Hey, Chris, “So you think you’re a Romeo, playing a part in a picture-show, take the long way home” on Scarlet St.
When I first saw the 1945 movie Scarlet Street, based on the novel La Chienne,
[image error]the 1979 song, Take the Long Way Home, by Supertramp kept playing in my mind.
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They are one in the same story.
Once contented with his job as a meek amateur painter and cashier for clothing retailer, old Christopher Cross, played by Edward G. Robinson, is lonely and sad that his wife who used to be nice has become intolerably nasty. After a special dinner outing with the company employees, he mopes along in the rain. He comes across a beautiful young lady in distress.
The song continues, “Cos you’re the joke of the neighborhood
Why should you care if you’re feeling good
Take the long way home
Take the long way home
But there are times that you feel you’re part of the scenery
all the greenery is comin’ down, boy
And then your wife seems to think you’re part of the
furniture oh, it’s peculiar, she used to be so nice.
When lonely days turn to lonely nights
you take a trip to the city lights
And take the long way home
Take the long way home”
Chris rescues her and buys her a coffee/drink. The distressed lady, played by Constance Bennett, is not so much a lady but is broke, down on her luck and beat up often by her boyfriend, played by Dan Duryea. Judging my Chris’s perfect manners and formal dinner attire, she takes him for being wealthy. His paintings fascinate her. She and her boyfriend scam the old man, who had bragged about the value of oil paintings. He actually never dreamed of selling or displaying his.
“You never see what you want to see
Forever playing to the gallery
You take the long way home
Take the long way home”
Chris is madly in love with the girl who puts him on a pedestal. His battleaxe wife thinks he is crazy and threatens to throw out his paints and pictures.
The song then goes, “And when you’re up on the stage, it’s so unbelievable,
unforgettable, how they adore you,
But then your wife seems to think you’re losing your sanity,
oh, calamity, is there no way out?
Does it feel that you life’s become a catastrophe?
Oh, it has to be for you to grow, boy.
When you look through the years and see what you could
have been oh, what might have been,
if you’d had more time.”
Chris ‘girlfriend’ forges her signature on his paintings. They are surprisingly good and a broker displays them in a gallery. Yet, Chris still proposes marriage even after he finds out. She laughs in his face and calls him an old fool. He is crushed and goes mad with rage.
Song concludes, “So, when the day comes to settle down,
Who’s to blame if you’re not around?
You took the long way home
You took the long way home………..”
He walks the street again, having lost everything, as a vagabond.
See? Same story.
click” Scarlet Street
click: Supertramp
