Scarlet Street
The trap for Christopher Cross is set early in Fritz Lang’s “Scarlet Street.” We first see him at a dinner party his boss is hosting for his employees. The boss, JJ (Russell Hicks), is honoring Christopher (played by the great Edward G. Robinson) for his 25 years of service as a cashier. JJ leaves early, and awaiting him is a beautiful young woman who is not his wife. That is the life he wants, but he doesn’t have the looks or power that would make it happen.
Lang’s film noir is a film I’ve been familiar with from clips, but they couldn’t prepare me for my first viewing of it a couple of years ago. Rewatching it on Kino Lorber’s new Blu-Ray, the power of this classic endures as we watch an ordinary man act like a white knight to a beautiful woman (Joan Bennett’s Kitty), but get himself trapped when her and her abusive boyfriend, Johnny (Dan Duryea), take advantage of his affections for her. We’ve seen this plot many times before, but Lang’s adaptation of the novel by Georges de La Fouchardière and André Mouëzy-Éon has layers to its level of deceit that keep us hooked every step of the way. Chris is the one who is lured in, but he makes decisions in how he shares his life with Kitty that make her and Johnny think he’s bigger than he is, and it’ll cost both sides in the long run.
The first time Chris and Kitty meet, he sees her getting smacked around by Johnny. Something snaps in him, and he attacks Johnny. Johnny runs away, and when Chris brings the cop, Kitty says the wrong direction. At the time, we don’t know that Kitty and Johnny know each other until he gets up, but even though we don’t get a clear view of him- same as Chris- we recognize the voice the next time we see he and Kitty together. Chris also has this nagging feeling that he recognizes Johnny, as well, and we want to yell through the screen that he’s the one who hit Kitty. Lang’s ability to milk this tension and balance of certainty and uncertainty with regards to how Chris feels towards Johnny is a wonderful achievement that adds just one of “Scarlet Street’s” layers to it.
We understand why Chris gets sucked in by Kitty- he’s told us as much in that opening scene. We know he’s doomed the second we see Kitty and Johnny interact. His choice to let her think that he’s an artist makes sense, given how derisively she views being a cashier, but it’s something that will lead both of them to ruin when all is said and done. By sharing his work with her, he opens it up to Johnny seeing it, and thinking they can get rich quick by selling it. Kitty doesn’t necessarily want to act like she’s the artist, but the moment she goes along with the grift, she puts her life under the control of Johnny and Chris, to an extent. None of them will win in the end, not even Chris whom will forever be haunted by the decisions he’s made, all for one moment to be special to someone he couldn’t get in a million years.
“Scarlet Street” is one of the great film noirs, and Kino Lorber has done a great job with it. Their restoration gives it a seedy, haunting feel befitting the film’s subject and tone. For extras, we get audio commentaries from film historian Imogen Sara Smith and author David Kalat. I just watched the Blu-Ray, but it’s also available on 4K, and I have to imagine it looks tremendous.
