Enourmously overlooked film and I can’t tell why- it’s a remake of Renoir’s La Chienne (he notoriously hated the film) and an early noir (b-pictures to some) so perhaps those two factors are why
Banned in a few cities
Reunites 3 principals from women in the window the year before
Might be Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea’s best and probably pretty close for Edward G. Robinson as well- he’s superb
It’s a magnificent masculinity study (reminded me of blue angel from von Sternberg)- Edward G. is verbally castrated, made to wear an apron – he does the dishes like 3-4 times in a short film here
It really shows Edward g’s range—he was little caesar in 1930 and then can turn around and be the softest of the soft here
Dark and painful to watch- so degrading
Streetlamp lighting is certainly a reoccurring visual- as are the window shots
The voices Edward G hears towards the end of the film are powerful- but it’s not really built up enough- that might be keeping this from a masterpiece
I recently did a mini study on Robert Siodmak focusing only on his noirs, I think the same could be done for Fritz Lang showing that he basically had 2 amazing careers. My favorite of his American films is The Big Heat (1953), itself a combination of noir and gangster film elements, which I consider a Masterpiece, but Scarlet Street is not far off.
Woman in the Window (1944) is a great noir itself, but Scarlet Street reaches an entirely different level with the same lead cast of Edward G Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea. This film is as bleak as you can get and can be viewed as a mediation on jealously, unrequited love, artistic theft, and morality. It fits into Lang’s larger world view in which good or otherwise decent people are swallowed by an unforgivingly evil world, or at the very least indifferent to human suffering and pain.
Edward G Robinson in the apron is an image hard to forget, good for him, he has incredible range convincingly playing gangsters in those early mob movies and then turning around and playing this ultra-passive doormat of a character.
The scene where Joan Bennett’s “Kitty” finally reveals her true feelings of revolution and contempt for Chris is one of the coldest, meanest take downs you will ever see given everything that comes before it, from the perspective of Chris he was of the belief that she truly cared for and respected him, nothing justifies violence, but his anger and shock is understandable. That he uses an ice pick as the murder weapon seems symbolically appropriate.
Window shots serve as an effective motif as we are aware of the various levels of deception going on throughout the film. Arguably the most devastating shot of the film from the perspective of Chris takes place when he sees Kitty and Johnny passionately kissing
My only complaint is that this should have finished about 10 minutes earlier, as the final stretch occurring several years after Johnny is convicted and executed by the state, feels more of an epilogue. The voices of Kitty and Johnny in Chris’s head are for him a fate worse than death.
[…] Scarlet Street – Lang […]
I wonder if Renoir thought Lang name-dropping Cézanne in the first 10 minutes instead of his father was a jab at him.
Scarlet Street (1945) Fritz Lang
I recently did a mini study on Robert Siodmak focusing only on his noirs, I think the same could be done for Fritz Lang showing that he basically had 2 amazing careers. My favorite of his American films is The Big Heat (1953), itself a combination of noir and gangster film elements, which I consider a Masterpiece, but Scarlet Street is not far off.
Woman in the Window (1944) is a great noir itself, but Scarlet Street reaches an entirely different level with the same lead cast of Edward G Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea. This film is as bleak as you can get and can be viewed as a mediation on jealously, unrequited love, artistic theft, and morality. It fits into Lang’s larger world view in which good or otherwise decent people are swallowed by an unforgivingly evil world, or at the very least indifferent to human suffering and pain.
Edward G Robinson in the apron is an image hard to forget, good for him, he has incredible range convincingly playing gangsters in those early mob movies and then turning around and playing this ultra-passive doormat of a character.
The scene where Joan Bennett’s “Kitty” finally reveals her true feelings of revolution and contempt for Chris is one of the coldest, meanest take downs you will ever see given everything that comes before it, from the perspective of Chris he was of the belief that she truly cared for and respected him, nothing justifies violence, but his anger and shock is understandable. That he uses an ice pick as the murder weapon seems symbolically appropriate.
Window shots serve as an effective motif as we are aware of the various levels of deception going on throughout the film. Arguably the most devastating shot of the film from the perspective of Chris takes place when he sees Kitty and Johnny passionately kissing
My only complaint is that this should have finished about 10 minutes earlier, as the final stretch occurring several years after Johnny is convicted and executed by the state, feels more of an epilogue. The voices of Kitty and Johnny in Chris’s head are for him a fate worse than death.
Verdict: MS/MP
@James – I think both this and The Big Heat are masterpieces.
@Harry – great to hear, The Big Heat is a pretty much perfect film. Will definitely need a full on Lang Study in the future