Scarlet Street

Play trailer

Scarlet Street

Released Dec 28, 1945

1h 46m

Crime

Drama

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

100%

Tomatometer

17 Reviews

87%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

Cashier and part-time starving artist Christopher Cross (Edward G. Robinson) is absolutely smitten with the beautiful Kitty March (Joan Bennett). Kitty plays along, but she's really only interested in Johnny (Dan Duryea), a two-bit crook. When Kitty and Dan find out that art dealers are interested in Chris' work, they con him into letting Kitty take credit for the paintings. Cross allows it because he is in love with Kitty, but his love will only let her get away with so much.

Watch on Fandango at Home

Buy Now

Jaime N. Christley

Slant Magazine

In his images and his storytelling, Lang drew together masses of intersecting lines, steel cables that pulled his characters to their doom or their reward.

Feb 6, 2024

Full Review

Marjory Adams

Boston Globe

You can be assured that Mr. Robinson, Miss Bennett and Mr. Duryea give their best melodramatic efforts to this study of crime and its sure punishment.

Dec 31, 2020

Full Review

Empire Magazine

Rated: 4/5

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Hortense Morton (Screen Scout)

San Francisco Examiner

Miss Bennett matches her previous excellent acting as the hard and brittle damsel with a penchant for maribou trimmed negligees, trashy literature and easy living.

Jan 5, 2022

Full Review

Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

Quite hilariously, loud mouths, circumstantial evidence, misplaced fame, moralistic conundrums, and inescapable guilt ensure that everyone will get what's coming to them.

Rated: 8/10

Aug 14, 2020

Full Review

Mattie Lucas

From the Front Row

Lesser known perhaps but no less accomplished than some of [Lang's] more famous works.

Rated: 3.5/4

Aug 6, 2019

Full Review

Read all reviews

Alain E

A very impressive crime melodrama. The characters are fleshed out and their actions obey an inner logic. The hero is a vanilla conventional company employee who marries his landlady and afterwards his conjugal duties are limited to doing the dishes by hand. One fateful night he sees an attractive young woman being abused by her male companion and comes to her rescue. Subsequently, he falls head over heels over her, not realizing that she and her boyfriend have reconciled and they are using him as a source of income. Things progress from financial crimes to actual murder. Bodies accumulate and our hero tortured by guilt ends up a homeless bum. We learn hat crime doesn’t pay, but naive art does. Details on the screen. Tubi has a nicely restored copy.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

12/29/24

Full Review

Audience Member

One of the greatest film noirs ever made. A masterpiece, and arguably the very best movie Fritz Lange ever directed. The casting, the screenplay, the acting, the camera work, everything about it flawless.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/28/24

Full Review

Rare T

Scarlet Street can get messy, especially around the end, and that is in reference to both the story and the picture itself. It does feature some impeccable acting and execution, and a few messages for life sprinkled around here and there.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

12/14/24

Full Review

acsdoug D

Not a bad noir, although the ending was a little disappointing. To be fair to the film makers the Hayes Code would have prevented them from ending it any other way.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

07/09/24

Full Review

Charles C

A good film with good actors well worth watching

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

05/21/24

Full Review

Maximus G

I appreciate it more than I like it. It didn't really connect with me and the middle dragged, but the ending was great.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/18/24

Full Review

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

POST RATING

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

Fritz Lang

Director

Edward G. Robinson

Christopher Cross

Joan Bennett

Kitty March

Dan Duryea

Johnny Prince

Margaret Lindsay

Millie Ray

Rosalind Ivan

Adele Cross

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

You Only Live Once

100%

77%

You Only Live Once

Watchlist

Human Desire

60%

74%

Human Desire

Watchlist

Leave Her to Heaven

85%

86%

Leave Her to Heaven

Watchlist

Murder, My Sweet

89%

86%

Murder, My Sweet

Watchlist

Detour

98%

77%

Detour

Watchlist

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Synopsis

Cashier and part-time starving artist Christopher Cross (Edward G. Robinson) is absolutely smitten with the beautiful Kitty March (Joan Bennett). Kitty plays along, but she's really only interested in Johnny (Dan Duryea), a two-bit crook. When Kitty and Dan find out that art dealers are interested in Chris' work, they con him into letting Kitty take credit for the paintings. Cross allows it because he is in love with Kitty, but his love will only let her get away with so much.

Director: Fritz Lang
Producer: Fritz Lang
Screenwriter: Dudley Nichols, Georges de la Fouchardière, Andre Mouézy-Éon
Distributor: Universal Pictures, Film Classics Inc., Corinth Films [us], Hollywood Classics, Reel Media International [us], Take 2 Video, Questar, LS Video, Video Yesterday
Production Co: Universal Pictures, Walter Wanger Productions, Inc., Diana Production Company
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 28, 1945, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 28, 2016
Runtime: 1h 46m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.37:1)

Most Popular at Home Now