15 Film Noir Femmes Fatales
Film noir is the name given to the genre of dark crime dramas that proliferated in the 1940s and 50s. The story invariably revolved around a cynical male protagonist and his involvement with a seductive but amoral femme fatale.
Alida Valli, pictured above, plays a classic femme fatale in Hitchcock’s The Paradine Case – a beautiful woman who is arrested for the poisoning of her husband.
The role of Brigid O’Shaughnessy, the deceitful femme fatale in 1941 Warner Bros film The Maltese Falcon, was originally offered to Geraldine Fitzgerald, but went to Mary Astor. Here she is with private investigator Sam Spade, played by Humphrey Bogart, who becomes caught up in the chain of murderous events she initiates.
Joan Bennett broods by a street light in a scene from 1941 film Scarlet Street. The film follows the story of lonely cashier Christopher Cross, who falls in love with Joan Bennett’s character, Kitty, after meeting her at a party. Kitty’s affections, however, lie elsewhere, and she is soon extorting all that Christopher possesses from him.
The slogan for Double Indemnity was “It’s love and murder at first sight!” Seductress Phyllis Dietrichson, played by Barbara Stanwyck, talks a young insurance salesman, played by Walter Neff, into helping her plot her husband’s murder. Before long, however, it emerges that this isn’t the first crime on Phyllis’s hands.
In 1947 film Out of the Past, gas station owner Jeff Bailey is hired to find Kathie, the dangerous and seductive girlfriend of Whit Sterling who has vanished after shooting and stealing $40,000 from her lover. However, when Jeff finds Kathie, played by Jane Greer, he falls in love with her – with tragic results.
Young novelist Richard Harland, played by Cornel Wilde, believes he has found the love of his life when he marries the alluring Ellen Berent, played by Gene Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven. The ultimate femme fatale however, Ellen is an unstable schemer who begins to orchestrate the deaths of everyone he loves.
Another bored wife with murderous intentions, this is Lana Turner as Cora in The Postman Always Rings Twice. The film apparently caused quite a shock amongst 1940s audiences when Cora shares a vigorous kiss with lover Frank Chambers, played by John Garfield
Virginia Mayo was well know for playing aristocrats and princesses, but when she went bad, she went the whole way. In Raoul Walsh’s White Heat she happily lies, cheats and even shoots mother-in-laws in the back to get her own way.
In Detour Al, played by Tom Neale, finds being blackmailed by the cynical, quick-witted Vera, played by Ann Savage, to give her his financial windfall. “You look just like a Phoenix girl,” Al tells Vera at one point. “Are the girls in Phoenix that bad?” is her reply.
Lizabeth Scott was well known for her screen siren roles. In Too Late for Tears, we have another story of a money-grabbing villainess, as Scott’s character, on discovering a suitcase filled with $60,000, decided she is prepared to do anything to keep it. Even – you’ve guessed it – murder.
A con man tries to swindle a widow out of the money she’s received to build a memorial to her husband, but ends up falling in love with her instead in 1948′s Larceny, starring Shelley WInters.
“I seem to be a woman always with a gun in her purse… I go from one set to the other shooting people and stealing husbands!” said Lynn Bari drily of her film career. In Secret Agent of Japan, she steals the show as a ruthless British Secret Service agent.
Brenda Marshall plays a femme fatale gone crazy in Strange Impersonation, where her character, the villainous scientist Nora Goodrich, plots revenge on a lab partner who deliberately scarred her face in an experiment.
“I can never get a zipper to close. Maybe that stands for something, what do you think?” quips Rita Hayworth’s most famous character, the flirtatious and hedonistic Gilda, in the film of the same name.
1941 film noir clasic I Wake Up Screaming is unusual for having its central femme fatale, Vicki, played by Carole Landis (right) dead before the film even begins. The film follows detective Frankie Christopher as he attempts to track down Vicki’s killer with the help of Vicki’s sister, played by Betty Grable (left).
Posted on August 11, 2010 | Filed Under Movies
2 Responses to 15 Film Noir Femmes Fatales
Leave a Reply
[...] 15 film noir femme fatales – [DJMick] [...]
[...] 15 Film Noir Femmes Fatales – DJ Mick [...]