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

Unable to go to the police and unable to paint because his name has been usurped,
we now see Chris turn into a smelly confused vagabond (fig. 77) wandering the street, on
whom life has played a cruel trick, whose mantra – “ten thousand dollars!” – we hear along
with him, as the painting is transported out of the art gallery (fig. 75) and sold to a rich
man. He eventually goes into a hotel room and in a blatantly expressionist scene we now
Figure 77. Scarlet Street
see him in this scruffy room, squirming in pain, the shimmering light from a neon sign
intermittently piercing through the darkness. He suffers a mental breakdown as he is
confronted with a phantom image of his past, totally obsessed with the taunting voices of
Kitty and Johnny, when they used to be together. Again a mantra-like refrain with Kitty’s
voice lingers on his mind: “You killed me, Chris. You’re old and ugly and you killed me”,
mixed with the music of “Melancholy Baby” which they used to listen to together. He
attempts to hang himself, but is rescued and becomes a pauper with no means of claiming
credit for his own paintings. Brought to an end, the street gets completely deserted of
people and Chris becomes then the paradigmatic night urban vagrant, still with Kitty’s
“jeepers Johnny, I love you” echoing in his head.
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