• Scarlet Street

6/23/23 (Fri)

Fritz Lang’s 1945 film is usually categorized as noir, but that description doesn’t feel quite right. At the opening, the cutely named Chris Cross (Edward G. Robinson), a timid bank cashier and amateur painter, is receiving a celebration for 25 years of faithful service at the bank, which in movie-land means he’s boring. He is envious of his boss, who leaves early to tend to his beautiful mistress, and appears a lonely soul. Upon walking home, he comes across a woman, Kitty Marsh (Joan Bennett), being accosted by a large man (Dan Duryea). He almost accidentally strikes the man down from behind with his umbrella (and immediately cowers in fear of a reprisal). But when he goes for a policeman, the woman is strangely uncooperative – it turns out that the attack was simply a spat with her lover Johnny, who has quickly escaped.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Chris ends up having coffee with her, too naïve to realize that she’s a woman of the night. Disdaining of him at first, Kitty’s attitude changes when she comes to believe that the poor cashier is a rich painter, impressed by his unabashed passion for art (“Every painting, if it’s any good, is a love affair”). Finally finding a welcome ear (“There aren’t many people you can talk to this way. So you keep it to yourself. You walk around with everything bottled up”), he takes her flattery seriously and becomes besotted by her. The self-deception thus unfolds on both sides.

The henpecked Chris’ cold wife never tires of comparing him unfavorably to her late first husband, whose portrait looms over their living room. His yearning for true love makes him an easy mark for Kitty, who is egged on by the greedy Johnny. She manages to wheedle money out of him for her own apartment, unaware that he is stealing money from his wife and bank to finance it. Cross sets up a studio in the apartment, and with his own beautiful blonde mistress and a separate household, thinks innocently he has found happiness. She has introduced the ever-present Johnny as her friend’s lover.

Johnny steals one of Chris’ paintings hoping to sell it, and when it ends up in the hands of a famous art gallery, passes it off as Kitty’s work. Chris discovers by chance that his paintings are being sold as someone else’s work, but far from being angered and never interested in money, he is delighted that the paintings are being recognized, thinking that they would never have been acknowledged under his name. He becomes more enamored of Kitty and wins assurance that she would certainly have married him if he were not already tied down.

When the “dead” husband of Chris’ wife subsequently reemerges very much alive, Chris realizes to his delight that his marriage is now annulled, leaving him free to marry Kitty. When he excitedly reports the news to her, however, she unexpectedly laughs in his face for his naivety and puts him down brutally, calling him old and ugly. Utterly shocked and humiliated, Chris spontaneously murders her with an ice pick before escaping in horror.

As it happens, circumstantial evidence points instead to Johnny, and Chris does nothing to clear the suspicion. Johnny is thus convicted and executed (they worked fast in those days). When the police show up later at Chris’ office, the cashier thinks he has been identified as the true murderer, but is relieved to learn that they have simply uncovered his theft of the money. The boss refuses to prosecute him in recognition of his long years of service but dismisses him from the company. Cross, with no job, money or love, ends up a bum on the streets, haunted in his guilt by the voices of Kitty and Johnny. In a cruel ending, he passes the gallery just as they have sold the portrait he made of Kitty – which the gallery believes is a self-portrait – for a huge sum of money.

A densely plotted film with engaging characters, lots of unexpected twists, and atmospheric filming, highly entertaining. Lang pulls the rug out on us on several occasions; I thought, for instance, that Kitty would eventually take pity on Chris as in most films of this type, especially after her earlier resistance to Johnny’s scheming, but she proves self-centered to the end. The director’s chilling night scenes of the brooding streets seem out of a de Chirico painting. That said, the ending with the ghostly voices was a bit much, though the framing of the final moments was beautiful.

The characters are drawn broadly, and the shrewish wife in particular tips over into caricature. But the main performances can’t be bettered. Robinson’s gentle touch made his character deeply sympathetic, even after the murder upon his betrayal. His confession that he lacked “perspective”, used in relation to his art, was telling. His constantly befuddled look reminded me of Shimura Takashi in Ikiru. His performance was the high point of the film. Bennett was great as the scheming woman, and Duryea played his evil role with relish. Kudos as well to Margaret Lindsay as Kitty’s roommate Millie. (Kitty: “You wouldn’t know love if it hit you in the face.” Millie, observing Johnny’s physical abuse of Kitty: “If that’s where it hits you, you ought to know!” A great riposte for Liliom, which Lang also directed.)

Strongly recommended, especially for Robinson’s performance.