Hi! There are plot details /"spoilers" in this post. The post was made available after our screening. Please feel free to watch the film before reading further...)
This screening and podcast was the first in collaboration with DKA Professional Cinematic Association, UNT Denton Chapter. They were a pleasure to work with! Although we decided to keep our screening on the original date after the university decided to close early, the conversation with the students was enthralling. It was one of my favorite screenings.
Here is a picture with the rest of the DKA Board (& me) from the screening. For more on DKA, check out their UNT org sync page:
If you would like an audio experience, we have recorded an extended Scarlet Street podcast we recorded after the screening for this film.
Lilly Ramin (Sociology Librarian) and Steven Guerrero (Media Arts Librarian) and current DKA board members: D.J. Samuels (President), Matt Pineda (Chairperson for Programming and PR) and Andrew Morin (Treasurer). Original intro music by Matt Pineda & podcast edits by DJ Samuels.
PODCAST
Post Scarlet Street
You can say so much about these films, characters, actors and the director. In this post, I will dive into these characters and end with a little coincidence with our city of Denton, TX. I have some research resources listed, as well as films available at UNT Media Library in case you wish to explore further.
EDWARD G. ROBINSON (“Chris Cross”)
Edward G. Robinson from Little Caesar, to Blacklist to…Chief Wiggum?
On March 21, 1951 the House of Un-American Activities (HUAC) first convened on Capitol Hill to address “subversive activities in the entertainment industry’ (Navasky vii). The House of Un-American Activities came after Edward G. Robinson, and in a field with public image affects your ability to earn your livelihood, this had professional and personal repercussions.
In his autobiography, All My Yesterdays, Robinson comments on his membership in two organizations, The Citizens of American and the American Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born as such: “Communist front organizations? Perhaps. I don’t know. It never occurred to me. What occurred to me was that both groups were active in their passion for the deprived, the put-upon, the victims not only of Nazi terror but our economic imbalance” (Robinson 163).
Robinson is alluding to an important point. If you track the films, and people HUAC. targeted; there is definitely a theme of attack against those who advocated rights of the poor, equal rights or support along the racial divide, and whatever did not fit into the political motivations of the group.
Some people named names. Some people refused. Some people went to jail. Some people were blacklisted.
Edward G. Robinson voluntarily testified about his record three times. His final testimony was in 1952, and then he was in the clear. The power of the HUAC was unlike anything before it.
At the 1950 congressional hearing in 1950, Robinson said:
“You are the only tribunal we have in the United States where an American citizen can come and ask for this kind of relief…I am sorry if I have become a little bit emotional…because I think I have not only been a good citizen, I think I have been an extraordinarily good citizen, and I value this above everything else” (Parish and Marill, 37-39)
Even if you have never seen and Edward G. Robinson film, you probably know that voice. Robinson’s voice was parodied animators during his time and later ours, as Chief Wiggum from the animated series, the Simpsons!
But…Hey, Mr. Robinson! Who are you in this film? Chris Cross. Really, yes, that is his name (no, not Kris Kross although that would be hilarious).
His character may be involved in some shady business but he is no “Little Caesar” gangster. In fact, it is Adele, who is in charge, and comically so. He cooks the meals, washes dishes, and obeys her every command. Meanwhile, she belittles yells and even negatively compares him to her late husband, whose photo hangs on the wall!
One of the most revealing visuals in the film is the sight of Chris in Adele’s apron with a knife, making them dinner.
Mind you, this film is from 1946, so it is not like an ode to gender equality, but more as a means to vilifying Adele, Chris’ wife. She appears without merit, as does the other main female character in the film, Kitty, nicknamed “Lazy Legs” by her pimp-boyfriend Johnny. One-time Fritz Lang favorite Joan Bennet was cast as Kitty. Here she is reunited with leads Robinson and Duryea after their appearance in the director’s film Woman in the Window (http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/108290|56225/Fritz-Lang/ Sympathies for the lead character’s moral digressions might be amplified though these selfish female characters.
Varying degrees of power, in relation to Chris, is worth discussing. Think of his wife, his romantic rival Johnny, and his boss, J.J.
