Prime Time: Scarlet Street (1945)

Reuniting the director and stars of The Woman In The Window, this film shows a man who wanders down a dark path, led there by love/infatuation. He's manipulated and used, which eventually makes him angry and irrational, but it's hard to feel much sympathy for him, considering how he makes one bad decision after another.

Edward G. Robinson is Christopher Cross, an unhappily married man who finds his life brightened up slightly after a chance encounter with a woman named "Kitty" (Joan Bennett). He doesn't realise that Kitty is in a relationship with an opportunistic crook named Johnny (Dan Duryea), and so wastes his time and money getting an apartment for Kitty, where he gets to paint her and spend time in her company. Embezzling from his work, Christopher is desperate to figure out a way to make his relationship with Kitty more official. He doesn't realise that Kitty is just stringing him along. And neither of them realise that his paintings are actually worth a bit of money to the right collector.

It's nice, comforting, in a way to watch this Fritz Lang movie and see him so at ease with the cast he used to well in The Woman In The Window. The screenplay by Dudley Nichols (based on La Chienne, which had previously been filmed by Jean Renoir) is decent enough, it may not fire off the zingers but it gets all the characters were they should be and moves the plot forward in a way that never feels ridiculous or implausible.

Robinson is very good in his central role, a rather sad figure who fools himself into thinking he has found a shot at true happiness. His behaviour is that of a man in typical midlife-crisis mode, even though he may be a bit older, but he also looks self-aware and uncomfortable, not used to the apparent affections of such a lovely lady. Bennett is excellent, just the right mix of cute and moody, while viewers know it is all deliberate in order to keep a man wound round her little finger. Duryea is comfortable in the role of main rogue Johnny, Margaret Lindsay is good as the friend of Kitty who never warms to Johnny, and Rosalind Ivers is Mrs Cross, a rather stern and unhelpful woman who helps her husband be resolved in his actions.

I am in the minority here, in that I preferred the previous collaboration between director and stars, but this is a film that has a lot to recommend to fans of classic cinema. It is a well-crafted morality tale with solid performances from the cast, decent presentation throughout, and a dark and fitting ending to it all. And it feels like it has been remade/reworked numerous times, although I cannot put my finger on a prime example to cite right now. All suggestions and memory prompts are welcome.

7/10

There's a region-locked disc here.
Americans can buy the same disc here.

And Then There Were None (1945)

Based on a classic whodunnit by Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None is a wonderful film that should be held in high regard by thriller and horror fans, due to the influence it has had over the years.

It is, in essence, a bodycount movie. Eight people are invited to an island, where they are welcomed by a husband and wife duo who have been recently hired by the mysterious host. After everyone has settled in, a record is played and a voice accuses everyone in attendance of being guilty of some crime that went unpunished. And then people start to die, one by one and in a similar fashion to the fates of the characters described in the rhyme, Ten Little Indians. As an extra way to toy with the other potential victims, the ten little Indians are displayed as part of a centrepiece on the dining table. And one is broken/removed each time a death occurs. Can the guests find out who their host is before they're all killed?

Adapted for the screen by Dudley Nichols, this version of the tale (and many subsequent versions) actually adheres more to the stage play than the source novel. Strict censorship of the time meant that this was the better way to go, which isn't to say that this feels like a light, tame piece of work. It remains a highly effective thriller, with real tension built up throughout, leading to a third act that even today manages to have viewers on the edge of their seat.

Director Rene Clair does well enough by the material. A number of deaths occur offscreen, but what counts are the moments of investigation and deductions made, be they right or wrong, as the survivors work against whatever time limit the killer has given them.

The cast, for the most part, do a good job. Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston and Richard Haydn are the standouts, Louis Hayward and June Duprez are just fine, while Mischa Auer, Roland Young, C. Aubrey Smith, Queenie Leonard, Judith Anderson and Harry Thurston complete the roll call. As inevitably happens with this kind of film, some people barely get to make an impression, but the main players are easy to warm to as they find themselves in increasing danger.

Despite a streak of comedy as black as coal, and one or two moments that border on the farcical, this is a pretty straight murder mystery. It is also, until the final reveal and explanation, quite simple. That doesn't make it any less enjoyable, however, and many fans will enjoy the brilliant purity of the premise, a template that has been oft-repeated with wildly varying results.

9/10

http://www.amazon.com/Then-There-Were-None/dp/B00005QBZL/ref=sr_1_4?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1421448267&sr=1-4&keywords=and+then+there+were+none

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