Scarlet Street (1945)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Georges de La Fouchardière (novel)
André Mouézy-Éon (novel)

Release Date:

28 December 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery

Tagline:

The GREAT STARS and DIRECTOR of "Woman in the Window"

Plot:

When a man in mid-life crisis befriends a young woman, her venal fiancé persuades her to con him out of some of the fortune she thinks he has.

Plot Keywords:

Painter | Femme Fatale | Beautiful Woman | Street In Title | Attempted Suicide

Cast

Edward G. Robinson	...	Christopher Cross
Joan Bennett	...	Katharine 'Kitty' March
Dan Duryea	...	Johnny Prince
Margaret Lindsay	...	Millie Ray
Jess Barker	...	David Janeway
Rosalind Ivan	...	Adele Cross
Arthur Loft	...	Dellarowe
Charles Kemper	...	Patch-eye Higgins
Russell Hicks	...	J.J. Hogarth
Samuel S. Hinds	...	Charles Pringle
Anita Sharp-Bolster	...	Mrs. Michaels (as Anita Bolster)
Vladimir Sokoloff	...	Pop LeJon
Cy Kendall	...	Nick (as Cyrus W. Kendall)
Tom Dillon	...	Policeman

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (original rating) | Finland:K-16 (re-rating) | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG | West Germany:12 (nf) | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #11276) | Australia:PG

Company:

Fritz Lang Productions

Trivia:

Is the first of two remakes Fritz Lang made of Jean Renoir's films. While "La Chienne" (1931) inspired "Scarlet Street" (1945), "La Bête Humaine" (1938) inspired "Human Desire" (1954). Notoriously, Renoir disliked both.

Goofs:

Continuity: Near the end of the movie, when Chris is in the hotel room with the blinking neon light, the time between when the neon light flashes on changes from shot to shot. It varies anywhere from just under a second to just over 2 seconds, depending on the shot.

Quotes:

Johnny Prince: And then you gave me a dirty look.
Kitty March: I didn't give you a dirty look!
Johnny Prince: Listen, any girl that waits two hours in the rain for a guy is gonna give him a dirty look.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in One of the Hollywood Ten (2000)

Soundtrack:

Melancholy Baby

A defining film of classic Noir

Chris Cross is a bank cashier who has just been given a gold watch by his boss for years of faithful service. Chris has three gifts, which are highly sought and cannot be bought: honesty, integrity and talent. The first two earned him the gold watch but the third is something he keeps to himself. He's a "Sunday" painter who paints from the inside out as a means of escaping his colorless life and loveless marriage. Chris is a man who loves beauty but has none himself, and so he fantasizes about some pretty girl that might see beyond his exterior to the man inside. And so one late rainy night chance places a beautiful damsel in distress in this path, and after saving the girl from the villain, he falls desperately in love and to his amazement, the girl loves him back. But things are not what they seem, and in a short while, Chris will trade in the three gifts he does possess for something he can never have. One of the defining films of Classic Film Noir.