Word: scarlet
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...Scarlet Street" is little more than an interesting study itself, for as entertainment it is unconventional and unpleasant. When the New York censors finally released it under pressure, they cut only one bit of dialogue and four--of seven--thrusts in a stabbing sequence. Judging by some obvious scissor work, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has treated it less gently...
...amount of cutting short of a total ban can rob "Scarlet Street" of its oppressive naturalism, of its rough sketch or unpleasant characters, illicit love, and miscarried justice. That the Johnston office passed it in the first place is gratifying, for it flies in the face of the precepts of movie morality set up by Will Hays...
Starring Joan Bennett, as a dissolute and hard-bitten flapper, Edward G. Robinson as a weak little cashier who likes to paint pictures, and Dan Duryea, as a fip, unmoral pug, "Scarlet Street" is cynically matter-of-fact, more like a Dostoevski novel than a Hollywood bon-bon, honest to a fault...
Members of the Hunt in bright-colored coats whose facings identified their clubs (Warwick's black and scarlet, Duke of Beaufort's buff and blue, North Warwick's grey and pink) mingled with Yeomanry regiment officers in white Prussian collars and tailcoated nonhunters. They danced to American rhythms played by hot London nightclub bands, ate specially licensed delicacies, happily screamed "whroo, whroo"-the high-pitched cry given when the fox is sighted...
...Scarlet Street (Diana Productions-Universal) is an ambitious melodrama bristling with fine directorial touches and expert acting. Its trouble is its painfully obvious story. Producer-Director Fritz Lang, frankly trying to repeat the success he had with The Woman in the Window, has used all the stock props of rough, tough melodrama in his new thriller. There is the sneering, dame-slapping heel of a hero (Dan Duryea), the bad girl (Joan Bennett) who asks to be slapped around and seems to enjoy it, and the frightened, henpecked little middle-aged cashier (Edward G. Robinson) with a simple-minded...