Comparisons are odious, but here goes anyway. If you want to see if a terrific melodrama about art, watch Scarlet Street, the 1945 Fritz Lang film. Wonderful script and performances, too. Edward G. Robinson is very touching as the archetypal little man bedevilled by not one but two she-wolves. Dan Duryea is enormously energetic as a cad. The script is both thoughtful and witty. Eventually, The Robinson character is revenged on both women, but it costs him. The film also works as an examination of art and commerce. Unlike the film I'm comparing this one to, it lets the audience think. Also I must mention, the studio apartment in which the plot advances is to die for - apparently there was a time when studio apartment meant, you know, an apartment with a studio IN it. The Hayes commission makes an appearance by forcing the director to stick a bed (referred to as a couch) in the living room to imply goings on. Excerpt on Youtube here
You have a problem with perspective, dontcha?
- Johnny Prince
.JPG)
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