Scarlet Street

New York, 1934 – Christopher "Chris" Cross, a late middle-aged cashier for a clothing retailer, is fêted by his employer for 25 years of service. After presenting Chris with a gold watch and kind words, company owner J.J. Hogarth leaves the party and gets into a limousine with his beautiful blonde mistress. Chris muses to a colleague about his desire to be wanted by a young woman like that. Walking home through Greenwich Village still in his tuxedo, Chris sees Katherine "Kitty" March being attacked by a drunk. Chris flails him with his umbrella, the man slips, and is knocked out by a curb. While Chris dashes off to summon a policeman, the assailant flees. Chris walks Kitty to her apartment. His wistful remarks about art and formal dinner attire suggest to her that Chris must be a wealthy painter rather than the meek amateur he is. Enamored of Kitty and thinking she feels affection for him, Chris tells her about his loveless marriage. His shrewish wife Adele idolizes her previous husband, a policeman honored for drowning while trying to rescue a suicidal woman. The disappearing drunk, it turns out, is Johnny, Kitty's boyfriend. Needing funds for a shady business deal, he proposes that Kitty feign romantic interest in Chris to swindle him. Kitty persuades the naive Chris to rent her an apartment, which he can use as an art studio. Chris falls for it, steals $500 in insurance bonds from his wife, and later $1,000 cash from his employer. Unknown to Chris, Johnny tries selling some of his paintings, leaving them with a street vendor who believes them worth no more than $25. They attract the interest of prominent art critic Damon Janeway, who declares the work original and brilliant. After Johnny persuades Kitty to pretend that she painted them, she charms Janeway with Chris's own views about art. Captivated by the paintings and her, Janeway advances Kitty's career. Adele sees her husband's paintings, signed "Katherine March", in the window of an exclusive art gallery and accuses Chris of copying March's work. Chris confronts Kitty, who claims that she had sold them because she needed the money. Delighted that his creations are appreciated, he lets her remain the public face of his art. It becomes a huge commercial success, but Chris never receives a dime. A mysterious man appears at Chris's office to extort money from him. It's Higgins, who'd disappeared after discovering $2,700 in the purse of the woman he had tried to save. Already suspected of taking bribes from speakeasies, he faked his death to escape both his crimes and his marriage to a gargoyle. Chris steals another $200 from the safe for Higgins. Chris plots for Adele to ambush Higgins, delighted that his marriage will be invalidated when Higgins is found alive. Chris goes to see Kitty, believing that he is now free and that she will marry him. He finds Johnny and Kitty in an embrace, confirming his worst fears. However, Chris persists in asking Kitty to marry him. She spurns him for being old and ugly, and laughs in his face. Enraged, he stabs her to death. The police appear at Chris's office, tipped off by Higgins that Chris has embezzled money from Hogarth, who refuses to press charges, but fires Chris. Johnny is arrested for Kitty's murder. At the trial, Chris denies painting the pictures, claiming to be an untalented artist. Several witnesses confirm Chris's testimony and attest to Johnny's past misdeeds and bad character. Johnny is convicted and put to death, and Kitty is immortalized as a great talent lost too soon. Haunted by getting away with murder, Chris attempts to hang himself on the night of Johnny's execution, but is prevented by Good Samaritans. Five years later he is homeless and destitute, with no way of claiming credit for his own paintings. He sees his portrait of Kitty selling for $10,000. Tormented by voices of the ghosts of Kitty and Johnny, Chris wanders New York broken and mad.

Plot from Scarlet StreetCC BY-SA 4.0