Product Details

• Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea
• Directors: Fritz Lang
• Format: Blu-ray, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: KINO INTERNATIONAL
• DVD Release Date: February 28, 2012
• Run Time: 101 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B006GVNHMA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,460 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

SYNOPSIS: A box-office hit in its day (despite being banned in three states), Scarlet Street is perhaps legendary director Fritz Lang's (Metropolis) finest American film. Kino's immaculate 1080P transfer, from a 35mm Library of Congress vault negative, restores Lang's extravagantly fatalistic vision to its original B&W glory. When middle-aged milquetoast Chris Cross (Edward G. Robinson -- Double Indemnity, Little Caesar) rescues street-walking bad girl Kitty (Joan Bennett -- The Reckless Moment) from the rain slicked gutters of an eerily artificial backlot Greenwich Village, he plunges headlong into a whirlpool of lust, larceny and revenge. As Chris' obsession with the irresistibly vulgar Kitty grows, the meek cashier is seduced, corrupted, humiliated and transformed into an avenging monster before implacable fate and perverse justice triumph in the most satisfyingly downbeat denouement in the history of American film. Both Scarlet Street producer Walter Wanger's wife and director Lang's mistress, Joan Bennett created a femme fatale icon as the unapologetically erotic and ruthless Kitty. Robinson breathes subtle, fragile humanity into Chris Cross while film noir super-heavy Dan Duryea, as Kitty's pimp boyfriend Johnny, skillfully molds ''a vicious and serpentine creature out of a cheap, chiseling tin horn.'' (The New York Times). Packed with hairpin plot twists from screenwriter Dudley Nichols (Stagecoach) and ''bristling with fine directorial touches and expert acting'' (Time), Scarlet Street is a dark gem of film noir and golden age Hollywood filmmaking at its finest.

SPECIAL FEATURES: Audio commentary from David Kalat, author of ''The Strange Case of Dr. Mabuse'', Photo Gallery.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Film Noir Doesn't Get Any Better than This March 18, 2012

By Gerard D. Launay TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Blu-ray

The original story was filmed by the great French director Jean Renoir as "La Chienne" which means "The Bitch." The director was the son of the outstanding impressionist Pierre August Renoir; the son actually sold his father's great art masterworks to subsidize his effort to make films featuring his ambitious wife. In the end, Renoir felt deeply manipulated and divorced her. In Renoir's hands, this is a black comedy. In Fritz Lang's hands, it becomes a tense sexual thriller and the tale of the dark descent of a man who is completely destroyed by his erotic longing for a beautiful woman who never returns his love.

Edward G. Robinson plays a shy, henpecked married man who works as an unimportant bank cashier/clerk. In his spare time, he loves to paint and in fact possesses an original vision in his naive paintings. His wife humiliates him and announces the art is worthless.

The film really begins when the Robinson character believes that he has saved a gorgeous woman from being beaten up by a man in the street. (That man happens to be her pimp). Unable to take his eyes off this woman, he allows his sexual desire for her take complete control. All his normal ethics of honesty are misused in his attempt to raise money.

Let's be fair. A woman as gorgeous as Joan Bennett could demand favors from her admirer, particularly when he is so emotionally vulnerable. Obviously, she just leads him along, takes his paintings, and discovers that there is a hot market for them. But all along, she is really attracted to her pimp, who is handsome in a cheap sort of way, mean spirited, and cunning.

When the truth is discovered, needless to say, things get darker and darker.

Compared to other scratchy and dull versions which have appeared earlier on DVD copies, this Kino Classics Edition is a superb translation of the original film onto the disc. The cinematography of dark and rainy streets and confining apartments creates an exterior landscape that matches Edward G. Robinson's sexually repressed character.

