Scarlet Street

Edward G. Robinson's magnetic screen presence and totally believable acting dominates this Universal Pictures thriller, even though he is playing the timid, weak, manipulated cashier.

After a large success with The Woman in The Window, stars Robinson, Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea were again teamed with director Fritz Lang. The result was a thriller just as good, with a similar plot, but a much better ending. Where The Woman in The Window had a copout ending - Robinson wakes up to discover it was all a dream - Scarlet Street pulls no punches, and delivers a powerful finale.

Robinson plays mild, quietspoken underling Christopher Cross, a failed artist now henpecked into submissiveness by wife Rosalind Ivan. Walking home slightly tipsy after midnight, he comes to the aid of Kitty 'Lazy Legs' March, another bad-girl role for Joan Bennett. Hypnotised by this coquette Cross pursues Kitty, who is herself under the command of her attacker, Johnny Prince (Dan Duryea). A misunderstanding leads Kitty to believe that Cross's paintings are valuable, and Johnny goads her into leading him on for money. Spellbound, Cross foolishly takes to crime and embezzlement to pay Kitty, starting him on the path to bigger crimes.

Fritz Lang, director of classics such as Metropolis and Manhunt, uses his considerable skill to make a sharp, unquiet atmosphere, aided by the haunting strains of Melancholy Baby, with special tension in the scenes where Bennett and Duryea are carrying something like Harry Slobs, only more glamorous. Maybe the plot isn't so original, but the presentation certainly different.

Review by Martin Hunt
Taken from EUFS Programme 1993-94