Movies - Scarlet Street

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	Movies - Scarlet Street

Scarlet Street is an American film noir from 1945. It is a remake of the 1931 film La Chienne
(The Bitch) directed by Jean Renoir. Scarlet Street is an early classic non-detective noir directed by Fritz Lang. Criss Cross, a mild-mannered banker and part-time painter (Edward G. Robinson) goes unpunished and unsuspected of the murder of an amoral femme fatale (played by Joan Bennett). This all happens after she and slippery Slim (Dan Duryea) lead Cross to commit embezzlement and eventually more and more crimes. Robinson, Duryea and Bennett also appeared together in another Fritz Lang directed noir, The Woman in the Window
. After the success of that movie the three were re-teamed for Scarlet Street.

Critical reaction

The film today is considered a classic by most critics. Empire Magazine online gives the film a positive review:

"Rarely has a noir victim fallen under a fatale's spell so willingly or broken free with such merciless violence. Played with consummate skill by Edward G. Robinson, Cross is initially made to seem an amiable sap. But gradually, Lang's contempt for his impotence emerges and there's no pity whatever in his decline and fall after he allows Johnny to take the rap for Kitty's ice-pick demise."

Trivia

Stills for a few cut scenes from the movie still exist. The most intriguing of these includes a scene where Chris Cross, after deceiving authorities into arresting and convicting Johnny for the crime of killing Kitty - the murder he committed- Cross climbs a power pole outside Sing Sing to watch and cheer on the execution.

Featured cast

Quote

"I wanted to laugh in your face ever since the moment I met you. You're old, ugly and I'm sick of you. Sick, sick, sick!" Kitty March

Re-release

The public domain film has been shown on television and released on video for years. Unfortunately, only poor copies with very weak audio and scratchy video have been available. Fall 2005, a DVD was released featuring a newly mastered copy of the film from the Library of Congress film archives.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Scarlet Street ]

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