Scarlet Street (1945)
Directed by Fritz Lang

Film Review

Scarlet Street is the film that marked the artistic highpoint of director Fritz Lang's career in Hollywood during the 1940s and '50s.   It is also regarded as one of the best and bleakest examples of American film noir, even though it clearly lacks some of the 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 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).   Robinson's 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, 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...