Written and directed by Siegfried Breuer, Der Schuß durchs Fenster (US: Shot Through the Window) follows police commissioner Rittner (Breuer) as he investigates a murder at a local chemical factory while also trying to control his rogue detective Jelinek (Gunther Phillip) who refuses to give up the case. Bored of the unexciting, routine cases assigned to him, Jelinek conducts his own exploration of the chemical plant, which leads him to the laboratory of Dr. Winkler (Curd Jürgens), whose secret trial documents have recently been sought by thieves, and to a nightclub called Kakadu where the company’s chauffeur Strinzel (Hans Putz) is romancing the marquee singing act Grit Sorell (Eva Leiter). More murders ensue. While not as dark, hopeless, or morally ambiguous as most noir, Breuer’s film offers an entertaining escape crafted in the style of Langian intrigue (think Dr. Mabuse) that shines light on the criminal incentives of our postwar scientific-industrial complex. Despite a few brief detours into comedic terrain (the quirky Jelinek’s violence in one scene resembles the Three Stooges), the claustrophobic noir atmosphere is beautifully rendered via extensive shadows, headlights gliding on wet cobblestone streets, and stylized camera angles, including deep focus, low angles, and sweaty, distressed closeups. The visual highlight, however, is the Kakadu club, its angles and curves, its baroque railings and caged staircases seemingly an homage to early German expressionists like Murnau, Weine, and, of course, the aforementioned Lang. Also note the film’s unusual opening credits during which a faceless man in a black coat walks the length of a fence with a flashlight, lighting up the painted names of cast and crew as he goes.