“Scarlet Street obsessively connects the power and freedom, and all the seductive possibilities open to a man like J.J., to the notion of time and ageing, and the combination acts as a catalyst for releasing Chris’s desire. The ‘idea’ of Kitty is born on the night of the dinner party when J.J.’s mistress is discreetly announced by a man butler, which leads J.J. into a rushed presentation of Chris’s gift.” (Jacobowitz 159)
Image is worth considering on many levels. The stereotypes of the actors portraying these roles is notable, as is and how art functions in the film. Kitty, encouraged by Johnny’s efforts, to pretend to have painter of the painting Chris has stored at her place, in an effort to gain fame and fortune, and it works – for a while. Kitty is beautiful, and Chris is not conventionally handsome to say the least. Chris is fine with it, and the fact that everyone believes Kitty’s lies and idolizes her, is a clever commentary of art and image. It is cynical, but often proved true, that even a painting or a song on the radio, where you don’t see the artist, the way one looks affects the reception and the ability to be seen, heard, and profitable in one’s artistic efforts.
The women in the film are less interesting, and often annoying, as well as more typical of noirs than other women we have discussed in Reel to Real Classics. Here, it is the femme fatale(s) versus the male lead. The men get more of the character development and are far more interesting in this film. Enter Chris's romantic nemesis: Johnny .
DAN DURYEA (“Johnny”)
Dan Duryea…from the “heel with sex appeal” to sympathetic alcoholic
In real life, Dan Duryea was educated at Cornell University and said to have been a dedicated and loyal “family man” who did not fit his professional persona roles reflecting “type-casting. His obituary in the New York Time, captured the nature of this typical roles by calling him the “the heel with sex appeal” (Citation: "The heel with sex appeal." --From Dan Duryea obituary in The New York Times, June 8, 1968). Dan Duryea’s characters was definitely a charmer with motivations of malice or manipulation. ( http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/54835|35099/Dan-Duryea/)
When Chris first encounters Kitty, it is raining and she is on the ground while a man is kicking her. Enter, “Johnny.” Chris come to her aid, and Johnny runs away. This is hardly a “meet cute” for Kitty and Chris. This is, however, an important introduction to what Kitty will put up with from Johnny, and the sort of unsavory characters played by Dan Duryea.
I remember checking out the DVD for Too Late for Tears (1949) from the Media Library, and was surprised to see the poster for this film. It was a woman cringing from being slapped with the tag line “That’s to remind you …you’re in a tough racket now!” (Also available on the TCM profile for this movie: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/5793/Too-Late-for-Tears/ )
Wow. People flocked to theaters to see this film, and actor Dan Duryea play yet another role where is he smarmy and ready to “rough-up” another women. The irony is that in this particular film, he battles the booze but often acts somewhat at the whim of the lead female character, a bored homemaker, who is greedy and clever.
(Film profile page on TCMDB)
In my opinion, one his best roles, playing another man making bad decisions fueled by alcohol, is the film noir, Black Angel. He is more of a lead, and less of a superficial character. However, violence towards women is again bubbling under the surface in this film. As he pines for his ex-wife, then for the married woman he is helping clear her husband of murder. Here, unrequited love leads to more drinking, which leads to some drama and potential tragedy.
Finally, I would recommend Duryea’s great performance in an episode of the show, The Twilight Zone. What a funny surprise to stumble across this episode including the name of our city --- “Mr. Denton on Doomsday”.
As Al Denton, Duryea plays an alcoholic again. The story and the character he plays is tied to an act of violence. However, the difference is the object of that violence. He is not directing it towards women. The character of Al Denton is set up as a man driven to drink due to the violence his incredible shooting skill has brought upon his life. He is self-destructive, and pitiful. It is a well-acted episode, and one of my favorites in the series.
(IMDB profile for “Mr. Denton on Doomsday” from The Twilight Zone https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734592/)
Scarlet Street sighting in …DENTON
Speaking of Denton, I decided to pop into our local mini-mall Downtown one day before the screening, and I found a magazine called Scarlet Street: The Magazine of Mystery and Horror.
