The Woman in the Window is prime film noir, one of two back-to-back mid-1940s films in which Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea form an unholy alliance under the direction of Fritz Lang. Newly remastered in high definition, the Kino Lorber Blu-ray is superb in every detail.

The Woman in the Window was released in late 1944 at the same time as Edward Dmytyrk’s Murder, My Sweet and Otto Preminger’s Laura, on the heels of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity at the beginning of the crime drama craze that became known as film noir when the term was later coined by French critics. Although each of these films is unique in its story line and presentation, The Woman in the Window bears an uncanny similarity to Laura in that both films feature an iconic scene in which the male lead (Robinson here, Dana Andrews in Laura) is mesmerized by the portrait of the film’s leading lady (Bennett here, Gene Tierney in Laura). In the case of The Woman in the Window, Bennett’s portrait in a store window is so life-like that when the woman herself appears next to Robinson in a reflection in the window, for a moment you don’t know what you’re seeing. It only gets more intriguing from there.

Raymond Massey and Edmund Breon co-star in this tale of blackmail, deceit, and murder. Lang’s Scarlet Street reuniting Robinson, Bennett, and Duryea in a remake of Jean Renoir’s La Chienne (The Bitch) followed in 1945.

Kino Lorber has also released a stunning new Blu-ray of a lesser known film noir, John H. Auer’s 1948 film I, Jane Doe.

I, Jane Doe is also a war and immigration drama and a tearjerker to boot. The film might be better known if it had starred, say, Olivia de Havilland and Jane Wyman who were busy filming The Snake Pit and Johnny Belinda respectively. Instead, the Republic film starred Ruth Hussey (The Philadelphia Story, The Uninvited) and Vera Ralston, the former Czech ice-skating champion who would eventually marry Republic studio head Herbert J. Yates.

The film opens with Ralston murdering Hussey’s husband, John Carroll (Only Angels Have Wings) and being convicted of first degree murder because she won’t defend herself. Hussey, a former lawyer, comes out of retirement to defend Ralston in a re-trial in which the woman is revealed to have also been married to Carroll. John Howard, Gene Lockhart, and Benay Venuta co-star in the film that provides one startling surprise after another before coming to a most satisfactory conclusion.

Ten years after Vincente Minnelli’s expose of mid-20th Century Hollywood, The Bad and the Beautiful, won five out of the six 1952 Oscars it was nominated for, Minnelli took another bite at the hand that fed him with Two Weeks in Another Town centered around a film in production at Cinecittà in Rome.

Kirk Douglas, who had been the only The Bad and the Beautiful Oscar nominee who didn’t win for his portrayal of the ruthless producer in The Bad and the Beautiful, is back. This time playing a washed-up actor given a second chance by director Edward G. Robinson after spending three years in a mental institution in Two Weeks in Another Town. When Robinson suffers a heart attack, Douglas takes his place and brings in the film on time with two days to spare only to suffer Robinson’s enmity anyhow.

Minnelli was a master of the Cinemascope lens and Two Weeks in Another Town looks great, especially in Warner Archive’s new Blu-ray. If only the script were up to the look of the film. It isn’t. Instead of a coherent screenplay, we get a lot of yelling and screaming, slapping and kicking. Douglas and Robinson do what they can with what they’re given, but the film’s best performance comes from Claire Trevor as Robinson’s shrewish wife. Her scenes with Robinson recall her Oscar-winning work opposite Robinson in John Huston’s superior 1948 film Key Largo. Less effective are George Hamilton as a rising star and Cyd Charisse as Douglas’ promiscuous wife. Palestinian actress Daliah Lavi looks lovely, but that’s about it, as Douglas’ latest squeeze. Italian actress Roseanna Schiaffino is over-the-top as a temperamental star. James Gregory and George Macready do better in smaller roles as a reporter and agent, respectively.

What is distressing about the Blu-ray release of Two Weeks in Another Town is that it comes before the still unannounced Blu-ray release of The Bad and the Beautiful and other dramatic Minnelli films. Minnelli is well represented on Blu-ray with his classic MGM musicals Meet Me in St. Louis, An American in Paris, The Band Wagon, Brigadoon, Kismet, Gigi, and Bells Are Ringing, but his only dramatic film other than Two Weeks in Another Town to be released in the format is Lust for Life in which Kirk Douglas played Vincent Van Gogh. Missing, along with The Bad and the Beautiful, are such films as Tea and Sympathy, Some Came Running, and Home from the Hill.

Warner Archive has also just released Minnelli’s 1957 comedy Designing Woman with Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall in a minor comedy that might have starred Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn if they hadn’t been busy filming the superior comedy The Desk Set at the time. Minnelli’s better 1950 comedy, Father of the Bride, starring Tracy, Joan Bennett, and Elizabeth Taylor, was previously released on Blu-ray by Warner Archive.

Now that Warner Archive has released Designing Woman on Blu-ray, can The Reluctant Debutante and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father be far behind and will they be released before the more deserving Tea and Sympathy and Home from the Hill?

Kino Lorber has released a Blu-ray upgrade of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, the 1975 film version of the 1968 off-Broadway phenomenon that originally starred Elly Stone, Mort Shuman, and Shawn Elliott singing Brel’s story-songs straight to the audience. It transferred to Broadway at the end of its run in 1972 with Joe Masiell replacing Elliott. Stone, Shuman, and Masiell star in the film version with Elliott joining them on one song.

The difference between the stage version and the film version is that on film all the songs are delivered in lavish production numbers, some of which work, some of which don’t, but all of which are fascinating. Brel joins the cast to sing one of his songs. The 26 songs, of course, include “If We Only Love,” “Amsterdam,” “Marieke,” and “Carousel”.

This week’s new releases include the Blu-ray releases of The Curse of the Cat People and The Virgin Spring.