Scarlet Street (1945)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Scarlet Street (1945) – F. Lang

Edward G. Robinson stars as the poor sap who is taken advantage of when he falls for a much younger femme fatale (Joan Bennett) after “rescuing” her from a bad man (Dan Duryea) who is beating her on the street in Greenwich Village.  Despite being married (unhappily of course), Robinson’s character, Chris Cross, falls for Bennett who thinks he is a famous artist rather than only a Sunday painter who has a day job as a cashier for a major company.  She (and her boyfriend Duryea) play him for a sucker, asking for money to set her up in her own apartment, money which he ends up stealing from his employer and from his wife (who is hoarding an insurance settlement from the death of her first husband).  So far, so noir – but it gets darker.  Director Fritz Lang freely adapted Renoir’s La Chienne (1931) to fit the New York setting and the conventions of noir.  I’d seen both this film and the earlier one before, years ago, but had forgotten the twists and turns of the plot that see Cross’s fortunes rise and fall through both serendipity and his own actions.  Ultimately, the laws of the noir film (and the Hays Office) seem to follow the principle of karma, such that Robinson’s moral failings have to result in his undoing, no matter how much we are on his side (even if we shouldn’t really be).  But truly this is a downbeat ending that grabs you and won’t let go.  One of the high water marks of the genre from a director who made guilt, jealousy, anger, revenge, and all of the negative emotions central to his work.