Review of The Woman in the Window

Overrated film-noir from revered director Fritz Lang, an adaptation by Nunnally Johnson from J.H. Wallis' book "Once Off Guard", has Edward G. Robinson playing a college professor and family man who becomes involved in a murder, desperately hoping to cover his tracks before the police close in. The cop-out ending aside, Johnson's screenplay is full of holes, silly characters and theatrics. The campus atmosphere should have been something we could relate to, but it doesn't resemble American academia at all, more like Hollywood, U.S.A. A real let-down, though Milton Krasner's cinematography isn't to blame. Lang's direction is weak, and Robinson is woefully miscast. Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea are not much better in smaller roles. *1/2 from ****