Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Scarlet Street

Scarlet Street is a 1945 film noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett. The movie is based on a book that had been previously adapted for film by Jean Renoir as The Bitch.

Robinson plays a hen-pecked husband who gets drawn into a seedy world of crime because of his attraction to a woman. Robinson is a master at whatever he does, and he deserves to be seen.

via youtube:



The New York Times opens its review from the time of its release with this:
Now that the New York State censors have finished playing around with the film "Scarlet Street" (first they banned it and then they passed it, on appeal, with minor cuts), the public may go to see it at Loew's Criterion and decide for itself just how damaging to its morals this picture may be. This being the case, we're not anxious to prejudice any sinners in advance, but we must sound this critical warning: it isn't likely to encourage a life of crime.
Slant Magazine has a review. Empire Online says, "Harsh morality tale presenting a world where goodness is exploited. But it's not textbook film noir, rather, it's dark melodrama with a classic femme fatale and a lot more of black humour." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 100%.

6 comments:

  1. WOW. Talk about spending time watching old movies. It's not the first time a woman has lured a man into doing something shady. Too bad Chris never got his due on the paintings, but it just goes to prove that love is truly blind.

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    1. The women are overpowering in this. The wife on the one hand is overbearing, while the mistress is manipulative and heartless. What a devastating life!

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  2. Sounds like quite a dark storyline and it's interesting that this film was banned at first too 😁. Have a great day - Happy Wednesday! J 😊

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    1. Yes, it is quite dark. I wanted to sit Robinson down early on and give him a wake-up call. He was such a weak man.

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  3. A naive man, for sure. I had seen this many years ago, too, but remembered it was pretty interesting how it all played out--and it was again. I didn't think I would watch the whole thing again but I did--LOL! Yes, love was really, really blind with this guy. :)

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    1. Right? Hen-pecked in both relationships. He could pick 'em, couldn't he lol

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