Scarlet Street – 1945 Lang

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

Scarlet Street – 1945 Lang2017-03-20T17:30:40+00:00

Destiny – 1921 Lang

Not his debut (8th film according to IMDB) but my first in the archives for Lang Quite an epic with the story in 3 parts clearly influenced by Griffith’s intolerance (Mideast story line, Spanish story line and Chinese story line) Post great war pesimism "a ravaged town" Early Lang really loves his chapter breaks like the mabuse films- works here really well with the 3 part story Incredible mise-en-scene work- standouts include some of the shots with 10+ large candle and some of the lighting walking up to death’s house on the stairs Early portrayal of death- which of

Destiny – 1921 Lang2017-02-27T16:00:35+00:00

While the City Sleeps – 1956 Lang

George Sanders, Dana Andrews, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price and Ida Lupino are all perfectly cast and do a great job here I really don’t care for Lang’s use of fast forward here on some chase and action sequences- it’s a flaw You can clearly see the cost cutting on the exposition shots- which is, in itself, a little sad when you consider some of the create set design work Lang did in the 1920s mostly- but even still to a lesser extend in the 30’s and 40’s with some Hollywood noir Certainly comparisons can be made here with the narrative

While the City Sleeps – 1956 Lang2017-02-24T20:52:31+00:00

© Copyright 2012 -    |   The Cinema Archives   
All Rights Reserved   

Go to Top