A Window in London (1940)

So much average

A lot of fun.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Witnessing an apparent murder while taking a train to work, bridge builder Michael Redgrave gets involved and finds more than he bargained for with Sally Gray, the apparent victim. It's a strange setup, starting with Redgrave's wife (Patricia Roc) walking out on her job and ignoring important instructions, heading home for time with her husband. The focus then switches to Redgrave, getting a police officer to break in on the apparent murder, only to find that there wasn't one it's egocentric magician Paul Lukas and his own wife (Gray) allegedly rehearsing, but as we soon see, Lukas is jealous, domineering and even a bit maniacal. Redgrave's intrusion into their lives increases and he manages to sneak Gray out of the theater during a performance. Meanwhile, Roc is fired from her job and becomes concerned when her husband does not come home.This is bizarre, not only in structure, but in its general storytelling. There seems to be no real point in the twists and turns, and after a while I began to realize that there was no real reason for the many directions this seems to be going in. What works here are all the little details. The film opens with a shot of the Thames and the many bridges that cross, plus there's also extended location sequences of regular people going about their day. Even a rehearsal between Lukas and Gray goes into detail with his egotistical explosions and proper choreography of how the act is supposed to work. If I learned anything from this, it's to try to stay out of people's business as much as possible. You never realize the messes that can add onto your own. Be warned: the ending is a real downer!

Michael Redgrave is on the train to his job as a crane operator. He sees at a window Paul Lukas killing Sally Gray.It's a great start for a movie, and it was used before. LADY IN DISTRESS is a remake of the French METROPOLITAIN. I'd like to offer you a comparison of the two movies, but I've never seen the earlier film. I do know that Michael Redgrave is miscast as a working stiff who rides around in taxicabs. Sally Gray, on the other hand, impresses me as more than eye candy with a sullen expression for the first time. She's very good as the unwilling femme fatale who drives her husband, stage magician Lukas, crazy with jealousy, talent manager Hartley Power, sad with hopelessness and Redgrave mad with the possibilities of a magical night.There are many early noir elements in this movie, filled, as it is, with Gallic fatalism, and can be viewed as an important step in its evolution. It's just not a film noir in itself.

In the past decade I've watched several British films produced in the lat 1930s - including Climbing High which featured Michael Redgrave - and all were risible despite names like Ralph Richardson and Carol Reed adorning the credits so I wasn't expecting too much when I opted for this but as a great admirer of Michael Redgrave I went along and was presently surprised. It's not, of course, without flaws - Michael Redgrave is arguably the least convincing crane driver in the history of film and how many crane drivers sport a display handkerchief in the breast pocket of a suit and/or frequent West End night clubs, but if we overlook this - plus the fact that Redgrave, having seen what appears to be a murder through the window of 1) a train on which he is passenger and 2) the window of a flat in a large block, is then able to leave the train at the next station and identify not only the anonymous apartment block but also the flat in which the incident took place - we are left with a tasty little thriller, excellently cast with Paul Lukas and Sally Gray as the husband and wife in the window and Patricia Roc as Redgrave's wife. There's a fair amount of location shooting - Redgrave is actually helping construct Waterloo Bridge - and the scenes inside a theatre have a flair and polish sadly lacking in Hitchcock's similar attempts. Albert Prejean and Ginette Leclerc starred in the French original 'Metropolitan' which by all accounts was greatly inferior. I'd definitely buy this on DVD were it available.

In 1938 Paul Lukas and Michael Redgrave crossed swords in the acclaimed "The Lady Vanishes" and here two years on they have another bout with the illusionist Zoltini played by Paul Lukas and Michael Redgrave as Peter from their respective former roles of Dr.Harz and Gilbert.This time Patricia Roc plays Pat, Peter's wife while "hot totty" Sally Gray plays Vivienne married to Zoltini.Other reviewers have discussed the basic plot and no I won't provide a spoiler as there is a kick in the end of the film which is well produced.I wonder how many buildings survived the forthcoming blitz from 1940 onwards as there are some interesting shots of London filmed in 1939 with the tube trains running.I found the screenplay somewhat contrived especially the scene where the tycoon misses his plane to Moscow which crashed because telephonist Pat failed to first warn him about his flight.However this incident gives the producer the excuse to follow the moral cinema code and enabled both Pat and Peter to go to both work together during the day and not continue with their "Cox & Box" sleeping arrangements.Peter had a job keeping his hands off Sally Gray's character and remembering his marriage vows.Offstage, blonde Sally Gray married a lord and lived to be 90 and her husband to 100!Imdb.com rated this film 6.9 when I wrote this review and I rated it 6 as above average.