Scarlet Street

Joan Bennett pretends to be a self-portrait in Scarlet Street (dir. Fritz Lang, 1945).

I love this movie. Dan Duryea is so good it hurts. The Leger-esque paintings in this film, which are supposed to be the work of Edward G. Robinson's character (frustrated amateur artist Chris Cross), and which end up displayed as the work of Joan Bennett's character (the prostitute who cons Cross out of his money), are actually the work of Hollywood portraitist John Decker. Looking him up in Wikipedia, I see that a biography about him came out last year: C. Stephen Jordan, Bohemian Rogue: The Life of Hollywood Artist John Decker (Scarecrow Press, 2005).