Scarlet Street
Cashier and part-time starving artist Christopher Cross is absolutely smitten with the beautiful Kitty March. Kitty plays along, but she's really only interested in Johnny, a two-bit crook. When Kitty and Johnny find out that art dealers are interested in Chris's work, they con him into letting Kitty take credit for the paintings. Cross allows it because he is in love with Kitty, but his love will only let her get away with so much.
From the archive
German director Fritz Lang is best known for the highly influential films from relatively early in his career, especially Metropolis (1927) and M (1931). But he also had a brief Hollywood heyday during the mid 1940s, when he made some of his best films. Scarlet Street has been claimed by film noir. This attribution is understandable. The lighting is dark, with heavy use of shadows. The characters are all shady as well. Kitty is certainly a femme fatale, although hints are dropped that she is an inherently decent person who has become completely corrupted by Johnny. Being the most naive, Robinson is also the most sympathetic. But even he eventually turns to crime to fulfill his passions. But while Scarlet Street has elements of film noir, it is in reality a black comedy. While Robinson plays it straight throughout, Bennett and Duryea camp it up marvelously. Bennett laughs when Robinson claims to be a painter: "And here I had you pegged as a cashier!" She also has to suppress laughter when Robinson reveals that he is married, and shock when Duryea passes her off as the mysterious painter.
Why this is free to watch
Scarlet Street (1945) is hosted by the Internet Archive as a public-domain or openly licensed work, which means its copyright has expired, lapsed, or was released by the rights holder. The uploader declared an explicit licence, linked in the source panel. Nitrate streams the file directly from the Archive and hosts no video itself.
- Director
- Fritz Lang
- Starring
- Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea, Margaret Lindsay, Jess Barker, Rosalind Ivan, Charles Kemper, Anita Sharp-Bolster
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