Scarlet Street

Scarlet Street is a 1945 American Crime film noir directed by Fritz Lang. Two criminals take advantage of a middleage painter in order to steal his artwork. The film is based on the French novel La Chienne The Bitch by Georges de La Fouchardire, that previously had been dramatized on stage by Andr Mouzyon, and cinematically as La Chienne 1931 by director Jean Renoir.

Christopher Chris Cross Edward G. Robinson, a meek amateur painter and cashier for clothing retailer, J.J. Hogarth amp Company, is fted by his employer, honoring him for twentyfive years of dull, repetitive service. Hogarth presents him with a watch and kind words, then leaves getting into a car with a beautiful young blonde. Walking home through Greenwich Village, Chris muses to an associate, I wonder what its like to be loved by a young girl. He helps Kitty Joan Bennett, an amoral fasttalking femme fatale, apparently being attacked by a man, stunning the assailant with his umbrella. Chris is unaware that the attacker was Johnny Dan Duryea, Kittys brutish boyfriend, and sees her safely to her apartment building. Out of gratitude and bemusement, she accepts his offer for a cup of coffee at a nearby bar. From Chriss comments about art, Kitty believes him to be a wealthy painter.Soon, Chris becomes enamored of her because he is in loveless marriage and is tormented by his shrewish wife Adele Rosalind Ivan, who idealizes her former husband, a policeman who apparently drowned while trying to save a woman. After Chris confesses that he is married, Johnny convinces Kitty to pursue a relationship in order to extort money from Chris. Kitty inveigles him to rent an apartment for her, one that can also be his art studio. To finance an apartment, Chris steals 500 6,600 today in insurance bonds from his wife and later 1000 13,100 from his employer. Meanwhile, Johnny unsuccessfully tries selling some of Chriss paintings, attracting the interest of art critic David Janeway Jess Barker. Kitty is maneuvered by Johnny into pretending that she painted them, charming the critic with Chriss own descriptions of his art, and Janeway promises to represent her. Adele sees her husbands paintings in the window of a commercial art gallery as the work of Katherine March and accuses him of copying her work. Chris confronts Kitty, who claims she sold them because she needed the money. He is so

Source: Wikipedia