Scarlet Street (1945), after The Woman in the Window (1944), was Fritz Lang’s second film in his so-called “Black Series”. Once more it was Edward G. Robinson (who had also acted for Billy Wilder in 1944), Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea who assumed the main roles in a Lang film. Robinson is the honest cashier, Christopher Cross, who yearns to pursue a career as a painter. Unhappy with his own marriage, he falls for the younger Kitty (Bennett), who hides from her new admirer the fact that she is in a relationship with the good-for-nothing Johnny (Duryea). Kitty and Johnny decide to exploit Christopher’s interest and to extort money from him – funds which Christopher then steals from his employer. Ultimately, Christopher realizes Kitty’s scheme and murders her in the heat of the moment. It is Johnny, however, who is charged for her murder and sentenced to death. Christopher is fired by his employer for embezzlement and ends up living on the street, pursued by the voices of his victims.

As is typical for the film noir genre, the offender is not the real villain of the piece, rather it is the social environment that creates the murderer. Ultimately, Christopher pays for his crimes with his own life and livelihood which, at the film’s conclusion, are in complete disarray.