Customer Reviews

Scarlet Street

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4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Kino has promised a nice transfer of Fritz Lang's Scarlet Street (from an archived print - one not used by anyone else for a DVD release). That is excellent news for fans of Film Noir. This is a very good to excellent movie (depending on your tastes), and it deserves much better than the shoddy treatment it has received on virtually all the other DVD releases of this title to date. The cast is excellent, and features Edward G. Robinson, Dan Duryea, and Joan Bennett.

If you are considering buying Scarlet Street, then the Kino version is the only one to buy.

(Update: The image on the Kino DVD is amazingly sharp when compared to the other versions currently available, but there is one minor issue with the Kino release; there are some instances of "combing," (visible scan lines or "ghosting"), in the picture. To the untrained eye it isn't very noticeable, if at all. There is no question that this, even with the minor combing issue, is still BY FAR the best release of this title ever on DVD. If you are going to buy Scarlet Street, definitely buy the Kino version.)

Poor Edward G. Robinson. That is to say, poor Christopher Cross, the character Robinson plays in SCARLET STREET (presumably no relation to the 80's pop "star" of the same name, although that would explain a lot). Chris is trapped in a loveless marriage to a woman who looks like Edith Bunker and acts like Archie. He's a middle-aged bank-cashier who has gone through life having never truly been loved nor having loved anyone himself. The one enjoyable thing he has in his life is his art, his paintings - which his totalitarian wife has banished to the bathroom, as she hates the smell of his paints. So, when this poor, downtrodden, lonely man happens upon a young and beautiful woman, it's easy to see how he could be utterly manipulated by her.

At first, I thought I was going to be bored by this film. It takes its time setting up the scenario and the various characters. But once the plot gets cooking, I was completely engrossed. I love a film that surprises me, and I simply could not guess where this story was going. As one nears the end, surprise revelations and unexpected bombshells come exploding out like fireworks. And every revelation was logical and consistent, but startling. I made several mental predictions, and after I started getting all of them wrong, I just sat back and let the film overtake me.

Fritz Lang's direction makes this a darker film than even the screenplay probably anticipated. There are several scenes that are still unsettling today. The more experimental sequences near the end are quite haunting. It's certainly not a feel-good movie; the only characters that aren't out and out despicable are merely pathetic. I won't give away the ending, but it's enough to say that there is no "...and they all lived happily ever after". People get what they deserve, and in SCARLET STREET, they deserve a hell of a lot of it.

The acting is quite good across the board, with a few notables. Edward G. Robinson is, of course, great. If that man ever gave a poor performance, then I have yet to see it. Here, he is playing against type -- an apron-wearing, totally dominated, shell of a man. He conveys a genuinely sad loneliness by his mere expressions as his confidence crumbles at every indignity and the way he desolately clings to any scrap of love he can find. You'd completely forget this was the man who played tough gangster Johnny Rocco in KEY LARGO. Dan Duryea is possibly laying it on a little thick as the sleazy, scheming boyfriend, but that sort of thing is what the role calls for. Joan Bennett rounds out the cast as Kitty March, the woman who lets Cross fall in love with her, and then takes him for as much cash as she can.

The DVD released by Alpha Video has some flaws. However, since it is the only one on the market at the moment, we're stuck with it. The picture is decent, but not what I would call great. There are a numerous scratches and the image is a little fuzzy. On one or two occasions, the movie skips a few seconds ahead. The sound quality I would describe as adequate, but muffled. A few times, I had to rewind because I couldn't hear what the actors were saying. It's not a wholly awful disc, but I wouldn't get your hopes up as to its overall quality. Perhaps a better print of this film will show up on DVD; until then, we'll have this. And this is quite a cheap disc, so it does have that advantage.

