Middle-Aged Man

The Woman in the Window is a 1944 American film noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett, with Raymond Massey, Edmund Breon, and Dan Duryea in supporting roles. It tells the story of a middle-aged psychology professor who kills in self-defense the lover of a young femme fatale he just met while his family is on vacation. The film is based on J. H. Wallis' 1942 novel Once Off Guard. Screenwriter Nunnally Johnson, having written the script for The Grapes of Wrath (1940), was invited by International Pictures to a picture deal, and The Woman in the Window was chosen as its premiere project. The term "film noir" originated as a genre description in part because of The Woman in the Window. In 1970, Joan Bennett said that everybody considered The Woman in the Window her best film.