The website site does not seem to be live, but the Wikipedia page links to a blog and forum. It also defines the magazine as such Scarlet Street was an American film magazine that primarily specialized in the genres of horror, mystery and film noir… The title was chosen to reference several of its chosen fields: mystery and film noir (from the film of the same name), and Sherlock Holmes (from A Study in Scarlet). ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlet_Street_(magazine) I started to wonder how these magazines got here, and if the owner had seen the film of the same name. Funny coincidence. I leave you with that...
If you wish to see the film, and missed the screening, the Media Library has a couple of copies if you wish to check it out.
Citations:
DVDS
Scarlet Street (1946) UNT Media Library DVD 1212
Lang, Fritz, Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea, Dudley Nichols, Milton Krasner, Hans J. Salter, and Fouchardière G. La. Scarlet Street. Narberth, PA: Alpha Video Distributors, 2002.
Little Caesar (1930) UNT Media Library DVD 11890
LeRoy, Mervyn, Francis E. Faragoh, David Mendoza, Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks, Ray Curtis, David Mendoza, and W R. Burnett. Little Caesar. Burbank, Calif: Turner Entertainment, 2005.
Little Caesar (1930) cover image from Warner Home Video https://www.warnerbros.com/
Too Late for Tears (1949) UNT Media Library DVD 3132
Haskin, Byron, Lizabeth Scott, Don Defore, Dan Duryea, Arthur Kennedy, Kristine Miller, Barry Kelley, and Roy Huggins. Too Late for Tears. Narberth, PA: Alpha Video, 2003.
Black Angel (1946) UNT Media Library DVD 3624
Neill, Roy W, Tom McKnight, Roy Chanslor, Peter Lorre, Dan Duryea, Broderick Crawford, June Vincent, Constance Dowling, and Cornell Woolrich. Black Angel. United States: Universal Studios Home Video, 2004.
The Simpsons Series
(example: Season 20 ) DVD 17473 v.1
Castellaneta, Dan, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Harry Shearer, Hank Azaria, and Matt Groening. The Simpsons: The Complete Twentieth Season. 1. Beverly Hills, Calif: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2010.
The Twilight Zone series UNT Media Library DVD 241 v. 12
(Example of compilation including “Mr. Denton on Doomsday”)
Schildkraut, Joseph, Ida Lupino, Dan Duryea, Inger Stevens, John Hoyt, Irene Tedrow, Rod Serling, Buck Houghton, George Clemens, Elliot Silverstein, Bill Mosher, Mitchell Leisen, Franz Waxman, Allen Reisner, and Jack Smight. The Twilight Zone: Vol.12. , 1999.
Woman in the Window (1944 )UNT Media Library DVD 7757
Johnson, Nunnally, Fritz Lang, Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Raymond Massey, Edmund Breon, Dan Duryea, and J H. Wallis. The Woman in the Window. United States: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, 2007.
UNT Media Library website: https://library.unt.edu/media/
Turner Classic Movies Database www.tcm.com/tcmdb/
Wikipedia entry about Scarlet Street Magazine – links to forums https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlet_Street_(magazine)
Simpsons World entry and image of Chief Wiggum here: http://www.simpsonsworld.com/character/police_chief_wiggum
CHAPTERS
Jacobowitz, Florence, “The Man’s Melodrama: The Women in the Window & Scarlet Street, 152-164 in The Movie Book of Film Noir (Ed. By Ian Cameron) Studio Vista The Movie Book of Film Noir. London: Studio Vista, 1994. Print.
BOOKS
Parish, James R, and Alvin H. Marill. The Cinema of Edward G. Robinson. Cranbury: Barnes, 1972. Print.
Navasky, Victor S. Naming Names. New York, N.Y: Penguin, 1991. Print.
Robinson, Edward G, and Leonard Spigelgass. All My Yesterdays: An Autobiography. London-New York, 1974. Print.
Steven Guerrero consulted the following books on Lang for the podcast:
Gunning, T., & British Film Institute. (2000). The films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of vision and modernity. London: British Film Institute.
Humphries, R. (1989). Fritz Lang: Genre and representation in his American films. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
McGilligan, P. (1997). Fritz Lang: The nature of the beast. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Thank you for reading, listening, discussing these films. I hope you enjoyed this post.
~ Lilly Ramin
