Synopsis
Scarlet Street (1945) is a pitch-black crime noir from Fritz Lang, and you can watch online on iFILM. A meek cashier and weekend painter named Christopher Cross steps in to rescue a woman being roughed up on a rainy street one night. That single decent act is the start of his ruin.
The woman is Kitty, and she was never really in trouble. With her small-time hustler boyfriend Johnny, she sizes up the lovestruck older man and goes to work on him. When art dealers start praising Chris's canvases, the pair talk him into letting Kitty sign the paintings and sell his gift out from under him. Chris forgives almost anything because he is in love, but love only stretches so far. Edward G. Robinson plays the deceived dreamer, Joan Bennett the icy Kitty, Dan Duryea her sneering partner.
Lang made one of the cruelest American films of its era; the ending was harsh enough to get the movie banned in several places on release. It's a model study of guilt, obsession and the bill that comes due, ideal for anyone who likes their black-and-white classics without a soft landing. Stream Scarlet Street (1945) online on iFILM.
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