introduce its characters, as a plane develops problems and then crash lands in the desert with veteran pilot Frank Towns (James Stewart) at the helm. However, there's plenty of time to meet the survivors during the rather slow early sections of the film: Towns second-in-command, Lew Moran (Richard Attenborough); by-the-book but admirable Captain Harris (Peter Finch); crazy Cobb (Ernest Borgnine); haughty engineer Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger); and others. During the strangely uninvolving first half of the film you keep hoping that Ursula Andress or Raquel Welch will come parachuting into the scene and all of the men can fight over her, and at least something will happen, but it's not that kind of movie. Instead the film develops an interesting plot line wherein Dorfmann insists that by using the remaining parts of the plane he can build another craft that will take the men out of the Sahara before they die of thirst or starvation. Towns thinks that the plane he'll build won't ever get off the ground. Dorfmann has a rather startling and darkly amusing secret, however. There's a tense sequence involving some Arabs who may or may not be friendly, but the climax when the "phoenix" takes off is surprisingly brief. And there's a lot more that you could quibble about. Stewart seems a bit miscast and out of his element -- although certainly not bad -- as the somewhat defeatist Captain Towns, but Attenborough, Finch, and Kruger are superb, and Dan Duryea, George Kennedy, Ronald Fraser and the others aren't exactly slouches. Like Lifeboat, The White Tower and many other movies Phoenix deals with the cliche of ruthless German efficiency, an aspect that was kind of tiresome, being done to death, by the sixties.   

Verdict: Eventually builds in intensity and interest; some wonderful performances don't hurt. ***.

TOO LATE FOR TEARS aka KILLER BAIT

TOO LATE FOR TEARS (1949/aka Killer Bait). Director: Byron Haskin. 

This picture was re-released under the much more appropriate title Killer Bait. Jane and Alan Palmer (Lizabeth Scott and Arthur Kennedy) are driving to a party when suddenly someone throws a valise full of loot into the back of their convertible. Jane wants to keep quiet and keep the money, while Alan thinks it would be better to turn it into the police. While they decide what to do, Alan puts the money in a baggage check at the train station. Then Danny Fuller (Dan Duryea) comes calling, wanting his money back ... Killer Bait is full of lots of intriguing plot twists, none of which I will give away here. Suffice it to say it's a thoroughly absorbing crime thriller that boasts perhaps Scott's finest and most ferocious performance. Dan Duryea is equally outstanding, and Kennedy gives his usual fine support. The normally dull Don Defore was a surprise as a military friend of Alan's, and Kristine Miller is lovely as Alan's sister, Kathy. While it might have been nice to have this directed by Hitchcock, Haskin does keep things moving at an absorbing pace. Roy Huggin's screenplay, based on his Saturday Evening Post serial, is almost completely unpredictable and full of nice touches and dimensional characters. "Jane Palmer" is a fascinating portrait of a certain type of personality. 

Verdict: Excellent performances, great script, make this one of the best film noirs ever. ***1/2.

CRISS CROSS

CRISS CROSS (1949). Director: Robert Siodmak. 

Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) begins seeing his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne De Carlo) even though she's now married to racketeer Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). When the two are caught in a compromising position, Steve decides the only way out of it is to pretend he was only hoping Anna would help interest her husband in a plan he had for an armored car robbery. So he's stuck ... even though his own father is one of the other drivers. And thus begins this twisted tale, most of which is told in flashback. Duryea and De Carlo come off best, although Lancaster is no slouch. Stephen McNally is effective as a cop-friend of Steve's and Alan Napier makes an impression as a confederate who likes his liquor. Richard Long appears briefly as Thompson's brother, and if you blink you might miss Tony Curtis in a bit as Anna's dance partner. While Criss Cross is hardly a major picture and is generally too perfunctorily-handled to make the most of its situations, it's also unpredictable, absorbing, and has a dramatic conclusion. 

Verdict: Entertaining film noir. ***.

MANHANDLED

MANHANDLED (1949). Director: Lewis R. Foster. 

"I wouldn't dream of depriving you of the opportunity of making a vulgar display of yourself." 

Alton Bennet (Alan Napier), an upper crust type with money problems, sees a psychiatrist (Harold Vermilyea) to tell him of a persistent nightmare he has in which he beats his rather trampy wife (Irene Hervey) to death with a very large perfume bottle. When the woman is murdered during a jewel robbery, the shrink's secretary Merl (Dorothy Lamour) becomes the chief suspect. Sterling Hayden plays Joe Cooper, the insurance investigator assigned to the case, while Art Smith and Irving Bacon are the police officers. Dan Duryea is suitably oily as a supposed friend of Lamour's, and Phillip Reed plays an attractive architect who is Mrs. Bennet's favorite date. Manhandled is no world-beater, but it holds the attention for the most part, has good performances, and some twists up its sleeve that you may not see coming. Napier [Alfred the Butler on Batman] certainly makes an impression as the snooty, oh-so-superior Bennet. Lamour handles this type of material with aplomb. Hervey is also vivid. 

Verdict: More Noir Lite. **1/2.

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (1944) Director: Fritz Lang. NOTE: This review goes into important plot details.

Edward G. Robinson is a married-with-children, middle-aged professor who becomes acquainted with the beautiful model (Joan Bennett) for a painting that he sees in the window of a gallery. At her apartment, he is assaulted by another middle-aged man who has been seeing Bennett, and has to kill him in self-defense in order to keep from being strangled. Fearing publicity and ruination, and sure that no one will believe the truth, Robinson and Bennett try to cover up the crime, with the former dumping the dead man in the woods. Ironically, a friend of Robinson’s winds up investigating the murder, and in an intriguing sequence the "killer" accompanies him to the spot where the body was found. Then a blackmailer (Dan Duryea) shows up and our twosome decide the only way to deal with him is to kill him, perfectly willing to commit murder to cover up an act of self-defense! Woman in the Window holds your attention – Robinson is quite good except for some perfunctory moments – but the movie is strangely flat, uninvolving, and routinely directed by Fritz Lang, who -- despite his reputation in the suspense field -- was never in the league of Hitchcock; Hitch would have milked this for all it was worth. Probably the best scene has Bennett doing a roundelay with the slimy if likable Duryea, who won’t quite drink that glass of poison she’s given him. The "twist" ending is a real groaner. Not a terrible movie, but a terrible disappointment to be sure. The twist pretty much does away with the need to examine the moral implications of the story.

Verdict: Watch it but I warn you you'll groan at the end. **.