Greenwich Village, that is, which we learn was home to "hop-heads" and "long-hairs" in 1945 (!) Fritz Lang's masterpiece tells the story of a middle-aged bank clerk (Edward G. Robinson, dependably brilliant) who escapes the dreariness of his job and his marriage to a harpy by spending his Sundays indulging his only hobby: painting. His life gets considerably more exciting when he runs across Joan Bennett, a con-artist and tramp who -- with the help of her pimp, the always-amusing Dan Duryea -- proceeds to slowly drain his financial wherewithal. Of course, the greatest irony is that Robinson has conned the con-artists: they think he's a wealthy artist because, in his attempt to impress Bennett, he neglected to mention that he's a just a lowly bank cashier. The movie shows us a dizzying amount of untruths, scams, cons, misperceptions . . . nothing is what it seems. Truth is relative, baby. While Lang has a lot of fun with all the illusions, he also dedicates himself to the principle that no good -- or bad -- deed goes unpunished, and that great noir principle, the inescapability from Fate, starts weighing more and more heavily on our characters as they perambulate through their sundry fictions and cons. -- For the sake of historical interest, it should be noted that *Scarlet Street* is an American remake of Jean Renoir's excellent *La Chienne*. (This story was based on a French novel; hence the concern with painting. Needless to say, the story migrated easily to Greenwich Village during the budding of the beatnik movement.) Renoir, in his film, spends a considerable amount of time building up the characterizations -- at the expense of the plot, to some degree. Lang, however, correctly understood that these characters are not as inherently interesting as the situation itself, with its myriad variations on the theme of Reality and (or versus) Illusion. As a result, Lang's movie is rather more suspenseful than Renoir's. Also of note: *Scarlet Street* is a follow-up of sorts to Lang's previous movie, *The Woman in the Window*, which featured the same cast (Robinson, Bennett, and Duryea)! It's a masterpiece, too. [A special word of congratulations must go to "Alpha Video": Congratulations on crafting the ugliest-looking and poorest-sounding DVD I have ever seen or heard. It's a great thing, when masterpieces in the Public Domain can be snatched up by any unscrupulous producer. Simply burn an old magnetic-tape version onto a digital disc, press a few thousand copies, and voila! -- Instant profit. Bravo!]

This compels attention more for its meticulous staging and pacing than for the actual power of the story. Robinson's final delusionary moments are fantastically vivid, but- Be very careful of this and other 'Timeless Video' releases. The copy is intrusively grainy, so much of Lang's lighting is lost. In one scene, the sound drops out for about two minutes! The issue of' Detour' is also very poor, but there are alternative editions. 'Kansas City Confidential', however, is fine. Consider alternative issues of other films in this series.

Christopher Cross (Edward G. Robinson) is an unhappily married, middle-aged man who leads a boring and lonely life as a cashier. His only passion in life is painting. When he meets the lovely Kitty March (Joan Bennett) one night, he immediately falls for her. Thinking that Chris is a famous and wealthy artist, Kitty leads him on while coming up with a dirty scheme with her lover Johnny Prince (Dan Duryea). Johnny gets Kitty to get as much money as possible from Chris, who is totally unaware of Kitty's cold-hearted motives. Chris gladly pays for Kitty's lavish apartment where he can paint her portrait.

Chris steals money from his boss' company in order to buy Kitty whatever she wants, and he's happy like never before in his life. Even when he discovers that Kitty has been selling his paintings and keeping the money, Kitty's charm wins him over and he forgives her easily. When the first husband of Chris' wife, thought to be dead, shows up alive, Chris eagerly makes plans to marry Kitty. But when he goes to see her he finds her in the arms of Johnny, and realizing finally that he'd been cruelly misled and used, he loses control of his temper. To reveal anymore would spoil the ending.

Filmed shortly after the successful "Woman in the Window," which featured the same three stars (Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea) and was also directed by Fritz Lang, 1945's "Scarlet Street" had a much darker conclusion. Like "Woman in the Window," Edward G. Robinson was once again seduced and victimized by femme fatale Joan Bennett, only this time the nightmare was real. "Scarlet Street" is a haunting and incredibly bleak film noir and is unquestionably one of Fritz Lang's best movies. I've seen three previous versions of this classic on dvd, and everyone had an awful picture and sound quality. Now at last, Lang's masterpiece can be seen like never before, with an excellent restored print used for the Kino release. This dvd is a definite must for any fan of film noir!

