The MoFo Top 100 of the Forties: The Countdown

I admit I have seen very few foreign-language films of the 40s and only had 3 on my list which is a lot fewer than previous decade lists.

Rome Open City was one I meant to watch and just didn't get round to before the deadline.

I'm not trying to present my opinion as a fact , but I believe Scarlet Street just doesn't hold up really well.

Rome, Open City - What it lacks in subtlety, it more than makes up for in raw power, although there is some poetry in Rossellini's direction. Dialogue by Fellini. Filmed under the Nazis' noses.

Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, 1945)

This is a good followup to The Woman in the Window, another film noir directed by Lang and starring Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett. In this one, Eddie's happiest moment is the opening scene where his boss is throwing him a party for being his faithful cashier for 25 years. Soon after leaving the party, Robinson, who plays a character named Christopher Cross (get it?), tries to rescue a young woman named Kitty (Bennett) from an apparent mugger named Johnny (Dan Duryea). Chris is a real sap though because he doesn't realize that Kitty is a whore and Johnny is her abusive pimp. Kitty quickly perceives that Chris will do anything for her, so she gets him to rent her a studio apartment, and then, after she learns that Chris is an amateur painter, she gets him to bring his paintings over to the apartment. Things really snowball from here. Among other things, Chris begins to steal money from his boss to pay for Kitty's apartment, and Chris is also stuck in an incredibly-loveless marriage. Chris basically turns into one of the most pathetic characters in film history because Kitty and Johnny are making love in the apartment, and Johnny starts trying to make some money selling Chris's unsigned paintings. And all this happens less than halfway into the movie. I still think that The Woman in the Window is a bit better, but this flick is pretty damn solid.

I believe any movie should be judged by the standards of the day, and not compared to today's movies or today's standards. I kind of hate it when people say a film doesn't hold up. I I mean it's a 1940's movie, either someone can view it through a 1940s time frame, or not.
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Well, how exactly should I evaluate film if not by the standards of time I live in ? Are you suggesting that 40s films should be immune to modern criticism ? I don't see a reason why I shouldn't be able to apply technique of modern criticism to a film from 1940s . There are plenty of older films that stand test of time and manage to engage with today's viewer and to me personally Scarlet Street isn''t one of them. I think it's rather unrealistic to expect from people to judge film by the standards of the day, as if we're some major experts in film history who're actually capable of doing so.

It's not like I thought Scarlet Street was brilliant, and in fact my wife and I laughed out loud for most of it's duration. A lot of that might not have been the film's intention. I am surprised that so many people liked Woman in the Window. I would put that film's ending in the top two worst I have ever seen. I mean it really pissed me off how terrible it was, completely ruining an otherwise fairly enjoyable movie.

What's the worst ending you've ever seen?

That and High Tension

What's the worst ending you've ever seen?

we should turn this into the worst ending countdown

I liked Scarlet Street, but not enough to include it on my list. I thought Edward G. Robinson was a bit too much of a wimp in the movie, and I had mixed feelings about the ending. I thought The Woman in the Window was a much better movie.