Scarlet Street (1945): watch the full film free, legally

Chris Cross and the borrowed identity

Set in New York in 1934, Scarlet Street follows Christopher “Chris” Cross, a late middle-aged cashier at a clothing retailer who has completed 25 years of service. His employer gives him a gold watch and praise, but Chris notices owner J. J. Hogarth leaving with his young blonde mistress. He tells a colleague that he wishes a young woman wanted him that way.

Walking through Greenwich Village in formal evening clothes, Chris sees Katherine “Kitty” March being attacked by a drunk. He drives the man off with his umbrella and escorts Kitty home. His remarks about painting and his attire lead her to think he is a wealthy artist, rather than a meek amateur painter. Chris, whose marriage to Adele is loveless, becomes taken with her.

The attacker is Johnny, Kitty’s boyfriend. Short of money for a shady business deal, he persuades Kitty to feign romantic interest in Chris. Kitty gets Chris to rent an apartment for her, which can also be his studio. He steals $500 in insurance bonds from Adele and later takes $1,000 in cash from his employer.

Paintings under Kitty March’s name

Johnny attempts to sell Chris’s paintings through a street vendor, who values them at no more than $25. The work catches the attention of prominent critic Damon Janeway, who calls it original and brilliant. Johnny has Kitty claim authorship. She repeats Chris’s own ideas about art to Janeway, who advances her career after responding to the paintings and to Kitty.

Adele sees paintings signed “Katherine March” in the window of an exclusive gallery and accuses Chris of copying March’s work. When he confronts Kitty, she says she sold the paintings because she needed money. Delighted that his work has found an audience, Chris allows her to remain the public face of it. The paintings become a commercial success, but Chris receives no money.

Higgins, a man thought dead, appears at Chris’s office and extorts money from him. Higgins had faked his death to escape both his crimes and his marriage. Chris steals another $200 from the safe. He hopes Adele will encounter Higgins, which would invalidate his marriage. Chris then goes to Kitty believing he is free to marry her, and finds her with Johnny.

Lang’s French source and production

Fritz Lang directed Scarlet Street from a screenplay by Dudley Nichols. It was based on Georges de La Fouchardière’s French novel La Chienne, which André Mouëzy-Éon had adapted for the stage and Jean Renoir had filmed as La Chienne in 1931. Lang had seen Renoir’s film in 1932. He said Ernst Lubitsch had persuaded Paramount Pictures to buy its rights, though nobody at Paramount knew what to do with the property. Lang and Nichols bought the rights from Paramount “very cheaply.”

Lang proposed moving the setting from Paris to Greenwich Village. He and Nichols did not watch Renoir’s version during development because they wanted to avoid copying scenes. Before Nichols wrote the screenplay, Lang, Nichols, producer Walter Wanger and actress Joan Bennett met to find a new title. Lang recalled suggesting Scarlet Street. He later connected it to a Book of Revelation passage describing the Whore of Babylon as “the woman arrayed in purple and scarlet.”

Following The Woman in the Window in 1944, Lang formed Diana Productions with Wanger and Bennett. By March 1945, Edward G. Robinson, Bennett and Dan Duryea had been signed for the leading roles. The three had also appeared in The Woman in the Window, directed by Lang. Universal built sets on its backlot after Lang was denied permission to shoot Greenwich Village exteriors. Milton R. Krasner photographed both films.

According to Variety, Scarlet Street earned U.S. rentals of $2.5 million, helping finance Diana Productions’ Secret Beyond the Door, starring Bennett. Authorities in New York, Milwaukee and Atlanta banned the film early in 1946 because of its dark plot and themes. In 1995, Cinema Journal writer Matthew Bernstein called it “a dense, well-structured film noir.” John Decker created 12 paintings for the film, sent to New York’s Museum of Modern Art for exhibition in March 1946.

Film details from the Wikipedia article “Scarlet Street”. Text adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0.