A WINDOW IN LONDON
UK, 1940, 72 minutes, Black and white.
Michael Redgrave, Sally Gray, Paul Lukas, Hartley Power, Patricia Roc.
Directed by Herbert Mason.
A distinctive title which was changed to Lady in Distress, much less distinctive.
The film is set in the London in 1939, suburban life, details of London life, the Underground, building sites, clubs, theatre. It was released after war broke out.
A man on his way to work on building site, Peter, Michael Redgrave, sees what looks like a murder in the window of a block of flats. He alerts the police, goes to the flat, finds that it was a rehearsal for a performance although the artist, Zoltini, Paul Lukas, suggests that it was a suicide pact with his wife, Vivienne, Sally Gray.
Peter works a day shift. His wife, Pat, Patricia Roc, works nightshift at a hotel phone exchange. Peter goes back to see Vivienne and she invites him to the night’s performance. It seems he has rather a roving eye. Zoltini is always angry with theatre management, takes it out on Vivienne, who has been offered a contract by an entrepreneur. Peter helps her escape and Zoltini’s final act is a failure.
There is quite a lot of melodrama in Peter taking Vivienne to the building site, she taking him to the club, he drinking and singing, Zoltini tracking them down and a fight on the building site where Peter thinks he has killed Zoltini.
Just when everything seems to have a perfect ending, Vivienne returning to Zoltini, Pat getting a day job, there is a nice twist when Zoltini manifests his jealousy once again and shoots Vivienne, Peter and Pat going by in the underground with him explaining the window in question.
1. A British melodrama, murder, police, theatre, jealousies, fights and murder?
2. The black-and-white photography, the scenes of London, the streets, the Underground, the building site, the theatre and backstage? Musical score?
3. The titles?
4. The introduction to Pat, asleep at the exchange, the pressure on the women, their gossip, Pat going home, Peter getting up, his day job? Her wanting a day job – and the irony of waking up the businessman, his missing his plane, and his being grateful to because the plane crashed? Organising a day job?
5. Peter, the train, the scene at the window, his alarm, the police, going to the doors, the couple, the explanations? His having the knife as a souvenir – and the irony of his fellow workers and it being a theatrical knife?
6. His return, Vivienne’s story, Zoltini’s moods, European arrogance, his fights with management? The irony of Peter being interviewed or the paper, Max arranging for Zoltini and Vivienne to make a comeback? Vivienne inviting him to the theatre?
7. The theatre, Zoltini’s arrogance, still fighting, his performance, Vivienne leaving with Peter, going to the building site, seen by the worker? Leaving her purse behind, Peter having to return? Zoltini and the information about the taxi, going to the site, the fight, his falling into the water, Peter presuming him dead?
8. Vivienne, Peter’s infatuation, Max’s interest in her, her going back to Zoltini, his happiness, looking in her bag, seeing the cruise ticket, his shooting her? And the irony of Peter and Pat going past on the train and his explaining the situation as Vivienne lay dead in the window?