If you have been frustrated by the inferior prints in circulation of this Fritz Lang Film Noir classic, fret no longer. Kino has delivered an amazing print here with great sharpness and clarity that I never thought possible, judging by the garbage available up until now. Throw in the beautiful, and most colorful cover art and your Scarlet Street dreams have come true! I am so thrilled that I have watched it two nights in a row. This is one of the more underrated Film Noir titles. More people know Woman In The Window and usually it is thought of as a better film, but I'll take Scarlet Street over Window anytime, as I feel it is a bit more harder edged and comes without the soft ending that Window has that leaves me a bit flat. Both great films, both are a must for noir fans, and both star Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett and one of my favorite bad guys, the very underrated Dan Duryea. Worth the 25.00 price of admission as I am sure if you are a noir lover, it will be one you watch many times over in the coming years.

Why is it that at least 4 of Edward G. Robinson's high quality
movies have been "preserved," both in video and DVD, in horrid condition. Scarlet Street is probably the worst of the lot, but The Red House, Woman in the Window, and even The Stranger with Orson Welles are all available only in very bad condition. I would imagine there are many TV stations that own much better prints that could be used. Whether in the public domain or not, all of the above films except The Red House could be considered classics (Fritz Lang directing or original scripts and performances) and should have by now gotten a preservation treatment.

Fritz Lang directed this American version of Renoir's LA CHIENNE; in the American setting it's a sordid, lowlife melodrama about illicit love, and it never takes root - it's one of Lang's best American movies. This film was originally banned in New York State - that is, denied a license - as "immoral, indecent, corrupt, and tending to incite crime" - a judgement which seemed off the wall even in 1946! Eddie Robinson is a frustrated, grey - haired cashier married to a nag (Rosalind Ivan); his only pleasure is in painting on Sundays. He falls for a tart (Joan Bennett) and sets her up in a Greenwich Village apartment, on stolen money. Bennett happens to be in love with a low-life lout (Dan Duryea), who beats her...........The script, by Dudley Nichols, is rather heavy-handed, and Lang's emphatic style pounds home the ironies and the murder-plot devices. Robinson's paintings were actually done by John Decker. There is a unique twist in this lurid little thriller; it was the first film to show the culprit unpunished for his crime (although he shows remorse).

The film Scarlet Street (1945), based on a novel by Georges de La Fouchardière, was produced and directed by Fritz Lang (Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler, M, The Big Heat), and stars Edward G. Robinson (Little Caesar, Double Indemnity, Key Largo), Joan Bennett (The Man in the Iron Mask, The Woman in the Window), and Dan Duryea (Criss Cross, The Flight of the Phoenix). Also appearing is Margaret Lindsay (The House of the Seven Gables), Jess Barker (The Night Walker), Rosalind Ivan (Johnny Belinda), and Charles Kemper (Gallant Journey).

As the film begins we meet a character named Christopher Cross (Robinson), a timid and unassuming middle-aged man, who is celebrating his 25th anniversary as a cashier in a department store. After the party winds down, a tipsy Chris gets turned around somewhere in Greenwich Village and comes across a woman taking the beating from a man, and rescues her, sort of...turns out the attacker, whose face we don't get to see, was fairly drunk and easily enough chased away. Anyway, Chris is immediately taken with the woman, a wannabe actress named Katharine 'Kitty' March (Bennett), allowing her to believe he's a wealthy artist, rather than telling her the dismal truth (seems Chris fancies himself a painter, but it's more or less a hobby rather than a career option). Here's where things get complicated...unbeknownst to Kitty Chris is lowly nine to fiver, married to a shrill harpy named Adele (Ivan), theirs being a marriage of convenience, and unbeknownst to Chris Kitty is involved with a real slick huckster named Johnny Prince (Duryea), the same guy who appeared to be attacking her on the street (turns out he was just trying to get some gambling money). Anyway, Johnny, ever the schemer, believing Chris to be a man of means, convinces Kitty to schmooze him up a bit for some dough, which she does, but Chris, who's a real sap, hasn't the green, so he procures it from his skinflint wife. Eventually Chris eventually comes clean to Kitty about the fact he's married and ends up setting her up in a posh pad, which allows not only for him to visit her, but also gives him a place to pursue his painting, something his wife thinks is a waste. Through a series of circumstances involving Johnny trying to sell Chris' paintings (he and Kitty still believe Chris to be a famous artist), Chris' works actually gain some attention, resulting in Johnny talking Kitty into pretending she painted them, rather than Chris (this wasn't too difficult given Chris never signed his own works). Anyway, as Kitty becomes famous Chris discovers the ruse (only Kitty's part, not her involvement with Johnny), and goes along with it, living vicariously through Kitty given the fact his work is garnering so much attention, but things turn sour once Chris learns of Kitty's involvement with Johnny along with how they've been playing him for a world class sucker...I won't say what happens but I will tell you a sharp implement is involved...

