Edward G. Robinson as Chris Cross is (was) absolutely wonderful in this part.
And yes, Dan Duryea's character really is a picture-book or cartoon villain. The effect is to heighten the contrast of greedy shallowness and a failure of 'perspective', on the one hand, with the 'true value' of the artist and the paintings, on the other. Chris Cross could have been more valuable (to them, if not generally) if he'd been treated decently and honestly.
Brilliant story. Fritz infuses a little Poe into this noir. The whole movie is a set up for the end which has surprising results. Definitely holds up the infallible rule of melodrama, what comes up must inevitability come crashing down. Edward G. Robinson gives a great performance as a man obsessed with a younger woman and driven to desperate measures by that obsession.
Scarlet Street is Fritz Lang's Hays-Coded Hollywood remake of Renoir's La Chienne, and it comes across as a sanitized version of the story. 14 years of technical advances separate the two films, so Scarlet Street is evidently slicker, has big American actors (thought Edward G. Robinson had too much of an edge to play Legrand/Chris Cross, but my fears were unfounded), and Lang certainly knows how to make the nuts and bolts of the story fit together more seamlessly. In this version, all the motivations are made clear, to the point of being much too on the nose. La Chienne was uglier, nastier, shabbier, more pathetic, and more ambiguous, all of which I miss. The 1945 film made me realize how much of the 1931 original hanged on Janie Marèse's broken Lulu. Joan Bennett is much too headstrong and at one point, seems to want to comfort the audience by claiming Dédé/Johnny would never kill a fly. I don't know how much of the script changes had to do with the censors, nor how I would have felt about it if I hadn't seen La Chienne, but it's only an okay noir that pales in comparison when you can make it.
6/10
A classic on nine official movie top lists. A bit ridiculous at times, you feel sorry for Robinson's character and hate Bennett's nasty scammers. Despite the movie's pretty good length (1:42), I find it several times too slowly lead to climax closer to the end.
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contrafugal
Anyone else just wanna punch Dan Druyea in the face over and over again during this movie?sammysin
Lang can do no wrong.Neville
Edward G. Robinson as Chris Cross is (was) absolutely wonderful in this part.And yes, Dan Duryea's character really is a picture-book or cartoon villain. The effect is to heighten the contrast of greedy shallowness and a failure of 'perspective', on the one hand, with the 'true value' of the artist and the paintings, on the other. Chris Cross could have been more valuable (to them, if not generally) if he'd been treated decently and honestly.
Top noir.
iCheckFilms
Jeepers, I love this movie! :)seithscott
Brilliant story. Fritz infuses a little Poe into this noir. The whole movie is a set up for the end which has surprising results. Definitely holds up the infallible rule of melodrama, what comes up must inevitability come crashing down. Edward G. Robinson gives a great performance as a man obsessed with a younger woman and driven to desperate measures by that obsession.johnnyg
For cat's sake!Siskoid
Scarlet Street is Fritz Lang's Hays-Coded Hollywood remake of Renoir's La Chienne, and it comes across as a sanitized version of the story. 14 years of technical advances separate the two films, so Scarlet Street is evidently slicker, has big American actors (thought Edward G. Robinson had too much of an edge to play Legrand/Chris Cross, but my fears were unfounded), and Lang certainly knows how to make the nuts and bolts of the story fit together more seamlessly. In this version, all the motivations are made clear, to the point of being much too on the nose. La Chienne was uglier, nastier, shabbier, more pathetic, and more ambiguous, all of which I miss. The 1945 film made me realize how much of the 1931 original hanged on Janie Marèse's broken Lulu. Joan Bennett is much too headstrong and at one point, seems to want to comfort the audience by claiming Dédé/Johnny would never kill a fly. I don't know how much of the script changes had to do with the censors, nor how I would have felt about it if I hadn't seen La Chienne, but it's only an okay noir that pales in comparison when you can make it.Emiam
6/10A classic on nine official movie top lists. A bit ridiculous at times, you feel sorry for Robinson's character and hate Bennett's nasty scammers. Despite the movie's pretty good length (1:42), I find it several times too slowly lead to climax closer to the end.
Torgo
Utterly dark.onuryz
Fantastic film. Trio is great indeed!Bin M. Khulayf
One of the most tragically sad Film Noirs. As a big fan of Frits Lang and as a lover of Film Noirs in general, this film is extremely satisfying.jmars
Streaming free:https://vole.wtf/voleflix/~scarlet-street/
Henry K Hurtin
This is an extra-dark noir. I wonder how these kind of movies were received by the audience upon their release.Dieguito
Great Noir!tomjand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNRSxu22NxUShowing items 1 – 15 of 18