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Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Scarlet Street |
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Scarlet Street (1945), directed by Fritz Lang.
Christopher Cross is a nerdy middle-aged bank clerk with little personal successes and excitements of the kind that would befit a showcase male in US society of the fourties. He is unathletic, a little overweight and rather short of height, wears unfashionable clothes, and is dominated by his wife who tolerates him only as the breadwinner and has otherwise little respect for his personality. But underneath this nerdy, pitiable, and little exciting surface, Chris is a talented and passionate man who spends most of his free time as a hobby painter, using the bathroom as his studio as his wife would not tolerate the smell of the paint in their living quarters.
One evening, when Chris is walking home from a celebratory get-together with his colleagues at the bank he sees a young woman being attacked by a man on the sidewalk. He hurries to come to her defense, and after some minor struggle the attacker takes off. Chris is both elated at his rare display of masculinity and charmed by the young woman; he asks her for a drink at a nearby dining facility, which she reluctantly accepts. The two of them subsequently begin to date, and Chris becomes obsessed with Kitty, seeing in her a last opportunity to eventually find self-fulfillment and romantic love.
In his blindness and naiveté, he does not realize that Kitty is a con-artist who has teamed up with her boyfriend Johnny to lure men like Chris into a trap and live off their money. When Chris rents an apartment for himself and Kitty, a place where he could both do his painting and see her undisturbed by wife or colleagues, Kitty and Johnny decide to take advantage of Chris's talents as a painter. Unbeknownst to Chris, they gradually begin to exhibit his paintings under Kitty's name to make a profit from them. In doing so, they steal from Chris the only opportunity he had ever had to become truly successful in the eyes of society.
Eventually, Chris finds out about the fraud yet -- selfless and blinded by love as he is -- is willing to forgive Kitty if she agrees to marry him. But when she laughs about him in his face and reveals the nature of her liaison with Johnny, the little man finally strikes back: He kills Kitty and carefully plans to get Johnny indicted for the murder and hanged. For this he is even willing to publicly deny that he ever painted any of the pictures that Kitty had exhibited under her own name...
--Dorothea Lotter, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Scarlet Street |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- 1930's-1950's
Romance/Love/Hugging
Yes
Kind of romance:
- spurned lover goes for revenge
- romancing for business purpose
Lover is...
- criminal/bad doer
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- artist
Age:
- 40's-50's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Black)
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- (man) fat
Events of movie makes character more...
- tougher
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- healthy but a geeky weakling
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- blonde
Hair style
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn wavey
Body type
- (woman) average
How much in movie?
- 60%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Female
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- thief/con artist
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 60%
Hair color
- blonde
Hair type
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn wavey
Body type
- (woman) average
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Setting
United States
Yes
City?
Yes
City:
- dangerous
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Movie makes you feel...
- thoughtful
Check here if B&W
Yes
Any profanity?
- None
Is this movie based on a
- book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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