# Scarlet Street

Scarlet Street is a 1945 American film noir about a man in mid-life crisis who befriends a young woman who is then persuaded by her venal fiancé into conning him out of a fortune she mistakenly thinks he has.
    Directed by Fritz Lang. Written by Dudley Nichols.

## Kitty March

* If he were mean or vicious or if he'd bawl me out or something, I'd like him better.
* Well, I was going to do this myself, but, uh... [hands him toenail polish] Paint me, Chris!... They'll be masterpieces.
* How can a man be so dumb...I wanted to laugh in your face ever since the moment I met you. You're old, ugly and I'm sick of you. Sick, sick, sick!

## Johnny Prince

* Can't you get those Lazy Legs off that couch, baby?
* [upon entering a strange house for the first time] Where's the bedroom?

## Other

* Reporter on Train: [referring to being executed] I'd rather have a judge give me the works than to have to do it to myself.

## Dialogue

    Johnny Prince: And then you gave me a dirty look.
    Kitty March: I didn't give you a dirty look!
    Johnny Prince: Listen, any girl that waits two hours in the rain for a guy is gonna give him a dirty look.
    Kitty March: Who do you think you are? My guardian angel?
    Millie Ray: Not me, honey. I lost those wings a long time ago.
    Adele Cross: Next thing you'll be painting women without clothes.
    Christopher Cross: I never saw a woman without any clothes.
    Adele Cross: I should hope not!
    Johnny Prince: Lazy Legs. [kisses her] I don't know what you told Janeway, but you got him eatin' right out of your hand.
    Kitty March: It won't stop with lunch!
    Christopher Cross: Hey, did you read this?
    Adele Cross: Read what?
    Christopher Cross: This murder in Queens. A man killed his wife with the window weight, put her body in the trunk, shipped her to California. It says here...
    Adele Cross: I've read the paper, thank you. He didn't get away with it, did he? He'll go to the chair, as he should.
    Christopher Cross: Yeah, a man hasn't got a chance with these New York detectives.
    Kitty March: You know those art galleries on Fifth Avenue? The prices they charge! I saw one little picture that cost fifty-thousand dollars. They call it, uh, 'Seezan'.
    Christopher Cross: Cezanne? Oh, he was a great French painter. I'd like to own that painting.
    Kitty March: You would? For fifty-thousand dollars?
    Christopher Cross: You can't put any price on masterpieces like that. They're worth, well, whatever you can afford to pay for them.
    Kitty March: You know what, Chris? I bet I saw some of your pictures there and didn't know it. Next time I'll look for your name.
    Christopher Cross: Oh no no no no no. I, uh... I don't sell my pictures.
    Kitty March: Well not in New York you mean.
    Christopher Cross: No, I-...
    Kitty March: I know. I bet your sell your pictures in Europe, France or someplace like that. I don't know much about painting, but I bet your get as much for your pictures in France as those Frenchman get right here in New York. You're never appreciated in your own country.
    Christopher Cross: Well that's one way of looking at it. But you know when I paint, I don't think of money. I just paint for fun.
    Kitty March: Fun?
    Christopher Cross: Yes. I think it's the most fun I know, painting. I wish I had all the time to paint.
    Kitty March: But don't you have time?
    Christopher Cross: [stammering] Well you know... business takes a lot of time.
    Kitty March: I wonder when you get all that money.
    Kitty March: How long does it take you to paint a picture?
    Christopher Cross: Sometimes a day, sometimes a year. You can't tell. It has to grow.
    Kitty March: I never knew paint could grow.
    Christopher Cross: Feeling grows. You know, that's the important thing, feeling. You take me. No one ever taught me how to draw, so I just put a line around what I feel when I look at things.
    Kitty March: Yeah I see.
    Christopher Cross: It's like falling in love I guess. You know... first you see someone, then it keeps growing, until you can't think of anyone else.
    Kitty March: That's interesting.
    Christopher Cross: The way I think of things, that all art is. Every painting, if it's any good, is a love affair.
    Kitty March: I never heard anyone talk like that before.
    Christopher Cross: There aren't many people you can talk to this way. So you keep it to yourself. You walk around with everything bottled up.
    Kitty March: Johnny. Oh, Johnny.
    Johnny Prince: Crazy Legs.
    Kitty March: Jeepers, I love you Johnny.

## Cast

* Edward G. Robinson — Christopher Cross
* Joan Bennett — Katharine 'Kitty' March
* Dan Duryea — Johnny Prince
* Margaret Lindsay — Millie Ray
* Jess Barker — David Janeway
* Rosalind Ivan — Adele Cross
* Arthur Loft — Dellarowe
* Charles Kemper — Patch-eye Higgins
* Russell Hicks — J.J. Hogarth
* Samuel S. Hinds — Charles Pringle
* Anita Sharp-Bolster — Mrs. Michaels
* Vladimir Sokoloff — Pop LeJon
* Cy Kendall — Nick

## External links

* Scarlet Street quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Scarlet Street at Rotten Tomatoes