Scarlet Street vs Woman in the Window
Scarlet Street vs Woman in the Window
Both were directed by Lang, both starred Eddie G, Duryea, and the fabulous Joan Bennett. Would anyone care to discuss these films, Lang and JOAN.
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Mr. Arkadin
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- Joined: April 14th, 2007, 3:00 pm
Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, and The Secret Beyond the Door consitute a trilogy between Bennet and Lang who formed their own production company to make these films (Robinson also owned a share).
The films flow from light to dark. Woman in the Window, although dealing with a serious subject, has many comedic elements and is played very much tongue in cheek. The Secret Beyond the Door has a very serious tone and there is never any levity in the film. Scarlet Street is more balanced than these two bookends. It has humor and lots of underlying jokes and jabs, but it also has a deadly serious element as well.
If there is an overlying theme that runs through all three works it would be a nightmarish quality or dreamlike existence. In Woman in the Window Robinson's and Bennet's meeting is dreamlike and we find out why later on in the film (I don't want to spoil it for others). Scarlet Street is about a man who never achieved his dreams as a young man. When they are fufilled they become nightmares. The Secret Beyond the Door is the most beautifully shot of the three and the cinematography actually looks very dreamlike. Bennet marries a mysterious stranger and like the Blubeard fairy tale she is fascinated by a locked room that he will not allow her to see. As characters in WITW and SS, her character begins to live in a world of her own imagination.
I don't think any of these films is better than the other. They are three chapters in a book written by Bennet and Lang and should be viewed as such.
The films flow from light to dark. Woman in the Window, although dealing with a serious subject, has many comedic elements and is played very much tongue in cheek. The Secret Beyond the Door has a very serious tone and there is never any levity in the film. Scarlet Street is more balanced than these two bookends. It has humor and lots of underlying jokes and jabs, but it also has a deadly serious element as well.
If there is an overlying theme that runs through all three works it would be a nightmarish quality or dreamlike existence. In Woman in the Window Robinson's and Bennet's meeting is dreamlike and we find out why later on in the film (I don't want to spoil it for others). Scarlet Street is about a man who never achieved his dreams as a young man. When they are fufilled they become nightmares. The Secret Beyond the Door is the most beautifully shot of the three and the cinematography actually looks very dreamlike. Bennet marries a mysterious stranger and like the Blubeard fairy tale she is fascinated by a locked room that he will not allow her to see. As characters in WITW and SS, her character begins to live in a world of her own imagination.
I don't think any of these films is better than the other. They are three chapters in a book written by Bennet and Lang and should be viewed as such.