Scarlet Street

New York, 1934: Chris Cross is feted by his employer for 25 years of service, receiving a gold watch and warm praise from J. J. Hogarth. Hogarth then leaves in a limousine with his glamorous mistress, sparking Chris's quiet ache for love. He walks away with a sense that respect and riches cannot replace true affection.

Chris rescues Kitty from a drunken attacker with his umbrella, the assailant turning out to be Kitty's boyfriend Johnny who escapes as Chris hurries to summon a policeman. Kitty, grateful and intrigued, lets him walk her to her apartment. Her impression that he might be a wealthy painter grows as they talk about art and style.

During the walk, Chris opens up about his loveless marriage to Adele and his longing for genuine affection. He confesses that he feels trapped and unseen, sharing a dream of a life where he is cherished. Kitty listens, beginning to see him as more than a cautious, dutiful man.

Johnny schemes to swindle Chris by exploiting Kitty's supposed romance with him. Kitty persuades Chris to rent her apartment, presenting it as a convenient studio for his art. The arrangement draws them closer and sets up a dangerous game of deception.

Unbeknownst to his wife, Chris steals 500 in insurance bonds from Adele, and later takes 1,000 cash from his employer to fund the scheme. He tries to rationalize the theft as a temporary shortcut, not realizing how quickly it will tighten his trap. The money stirs him toward riskier actions.

Johnny tries selling some paintings and a street vendor undervalues them, but art critic Damon Janeway recognizes their originality. Kitty, pressured by Johnny to claim authorship, charms Janeway and helps launch Chris's work into the public eye. The paintings spark a sudden, dazzling career that leaves Chris uncredited and increasingly unsettled.

Adele discovers paintings in a gallery window signed Katherine March and accuses Chris of copying. Chris confronts Kitty, who says she sold the paintings to raise money, and he reluctantly allows her to continue as the public face of his art. The collaboration becomes a commercial sensation, even as Chris remains financially unpaid and morally uneasy.

Higgins, Adele's supposedly dead husband, reappears at Chris's office to extort money. He had faked his death after discovering funds and now threatens to expose Chris's crimes. To appease him, Chris even steals another 200 from the safe while plotting how to neutralize the threat and invalidate the marriage once Higgins is found alive.

Chris visits Kitty and finds Johnny and Kitty embracing. Kitty rejects him as old and unattractive, triggering a rage that ends with Chris stabbing Kitty to death with an ice pick. The murder precipitates the dramatic unraveling that follows.

Police arrive after Higgins tips off that Chris embezzled money from Hogarth. Hogarth refuses to press charges but fires Chris, and Johnny is arrested for Kitty's murder. The case compounds the tension around Chris as the center of a spiraling web of deceit and crime.

At the trial, Johnny's past misdeeds work against him while Chris denies painting, insisting he is merely a talentless amateur. Several witnesses corroborate a different version of events and indict Johnny for Kitty's murder. Johnny is convicted and executed, and Kitty is celebrated as a prodigal talent lost too soon, even as Chris remains uncredited.

On the night of Johnny's execution, Chris, haunted by the possibility that he got away with murder, tries to hang himself but is saved by Good Samaritans. He survives but is left with a chilling sense of exposure and moral collapse. The immediate aftermath leaves him to confront the consequences of his actions.

Five years after the execution, Chris is homeless and destitute, unable to claim credit for his own paintings. He drifts through the city, a ghost of his former self, with no stable income or recognition. His life is a stark fall from the artificial success he once sought.

Chris sees Kitty's portrait selling for a staggering sum of 10,000 and is tormented by the ghosts of Kitty and Johnny. He wanders the streets of New York, broke, broken, and mad, a man finally paying the price for a lifetimes of deceit. The visual echo of his lost talent haunts him to the end.