Scarlet Street Film Analysis

In the year 1945 Fritz Lang directed Scarlet Street, a truly classical film noir. The screenplay consists of two criminals who take advantage of a middle-aged painter in order to steal his artwork. Absolutely one of the finest of all film noirs, Fritz Lang’s Scarlet Street is a remake of Jean Renoir’s La Chienne. These two films share essentially the same structure. “The ineffectual nebbishy cashier and protagonist, Maurice Legrand in La Chienne and Chris Cross in Scarlet Street, demonstrates a level of cowardice and naiveté in grown men that is simply unforgivable, thereby resulting in a fate that must be tragic” (Hassannia Para. 1). Scarlet Street Reunited director Fritz Lang with actors Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea, who

Film noir movies often have stylistic characteristics such as exaggerated lighting and shadows. Scarlet Street contained many subjective camera shots while also using exaggerated shadows, for example during the first scene in the movie, there is an emphasis on the mans shadow as he walks into the room. Which brings me to a crucial point, Black and white filmmaking. Black and white style is considered to be an essential attribute for a film noir movie, black and white allows the director to emphasize on distorting images, for example use of the venetian blind shot. Another continuous pattern of film noir is to include main stock characters, this film contains: an anti-hero and a femme fatale, these stock characters are always seen in noir films. The anti-hero often does terrible things with hopes of resulting in good outcome. He (or she) tends to be the only individual that the audience approves throughout the movie. The other main stock character of a noir film is the greedy Femme Fatale. The Femme Fatale is often a sexually powerful and sharp woman who is able to manipulate the anti-hero into committing crime in order to gain wealth, power or

J. Hogarth, who later leaves the party with a stunning blonde, which impresses Chris. Impressed by Hogarth wife, Chris begins to wonder what it must feel like to be loved by such a beautiful young woman. After dinner while walking home, Chris breaks up a violent interaction between a man and a woman, after the man flees, Chris offers to escort the woman home. She introduces herself as Katherine "Kitty" March and asks Chris to buy her a drink first. Flattered and hoping to impress Kitty, Chris tells her that he is an artist and his moderate tone prompts her to assume he is wealthy. The following day, Chris, who has been painting from home is relocated by his shrewish wife Adele, and is now directed to only practice his painting in the bathroom. He grows depressed when she scolds him for his lack of talent, and makes sure to pound home the point that her first husband died bravely in line of work as a detective. Frustrated, Chris sends Kitty a note asking to see her again. Kitty's lazy boyfriend Johnny, the man who beat her, also believes Chris is rich and pressures Kitty to make a date with him. When they meet, Kitty claims she is an actress who finds it hard to make ends meet and asks Chris if she could pose for him, suggesting he rent a studio in which he could paint and she might live. When Chris