Looking into the film noir void: Lang’s Scarlet Street (1945).
Scarlet Street is one of the blackest films noir in pretty much any film fan’s canon (yes, even by 1945 standards and the puritanical rules made up by our old friends at the Hays Production Code office). It is a tale of con artistry, the theft of artistic ideas (literally), jealousy, grifting, domestic rot, unrequited love, murder, and the theme I will touch on more than others in this brief analysis: a tormented conscience. It is a remake (yes, a remake) executed by one the finest artistic exports to the United States from Europe, director Fritz Lang. It is BLACK as the deepest psychological tar pits of despair can get. The film stars Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea.
Director Fritz Lang was a film-maker who simply oozed artistic acumen. He is easily among my Top 5 favorite directors of all time. Lang got his start directing in The Weimar Republic, with silent films like the mythological Destiny (1921) which can be watched on Netflix, the futuristic Metropolis(1927) which can also be watched on Netflix, and even a treatment of Wagner in Siegfried (1924), and Kriemhild’s Revenge (1924). Lang was even asked to direct that powerhouse of German Expressionism on film: The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1919) before Robert Wiene took on the project. See a public domain print of Caligari below.
