'Scarlet Street' (1945)

The formidable Fritz Lang who saw and knew
too much gives us cinema of the nightmare.
Admired by Hitler, Lang - in mid'30s - was
offered key slot in the New Order. He packed
for Paris. In Hollywood he had to deal w Hitlery
moguls but turned out some glorious noirs.
2 with Joan Bennett, Edward G and Dan Duryea.
Seminal to film noir, Lang tackles the sinister,
malevolent, promiscuous, fetishistic, impotent
and uneducated vice that defined Berlin-Hollywood.
Now the LA moguls are cultured beyond a fault,
we pretend, or their corporate owners are. Here,
Edward G, a doltish Sunday painter, falls for
prossie Bennett. Result: displacement, delusion
and murder.