Cashier and part-time starving artist Christopher Cross is absolutely smitten with the beautiful Kitty March. Kitty plays along, but she's really only interested in Johnny, a two-bit crook. When Kitty and Johnny find out that art dealers are interested in Chris's work, they con him into letting Kitty take credit for the paintings. Cross allows it because he is in love with Kitty, but his love will only let her get away with so much.
Acting
Robinson's quivering desperation is physically painful to watch.
Direction
Lang frames every room like a trap closing slowly.
Writing
Dialogue so cruel it should come with a warning label.
Director
Fritz Lang
Edward G. Robinson
Christopher Cross
Joan Bennett
Katherine 'Kitty' March
Dan Duryea
Johnny Prince
Margaret Lindsay
Millie Ray
Jess Barker
David Janeway
Rosalind Ivan
Adele Cross
Charles Kemper
Homer Higgins
Anita Sharp-Bolster
Laura Michaels
Samuel S. Hinds
Charles Pringle
Vladimir Sokoloff
Pop LeJon
Arthur Loft
Dellarowe
Russell Hicks
J.J. Hogarth
Richard Cramer
Principal Keeper (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Lang remade his own 1931 French film 'La Chienne,' but the Hays Code demanded a radically darker ending—no suicide allowed, so Chris gets psychological annihilation instead.
This film was so controversial it was banned in several cities; exhibitors received police warnings about its 'morbid' content, which only made audiences hungrier for it.
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