best film: Double Indemnity is the best film Robinson was in and he’s integral to the noir masterpiece. In your mind put another actor in place of him for his key scenes with Fred MacMurray— it doesn’t work.
best performance: Scarlet Street blew me away. Robinson’s tragic Christopher Cross (yep, that’s his name) gets to you as a viewer. It also shows Robinson can do more than play the heavy or manipulator/pusher (see his quote below in stylistic innovations/traits). He’s castrated here (the picture of him in the apron) and then a doormat for Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea. It’s noir-influenced 1940’s Fritz Lang and it’s very bleak.
stylistic innovations/traits: Robinson is a stout, powerful actor at 5’7. He was Romanian born and famous for saying “some people have youth, some have beauty–I have menace.” He absolutely was foreboding—playing characters causing harm and striking fear in films from Key Largo to The Ten Commandments. He could do comedy often playing upon his gangster persona/typecasting (Larceny, Inc is one of Woody’s favorite’s and it’s damn good) and certainly he could do crime (like few others). He’s probably, at this point, best known for Little Caesar or The Ten Commandments but it’s his 1940’s decade with Double Indemnity, Key Largo, and the two Fritz Lang collaborations that gets him this high on the list.
directors worked with: Fritz Lang (2), Lloyd Bacon (2) and then once a piece with Leroy, Wilder, Curtiz, Welles, Huston and DeMille
Top 5 Performances:
- Scarlet Street
- Little Caesar
- Key Largo
- Woman in the Window
- Double Indemnity
Archiveable films
| 1931- Little Caesar |
| 1938- A Slight Case of Murder |
| 1941- The Sea Wolf |
| 1942- Larceny, Inc. |
| 1944- Double Indemnity |
| 1944- Woman in the Window |
| 1945- Scarlet Street |
| 1946- The Stranger |
| 1947- The Red House |
| 1948- Key Largo |
| 1956- The Ten Commandments |
| 1964- Robin and The Seven Hoods |
| 1965- The Cincinnati Kid |
Agree on Scarlet Street being a phenomenal performance, seeing him in that apron ha. There are similarities for sure with the Woman in the Window from the year before, same director, Fritz Lang and same 3 primary actors; Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea. But in that film his character may have been somewhat meek but no where close to Scarlet Street. It says a lot regarding his range as he plays a complete push over, you can’t even really call him passive aggressive. I think it’s an under appreciated gem of a film and performance.