MovieChat Forums > The Woman in the Window (1944) Discussion > A thought on the ending (spoilers)

A thought on the ending (spoilers)

posted 13 years ago by FlamRatamacues
14 replies | jump to latest

When I first watched this, I was annoyed by the ending. I see from the message board that I was not alone. However, I've given it some more thought. While I'm still not crazy about it, I can appreciate it more in the context of the time period when the film was released.

One thing everyone has failed to mention is that with the censor board at the time, it was required to show anyone who committed a crime as getting caught or somehow having to pay for their crime.

Since they had planned to murder the blackmailer, it was expected that they would have to be caught in some way or another. Even though the blackmailer incurred an unexpected demise, it was still attempted murder, and the film code required that they pay for their crime.

Audiences at the time would have been expecting that kind of ending, and the dream ending solved the censor board problem in a quite unexpected way.

[–] LCShackley 13 years ago

Do you think so? I seem to remember other films where they wrote their way out of the "guilt factor" without having to resort to the cheesy ending of this film.

I was REALLY liking this film up to the last five minutes. My jaw dropped. Am I the only one who thought it was just like the ending of "Wizard of Oz"?

[–] FlamRatamacues 13 years ago

Oh, I'm not saying they couldn't have written their way out of the "guilt factor" in a better way. I'm just saying that they had to write themselves out of it one way or another, and when viewed through that lens, it at least gives it a slight bit more justification (very slight, granted, but it at least gives some partial logic behind it).

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] eliostar1 13 years ago

I feel the same way, ending spoiled an otherwise great film.

[–] mshollyt 13 years ago

I loved the ending. I was totally engrossed throughout the film, and found the ending delightful. It provided great comic relief, after watching a story that kept you pinned to the screen.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] richard-III 13 years ago

But didn't you see him dose off into sleep at the beginning? You could in a way have known what was coming.

Besides, a bad ending for professor Wanley would have been a cruel ending. Because, as the ever moralistic Fritz Lang himself wrote about this movie, "this would have been a defeatist ending, a tragedy for nothing brought about by an implacable Fate."

If I remember well, Lang's screenwriter was against it, but Lang won. To my happiness. A wonderful bad dream - you fall asleep, so you wake up again. Pure logic.

"I don't discriminate between entertainment
and arthouse. A film is a goddam film."

[–] hogwouth 13 years ago

well in Scarlet Street Edward G Robinson's character committed the worst crimes of all and he didn't pay for it by dieing or getting caught.
He did receive a punishment, but I don't see how his character couldn't have received a similar punishment this time round.

Well what use are MY brains if I'm tied up with a dumb clunk like you!

[–] Altho73 13 years ago

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I thought Robinson's character dying as punishment would have been enough for the censors since it was he who actually killed someone and it certainly would have made a better ending.
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It would not have made a better ending and it would not have been allowed by the censor.

In case you didn't know suicide could not be shown on film between 1934 and 1954 because it is a cardinal sin and the strong arm man who enforced film censorship was Joseph Breen who was a fanatical Catholic.

In fact neither Professor Wanley nor the girl had comitted murder, Wanley had killed a man in self defense which was not even a crime.

[–] MsELLERYqueen2 13 years ago

Personally, I thought that the ending worked well in this movie. This "type" of ending doesn't work well in some movies, but it did in this one! :)

Ellery Queen (Jim Hutton) = sexiest man ever!

[–] paul-273-129025 12 years ago

I agree on the ending. It's great right up to the last five minutes. Whichever way you look at it it's a bloody awful ending and spoiled what could have been a great film. I also noticed the Wizard of Oz connection. I can also see similarities to Laura and the painting theme which was from the same year.

[–] gerrywos 12 years ago

just watched it now and i cant believe that tacky awful ending!! "it was all a dream" and the characters are the club employees!! terrible just terrible,up until then it was a great film

[–] jdown-1 12 years ago

Ah yes. You can always spot the IMDB cineastes here. They love a tragic ending more than life itself; will never accept anything but.

[–] gribfritz2 10 years ago

No idea why the tacked on ending is being blamed on the Hays Code. If Wanley commits suicide, he dies. Death IS paying for his crime (until 1951 when the code was changed to say that suicide is somehow escaping justice) so there should have been no problem there. And Alice didn't actually kill anyone, although she tried. My only guess is Alice's complicity and later attempt was the problem with the Breen Office.