Straße der Versuchung (1945)

Straße der Versuchung: Directed by Fritz Lang. With Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea, Margaret Lindsay. A man in mid-life crisis befriends a young woman, though her fiancé persuades her to con him out of the fortune they mistakenly assume he possesses.

“Edward G. Robinson gives the most subtle – and possibly the greatest – performance of his career in this, the most depressing film ever made. Such a devastating ending is hardly possible these days, and indeed wasnu0026#39;t supposed to have been in 1945. u0026quot;Immoral, corrupt and tending to incite crime,u0026quot; they called it, u0026quot;A Hollywood movie we can do without.u0026quot; Perhaps the subversive ending was Langu0026#39;s answer to those who had criticised his u0026#39;cop-outu0026#39; ending for u0026#39;The Woman In the Windowu0026#39; a year earlier. The other two leads – Duryea and Bennett – are brilliant as well, and all the actors make us feel in the end that no one has got what they deserved. u0026#39;Scarlet Streetu0026#39; has so many beautifully subtle touches in it that it really has to be seen several times in order to be fully appreciated: the parallel between Kitty and Chrisu0026#39; flower (his u0026#39;problems with perspectiveu0026#39;); the expression that flashes over Kittyu0026#39;s face when Chris u0026#39;confessesu0026#39; that heu0026#39;s a married man; the brief reference at the beginning to Chrisu0026#39;s superstition, which will eventually bring about his psychological downfall. Like many Lang films, it deals with the concept of criminal justice, and is a clever, cruel and fascinating film – a little dated technically, but far ahead of its time, and one of the greatest and blackest film noirs from the forties. The climax is still one of the most chilling in film history – more frightening than most of the great horror films.”