As a cinematic treatment of a man's psychological descent into hell, this is one of the best film noirs that I have ever seen.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic March 2, 2012

By Lukas

Format:Blu-ray

One of my favourite film noir movies and in my opinion easily among the best ever made. If you like noir and have not seen this - you absolutely MUST. Don't waste time thinking about it just DO IT. Delighted to see that this has finally been salvaged from the poor quality disappointing prints making it to DVD over recent years. The Kino BluRay version is like seeing it clearly for the first time. The 1080p transfer is very good indeed - but contrary to what the description says I would not go so far as to call it "immaculate". Some parts of the movie have scratches running down them... now this is no huge deal - but if you are going to do a 1080p digital transfer it would seem little additional work to digitally remove these seeing as it's so easy to do... But despite this I have to give the release 5 stars for the sheer quality of the film itself, the superb acting/directing/lighting/script and the fact that we can at last see it all clearly!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "I've been waiting to laugh in your face ever since I met you. You're old and ugly and I'm sick of you." May 6, 2012

By C. O. DeRiemer TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Blu-ray

When Christopher Cross (Edward G. Robinson), a meek, middle-aged cashier, ran one rainy night to the aid of Kitty March (Joan Bennett) who was being beaten by her boy friend, Johnny Prince (Dan Duryea), he had no idea how his life would be changed. It's probably also fair to say that Robinson, Bennett, Duryea and director Fritz Lang had no idea at the time that they were making one of the great noirs, a movie so good, in fact, that in my view it transcends the noir genre.

Cross is married to a shrew. He does the dishes wearing a frilly apron. He's taken for granted by just about everyone he knows. After 25 years with the bank, he has just been given a gold watch. And he paints. He loves to paint; it's the only thing that gives him happiness. When he meets Kitty and walks her home, he sees a beautiful young woman who is friendly. He arranges to meet her again. One afternoon he tells her about his love of painting. "Nobody ever taught me how to draw," he says. "I just put a line around what I feel when I look at things. It's like falling in love, I guess." Kitty looks at him sympathetically. When he looks down at his plate, though, she can't keep a little twist of amusement from her lips. He doesn't know that in him she sees a middle-aged figure of pathetic fun. She and Johnny begin to take Chris for every penny he can make or steal. When Johnny sells his paintings and the paintings become famous, Kitty takes the credit and Johnny takes the money. Johnny may beat up Kitty but she loves him. Cross finally realizes not just how he has been used by the pair, but how Kitty has held him in contempt as a little man whose feelings are laughable. One night she screams at him, "How can a man be so dumb? I've been waiting to laugh in your face ever since I met you. You're old and ugly and I'm sick of you." The ending is violent. Kitty and Johnny both pay a price. And Chris...his ending is sad, poignant and will last as long as he lives.

Of all the movies Lang made in Hollywood, this is the one where, I think, all the components came together in a completely satisfying way. Partly, this is because of the story and the script. The tale isn't just about a meek man's descent, it also is about three individuals using each other in a strange mixture of love, contempt and amoral selfishness. It also often is wry and jaundiced. When Kitty uses Chris' words almost verbatim to describe to an art critic how she feels about painting, "like falling in love, I guess," we know she could not care less about art and is, in fact, amused by her own clever use of Chris' feelings. The effect is funny in a sick sort of way.

Most importantly, I think, is that Lang was blessed by having all first-class lead actors. Duryea made a career out of playing sleaze, but he was never better than here. Joan Bennett, in my view, is one of Hollywood's underrated actors, probably because she was so good-looking. Compare her performance here with her performance as Wendy Van Kettering, smart, lovely, sympathetic in Vogues of 1938 and with the warm, understanding mother of the bride, Ellie Banks, in Father of the Bride. Here, Bennett convinces us that Kitty is captured by Johnny and his rough love, that Kitty hasn't a moral bone in her body, that Kitty is happy to be a slob, shallow and sexy. Kitty says "Jeepers" when she wants to emphasize something. She eats grapes and spits the pits on the rug. She tosses a cigarette end onto the dirty dishes that fill the sink. She has great legs and a lazy drawl. As for Edward G. Robinson, he is the heart of the movie. His meekness draws our sympathy as well our impatience. When he finally becomes violent it is startling and satisfying. The end of the movie may be sad, but it also is ironic and strong. Chris loved Kitty, and he'll be forever hearing in his mind, "Jeepers, I love you, Johnny."