|
Scarlet Street (1945)
In Fritz Lang's fatalistic film noir - one of the
moodiest, steamiest, and blackest thrillers ever made, was a remake
of Jean Renoir's
La Chienne (1931); its three main actors, Edward G. Robinson,
Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea, had all appeared together in Lang's The
Woman in the Window (1944) - a similar but dreamy film about
a love triangle and murder:
- it was the tragic, nightmarish and cynical story
of a meek, middle-aged clerk-cashier and unhappily-married, hen-pecked
husband and amateur painter named Christopher Cross (Edward G.
Robinson), who hungered for affection; the film opened with Cross
being honored at a dinner after 25 years of service
- afterwards, Cross unwittingly fell into a cruel
trap and web of intrigue set up by cold-hearted, amoral femme
fatale gold-digger and Greenwich Village streetwalker Katherine "Kitty" March
(Joan Bennett); he first met Kitty on a rainy night when she was
being beaten up by her own abusive, slick and mercenary, lover-boyfriend-pimp
Johnny (Dan Duryea); she enticingly asked: "Would you take
me home?"; they got to know each other in a bar for a late-night drink - he
was immediately entranced by the clear plastic raincoat-wearing sexy
dame, while she inaccurately believed that he was a
wealthy painter
- Kitty's evil deceptions and extortions led
Cross to commit embezzlement (of his wife's and employer's funds)
in order to rent an expensive apartment for her (to serve as an art
studio); she also impersonated him in order to sell his surrealistic
paintings (along with Johnny), and was deceitful and cruel to Cross;
Kitty took the credit for the paintings (with Cross' approval,
since he felt he was symbolically linked to her) and she became
a celebrity
- in the middle of all the deceptive proceedings,
there was an amazing and contrived plot-twist; the previous husband
of Cross' wife Adele (Rosalind Ivan), corrupt policeman Patch-eye
Homer Higgins (Charles Kemper) suddenly resurfaced - he had been
presumed drowned during the rescue of a suicidal woman; he
had originally disappeared to cover up the fact that he had stolen
$2,700 from the purse of the suicidal woman
- Cross now assumed
that his marriage to Adele was invalidated, and that he was free
to marry Kitty; he was suspicious that "Kitty" and Johnny
were romantically-involved, but still believed he had a chance to
marry her
- Cross delivered a pitiful and pathetic proposal
of marriage to Kitty: ("I haven't any wife, that's finished...Her
husband turned up, I'm free...I can marry you now, I want you to
be my wife. We'll go away together, way far off so you can forget
this other man. Don't cry, Kitty, please don't cry"); she responded
by humiliating him and revealing her true feelings for him - she
called Cross an "idiot":
("I am not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!...Oh, you idiot!
How can a man be so dumb?...I've wanted to laugh in your face ever
since I first met you. You're old and ugly and I'm sick of you. Sick,
sick, sick!")
- after she ordered him out ("You
want to marry me? You? Get out of here! Get out! Get away from me!")
-- he lost control of his feelings, leading him to commit murder in
a jealous rage by stabbing her with an ice-pick through her bed covers
when she hid
|
 |
 |
Cross' Brutal Stabbing of "Kitty"
|
- the film's ending - Johnny was falsely accused of
the crime (convicted and executed in the electric chair), while Cross
was only fired from his job for embezzling funds from his employer;
Cross was not considered a suspect due to his secretive relationship
with Kitty
- however, Cross was a broken man - he suffered
humiliating disgrace, psychological torment and mental anguish due
to his guilt (i.e., on the night of Johnny's execution, Cross attempted
suicide by hanging and failed, and in abject homelessness as a bum,
he wandered the streets); he was unable to live with himself, and
couldn't convince anyone of the fact that he actually committed murder
and sent an innocent man to his death
- the final image was his shuffling by a 5th Avenue
gallery when he passed the 'self-portrait' he had drawn of Kitty;
after Kitty's death, she was immortalized as a great painter; Cross
overheard its sale to an elderly matron for $10,000; the art dealer
Mr. Dellarowe (Arthur Loft) commented: "Well, there
goes her masterpiece. I really hate to part with it" - the buyer
replied: "For $10,000 dollars, I shouldn't think you'd mind,
Mr. Dellarowe"
- the last lines of dialogue were heard as the tormented
and haunted Cross slowly ambled down the deserted street under a
movie marquee - he thought of Kitty and Johnny together, with echoing
words of love spoken (off-screen) between them: Kitty: "Johnny.
Oh Johnny." Johnny: "Lazy Legs." Kitty: "Jeepers,
I love you, Johnny."
|
|
Tormented and Haunted Cross Thinking of Kitty and
Johnny |
|
Rainy Night Meeting: Cross and "Kitty"
Femme Fatale "Kitty"
"Kitty's" Pimp Johnny (Dan Duryea)
"Kitty" With Cross
Patch-eyed Homer Higgins
Newspaper Headline for "Kitty's" Ice-Pick Murder
|