The Woman in the Window may have been my favorite noir movie so far…until the last 2 minutes, which in my opinion, ruined the noir tenor of the movie. Joan Bennett
is the woman in the window…a portrait in the window next door to Edward G. Robinson’s men’s club. (Talk about one sultry femme fatale…although she really isn’t ‘fatale’ in the movie.) After dinner with his friends, the local district attorney and a doctor, Robinson is ruminating over the portrait in front of him when the model, Ms. Bennett appears. They chat, go out for drinks and before you know it, Robinson is back in her apartment. All is innocent but Bennett’s jealous lover, a prominent financier, unexpectedly enters and gets the wrong impression. He gets Robinson in a stranglehold and Robinson, to save himself, stabs and kills him. The rest of the movie is the cover up. Robinson’s friend, Raymond Massey, is the district attorney handling the case, so Robinson gets constant updates. There is suspense galore, dark, shadowy streets and alleyways and all three main characters are so well cast. If there was a way to give you a two minute warning, I would, so you could turn it off at the right time. However, you might as well watch the whole thing because 105 minutes of pleasure is worth the two minutes of pain. By the way, Joan Bennett will give Rita Hayworth a run for the money. And there is just something about Edward G. Robinson, isn’t there.
Now let’s move on to noir movie clunker number 2, after Touch of Evil . It is D.O.A. starring Edmund O’Brien. 
O’Brien, mysteriously decides to take a vacation in San Francisco. He stays at a hotel hosting a sales convention, goes partying with some salesmen, has a few too many and feels sick in the morning, but so sick he sees a doctor. After running tests, it’s determined that O’Brien was poisoned. O’Brien, an accountant in the movie, spends the rest of it trying to determine who poisoned him. From the dialogue to the action, this movie just didn’t make it. The storyline is convoluted. The love interest is uninteresting. And there certainly is no femme fatale. If you’re determined to see a movie entitled D.O.A., I suggest to see the 1988 movie with Randy Quaid. Although the story is different, the poisoning is the same and this one is a lot more suspenseful.
Since I’m halfway through the noir movies mentioned in Dani Noir by Nova Ren Suma, it’s probably time for a recap. As far as femme fatales go, Rita Hayworth is certainly on top, with Joan Bennett a close second. There is no close or even distant third.
Regarding the movies, Gilda still remains on top with Lady from Shanghai and The Third Man battling head to head for second place. The Woman in the Window is trailing only because of the lame ending.
Two Heads Together 