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Viewed at Seattle Film Noir Festival, July 2008. Lang's "Scarlett Street" with Joan Bennett and Edward G. Robinson is a masterful thinking man's psychodrama but its inclusion in noir is open to question —
"SCARLET STREET" (Universal, 103 minutes) starring, Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea is very much a companion piece to Lang's other 'darkie', "Woman in the Window", 1944, which also starred Robinson and Bennett (with Duryea in a smaller role, as well). It looks noir, it sounds noir, and it even feels a little noir, but except for that indelible Dan Duryea (whose slam-bang pimp is its main claim to noirness) it's just not "noir" enough. An excellent psychological study of a middle aged man (Robinson) stuck in a terrible marriage, who falls head over heels for a beautiful hooker with disastrous results, that yes — a fascinating melodrama, and all that, yes, but noir it ain't and, for the following reasons —
First of all, Joan Bennet is much too classy to play a noir anti-heroine, while Edward G. is on the border — a certain darkness in his soul, true, but basically ac classy top-drawer dramatic actor a bit too theatrical here to qualify for noir. (The ending where he goes bats and hears voices is strictly from German Expressionism, far too arty for "noir"). Secondly, the screenplay is much too brainy for a noir, (the obvious parallel for art History buffs, between Robinson, the unschooled weekend painter, and French post-impressionist "primitive" painter, Henri Rousseau), and some of Bennett's dialogue, reflecting on Edward G's weekend art work had me thinking, "Hm — this gal must have gone to Vassar before she became a hard-boiled hooker".
Bennett is indeed lovely to look at, but she's far from the ideal noir blonde-bombshell (she was, in fact, often compared to Hedy Lamar in the forties as the ultimate Brunette Beauty of the time) and, although she was a very competent actress, casting her as a hard-as- nails whore under the pimpship of Dan Duryea was definitely pushing the envelope to attract the more respectable "A" movie audience. Given the glossy Langian context she does pull it off, but you can see her acting a mile away. Duryea on the other hand doesn't act – he's just there, in the totally decadent pimpish flesh! And, compared to the just about unknown Beverly Michaels in "Wicked Woman .. well, we'll get to that in a minute. Overall, "Scarlett Street" is a thinking man's psychodrama, and another outstanding Fritz Lang opus, but its inclusion in noir is open to question
Viewed at Seattle Film Noir Festival, July 2008. Lang's "Scarlett Street" with Joan Bennett and Edward G. Robinson is a masterful thinking man's psychodrama but its inclusion in noir is open to question —
"SCARLET STREET" (Universal, 103 minutes) starring, Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea is very much a companion piece to Lang's other 'darkie', "Woman in the Window", 1944, which also starred Robinson and Bennett (with Duryea in a smaller role, as well). It looks noir, it sounds noir, and it even feels a little noir, but except for that indelible Dan Duryea (whose slam-bang pimp is its main claim to noirness) it's just not "noir" enough. An excellent psychological study of a middle aged man (Robinson) stuck in a terrible marriage, who falls head over heels for a beautiful hooker with disastrous results, that yes — a fascinating melodrama, and all that, yes, but noir it ain't and, for the following reasons —
First of all, Joan Bennet is much too classy to play a noir anti-heroine, while Edward G. is on the border — a certain darkness in his soul, true, but basically ac classy top-drawer dramatic actor a bit too theatrical here to qualify for noir. (The ending where he goes bats and hears voices is strictly from German Expressionism, far too arty for "noir"). Secondly, the screenplay is much too brainy for a noir, (the obvious parallel for art History buffs, between Robinson, the unschooled weekend painter, and French post-impressionist "primitive" painter, Henri Rousseau), and some of Bennett's dialogue, reflecting on Edward G's weekend art work had me thinking, "Hm — this gal must have gone to Vassar before she became a hard-boiled hooker".
Bennett is indeed lovely to look at, but she's far from the ideal noir blonde-bombshell (she was, in fact, often compared to Hedy Lamar in the forties as the ultimate Brunette Beauty of the time) and, although she was a very competent actress, casting her as a hard-as- nails whore under the pimpship of Dan Duryea was definitely pushing the envelope to attract the more respectable "A" movie audience. Given the glossy Langian context she does pull it off, but you can see her acting a mile away. Duryea on the other hand doesn't act – he's just there, in the totally decadent pimpish flesh! And, compared to the just about unknown Beverly Michaels in "Wicked Woman .. well, we'll get to that in a minute. Overall, "Scarlett Street" is a thinking man's psychodrama, and another outstanding Fritz Lang opus, but its inclusion in noir is open to question