Scarlet Street (1945)
Director - Fritz Lang
The Plot
It all starts with a dinner honoring a bank cashier for his long years of steady service. Soon enough the streets are filled with rain and shadows. On his way home Chris Cross (Edward G. Robinson) saves a damsel in distress. Except she wasn't really in distress; it was her boy friend doing his usual.
Soon the banker has Kitty March (Joan Bennett) convinced he is a famous artist; meanwhile, her seducing requests for money lead him on a path to steal from his harpy of a wife and his trusting employer. But then the plot twists and turns, and then turns again, as Chris' paintings are noticed by an art critic, Kitty claims them as her own, and a body rises seemingly from the dead. And soon it's champagne and ice picks for all.
Film Notes
Other Voices, Other Selves
"Nobody gets away with murder... We all have a little court room inside us... We punish ourselves... Judge, Jury and Execution." So says a hard-boiled crime reporter riding the train to an execution. But there are other voices.
"Jeepers, Johnny I love you." It's the voice of Kitty's ghost in Chris Cross' head over and over again as the neon lights flash in his hotel room, as the street lights cast more darkness than light as he walks the city streets, and as the moon glows ominously while he lies on a park bench, the snow and cold closing in on him.
But all this occurs only after the great director Fritz Lang explores the awakening of a sad middle-aged man who finds love, happiness and artistic success for the first time in his life, before violently murdering his own illusions.
Touch of Lang
Watch for the "Touch of Lang" in the trial of Johnny Prince (Dan Duryea). It's a classic sequence of German Expressionism meeting American Film Noir.
-- Ed Schneider
Cast & Production Credits
| Edward G. Robinson | Christopher Cross |
| Joan Bennett | Kitty March |
| Dan Duryea | Johnny Prince |
| Margaret Lindsay | Millie Ray |
| Rosalind Ivan | Adele Cross |
| Jess Barker | Janeway |
| Samuel S. Hinds | Charles Pringle |
| Arthur Loft | Dellarowe |
| Vladimir Sokoloff | Pop LeJon |
| George Meader | Holliday |
| Universal Studios | |
| Fritz Lang | Director |
| Walter Wanger | Producer |
| Georges de la Fouchardiere | Play Author |
| André Mouezy-Eon | Book Author |
| Dudley Nichols | Screenwriter |
| Milton Krasner | Cinematographer |
| Hans Salter | Composer (Music Score) |
| Arthur D. Hilton | Editor |
| Alexander Golitzen | Art Director |
| John B. Goodman | Art Director |
| Russell A. Gausman | Set Designer |
| Carl Lawrence | Set Designer |
| Travis Banton | Costume Designer |
