FILM: Scarlet Street

Description

Directed by Fritz Lang USA/1945/101 minutes/B&W A box-office hit in its day (despite being banned in three states), "Scarlet Street" is perhaps legendary director Fritz Lang's (M, Metropolis) finest American film. 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.