It's a crime that this Fritz Lang
melodrama, starring Robinson as a Milquetoast psychology prof
caught up in murder, has taken so long to make its way to
laserdisc. The best scenes of The Woman in the Window are so loaded with expressionist
iconography that they beg for instant replays (which only laser
provides without rewind waits). Mirrors are everywhere,
providing multiple physical and moral perspectives, and a tense,
nighttime dump-the-body sequence twists audience empathy as
deftly as Hitchcock's Psycho. Look out for a set of extratextual
clues: Bits of the film apparently snipped to satisfy censors
have been reinstated, but they're clearly detectable by their
flickering quality.
Originally posted Jan 31, 1997Published in issue #364 Jan 31, 1997Order article reprints
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