Of most all of the films I've watched recently, which is quite a few, this one had the most intricate storyline. If you've read through the previous paragraph it may seem like I've related a lot, but in actuality I've only touched upon a small number of highlights. There's so much more going on, in terms of both characters mentioned and those that weren't...everything about this feature worked for me, including the immaculate direction, the engaging writing, and the excellent performances. One aspect I was unsure of early on was the character played by Edward G. Robinson in that it seemed so different than what I've come accustomed to with some of his other films I've seen as I'm more or less used to seeing him portray hardnosed gangster types, not spineless, easily manipulated saps. Once I got past my own preconceived typecasting, though, it went down a lot easier, helped immeasurably by the fact Edward G. Robinson is probably one of the best actors to come out of the American cinema. As far as the other performers, Joan Bennett played her part perfectly as she was able to maintain her character's pretense of decorum, at least enough for a lovesick sap to buy off on, but once her character's guard was down we saw her for what she really was, an opportunist who desperately sought the affections of another, even more opportunistic individual played by Dan Duryea, whose character was about as oily and charming (and misogynistic) as they come. Seriously, this is the type of guy who could talk you out of your skin and be long gone before you realized what happened. One of my favorite sequences from the film comes as Kitty relates to Johnny the fact Chris is married and given they way his mind works, he suggests maybe Kitty can pry some money from Chris if it were thought by him that somehow his wife might learn of his relationship (which was nonsexual, by the way) with Kitty. Kitty replies about that being blackmail, to which Johnny states,

"It's only blackmail, baby, when you're dumb enough to get caught."

As I said the direction is wonderful as there was never a time when I wasn't engrossed in the material, which flows at a steady pace. One really interesting aspect for me was near the end, when Chris finally allows himself to realize his tragic folly, and reacts in a shocking, but not unexpected manner. All in all this is probably one of the best film noir features I've seen in awhile, and I'd highly recommend it as an example of a truly unique and fascinating feature within the genre.

The fullscreen (1.33:1) picture on this Kino Video DVD release looks sharp and clean, and it is indicated on the DVD case that digital transfer was culled from the 35mm negative preserved by The Library of Congress. There are a few, minor flaws, but they're barely noticeable. The Dolby Digital audio comes across very well, matching the quality of the picture. There are a couple of extras including an audio commentary track with author David Kalat and gallery containing images of promotional materials, deleted scenes, and some script excerpts.

Cookieman108

By the way, it seems there are a few, different DVD releases of this floating about, but I can only speak towards the quality of the one released by Kino Video, which seemed the priciest of the bunch. As far as the others, well, buyer beware...

"Scarlet Street" (1945) remains among the few Hollywood films in which director Fritz Lang had total creative control. The result is a cinematic masterpiece with a provocative twist on Jean Renoir's 1931 classic "La Chienne." Fresh from the success of "The Woman in the Window," Lang's inspired recasting of Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea surpasses his earlier achievement in this uncompromised film noir. The Kino DVD features a beautifully restored 35mm print that adds considerable luster to a landmark film in Lang's career.