Scarlet Street (1945)
Directed by Fritz Lang

Film Review

Whilst it tends to be overshadowed by some of its director's better known films of its time, Scarlet Street represents one of the early artistic highpoints of director Fritz Lang during his highly productive time in Hollywood during the 1940s and '50s.   There is no question that it should be considered one of the best and bleakest examples of American film noir - certainly on a par with Lang's subsequent great noir offerings The Big Heat (1953), The Blue Gardenia (1953),  Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) - even though it is obviously lacking in some of the more obvious film noir motifs.  Based on a novel by Georges de La Fouchardière, the film is effectively a remake of an earlier French film, La Chienne (1931), which was directed by Jean Renoir and starred Michel Simon.

Not only is Scarlet Street extremely well directed and shot with consummate skill, it also boasts some of the best performances of any classic American film noir.   The film's three lead actors - Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea - work together remarkably well, having appeared together in an earlier Fritz Lang film, The Woman in the Window (1944).  Robinson is a perfect casting choice - he had a knack of portraying ordinary characters truthfully and without overplaying the pathos, but he was also just as adept at playing evil (something he originally put to good use in his early gangster roles, in films such as Little Caesar).   Robinson's deceptive air of childlike innocence is effectively contrasted with the cruel venality of Joan Bennett's femme fatale.  Watching the scheming Bennett manipulate Robinson is like watching a cat toying with a mouse, just before the coup de grâce is applied.

Fritz Lang's origins in German expressionist cinema are apparent in the way he develops film noir technique in his films.  Whilst Lang never returned to the true, highly stylised expressionism of his early silent films (Dr Mabuse, der Spieler (1922), Spione (1928), M (1931)), he retained a penchant for harsh lighting, unusual camera angles and shadow play.  This can be seen most readily in the final sequences of Scarlet Street, where the familiar expressionistic devices allow Lang to achieve economy on both narrative and set design whilst heightening dramatic impact.  There could hardly be a more effective way of showing the central character's descent into Hell than to have the shadows engulf him and drag him towards his tragic destiny, making this an ingenious and brutal reinterpretation of the famous Faust legend, in which a man sells his soul to possess the one thing he can never have - love.

Film Synopsis

Mild-mannered store cashier Chris Cross relieves his humdrum life by painting in his spare time, which is just one of the things that irks his shrewish wife.   One night, after attending a dinner in his honour, Chris comes to the aid of a young woman who is apparently being attacked by a man.  The woman, Kitty March, accepts Chris's offer of a nightcap.  As they talk, both lie about themselves: Kitty, a prostitute, says she is an actress; Chris admits to being a successful painter.   Realising the impression she has made on Chris, Kitty decides to extort money from him.  Encouraged by Johnny, her loutish boyfriend-pimp, Kitty persuades Chris to give her money to rent an apartment where they can meet.  To raise the money, Chris has no choice but to steal from his employers...