Edward G is a murder professor, and while his family vacations without him, he’s invited out by titular woman Joan Bennett who likes how he gazed at her painting, then he kills her ex-bf in self-defense when the guy barges in. Having studied murders extensively, Ed knows to go home for his car then return to hide the body. The girl doesn’t know his name and he plans to disappear from her life, but his huge face gets published in the newspaper due to a job promotion, then she looks him up, followed by the dead guy’s blackmailer buddy Dan Duryea, completing the Scarlet Street cast.
L-R: woman, window
The recent Amy Adams movie with the same title is a trauma-remake of Rear Window, not of this – and studying crimes while covering up having committed crimes makes this the original Juror #2. Some sweet camera moves, the movie works when Joan is around and it dies when all the men get together. It has a decent doom-ending (she fucks up taking care of Duryea but he’s killed in a police shootout outside, and she calls the professor with the good news too late as he overdoses on meds) then blows it with a cornball it-was-all-a-dream second ending.
the fatal glass of beer?