Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

Figure 66. Double Indemnity
In the case of Scarlet Street, there is also an observable crisis of masculinity
embodied by Chris. The scenes in which we see him dressed in his apron have this sort of
overtone. For example, he shows signs of an extreme physical weariness throughout; and
in a psychological manner, a strong desire to cease this agony as if a rope around his neck
would put an end to his life but above all to his emotional torment, his enforced meekness
and malleability of mind. Following Frank Krutnik’s argument that film noir underlines the
problematic aspects of masculine identity, Scarlet Street reinforces noir’s emphasis on
male characters, specifically Chris Cross, who appears to be incapable of overcoming his
Freudian Oedipus complex, and who is, as Krutnik notes, “perhaps evidence of some kind
of crisis of confidence within the contemporary regimentation of male-dominated culture”
(Krutnik 1991:91). Being a married man, Cross feels sexually compromised and the apron
emphasises how much he is sexually caught up and castrated, especially later in the film
when he meets Kitty March (Joan Bennett). Finally, it also accentuates that beneath that
pathetic-looking apron lies a man waiting, with a self-contained life exposing his misery.
275