Femme Fatales: Crime is My Career
A job - Are you kidding me?
* PART TWO *
A job - Are you kidding me?
* PART TWO *
by Paulette Reynolds * November 29, 2021
It can be a tough world in NoirLand for the single Femme Fatale - after all, a girl's gotta eat, right? As luck would have it, the singleton always has a plan A, B, and C. Trouble is, climbing up the career ladder of crime can get --- well, dangerous.
Mary Astor
The Maltese Falcon * 1941
Former silent film star Mary Astor was known for her early films, scandalous diary made public and a torrid love affair with John Barrymore. But these are mere trifles when compared to her most famous moment in film history - that of deadly femme Brigid O'Shaughnessy in John Huston's noir classic, The Maltese Falcon.
Just what is Miss O'Shaughnessy guilty of? This is the question that torments detective Sam Spade, as she shuffles through her stacked deck of lies and deceptions, desperate to keep the truth at arm's length.
The Maltese Falcon * 1941
Former silent film star Mary Astor was known for her early films, scandalous diary made public and a torrid love affair with John Barrymore. But these are mere trifles when compared to her most famous moment in film history - that of deadly femme Brigid O'Shaughnessy in John Huston's noir classic, The Maltese Falcon.
Just what is Miss O'Shaughnessy guilty of? This is the question that torments detective Sam Spade, as she shuffles through her stacked deck of lies and deceptions, desperate to keep the truth at arm's length.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: Help me.
Sam Spade: You won't need much of anybody's help. You're good. Chiefly your eyes, I think, and that throb you get in your voice when you say things like 'Be generous, Mr. Spade.'
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: I deserve that. But the lie was in the way I said it, not at all in what I said. It's my own fault if you can't believe me now.
Sam Spade: Ah, now you are dangerous.
Sam Spade: You won't need much of anybody's help. You're good. Chiefly your eyes, I think, and that throb you get in your voice when you say things like 'Be generous, Mr. Spade.'
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: I deserve that. But the lie was in the way I said it, not at all in what I said. It's my own fault if you can't believe me now.
Sam Spade: Ah, now you are dangerous.
Carole Landis
I Wake Up Screaming * 1941
Landis landed the plum role of Vicky Lynn, a cheap dame long on looks and short on common sense, in 20th Century Fox's first film noir, I Wake Up Screaming. This role would be her most memorable in a life that crammed a lot of living into 29 years. Carole Landis worked from 1937 to 1948, until she committed suicide. Her tumultuous love life was marred by four failed marriages and love affairs with Darryl Zanuck and Rex Harrison.
I Wake Up Screaming * 1941
Landis landed the plum role of Vicky Lynn, a cheap dame long on looks and short on common sense, in 20th Century Fox's first film noir, I Wake Up Screaming. This role would be her most memorable in a life that crammed a lot of living into 29 years. Carole Landis worked from 1937 to 1948, until she committed suicide. Her tumultuous love life was marred by four failed marriages and love affairs with Darryl Zanuck and Rex Harrison.
Vicky Lynn: Is that all?
Larry Evans: No, but the rest of it isn't on the menu.
Vicky Lynn: You couldn't afford it if it was.
Larry Evans: No, but the rest of it isn't on the menu.
Vicky Lynn: You couldn't afford it if it was.
Claire Trevor
Murder, My Sweet * 1944
Claire Trevor enjoyed a versatile career in films, but she's best remembered for playing an icy blonde femme with the subzero heart. Her crowning moment in NoirLand came when she won the Oscar for her performance in Key Largo - as the washed-up gangster's moll Gaye. Yet it can be said that she helped raise the femme fatale trope during the genre's early years as well.
Murder, My Sweet * 1944
Claire Trevor enjoyed a versatile career in films, but she's best remembered for playing an icy blonde femme with the subzero heart. Her crowning moment in NoirLand came when she won the Oscar for her performance in Key Largo - as the washed-up gangster's moll Gaye. Yet it can be said that she helped raise the femme fatale trope during the genre's early years as well.
Helen Grayle: I find men *very* attractive.
Philip Marlowe: I imagine they meet you halfway.
Philip Marlowe: I imagine they meet you halfway.
Joan Bennett
The Woman in the Window * 1944 & Scarlet Street * 1945
Film noir devotees tend to count these two classics as inseparable - and for good reason. Directed by Fritz Lang, the winning trifecta of Joan Bennett (deadly dame), Edward G. Robinson (hapless sucker), and Dan Duryea (bad guy) triples our thrill threshold, and who doesn't want more noir?
Femme Fatale Joan Bennett effortlessly plays to type, honing her working-class bad girl with snappy sarcasm and bursts of hair-trigger exasperation, often bordering on the comical.
The Woman in the Window * 1944 & Scarlet Street * 1945
Film noir devotees tend to count these two classics as inseparable - and for good reason. Directed by Fritz Lang, the winning trifecta of Joan Bennett (deadly dame), Edward G. Robinson (hapless sucker), and Dan Duryea (bad guy) triples our thrill threshold, and who doesn't want more noir?
Femme Fatale Joan Bennett effortlessly plays to type, honing her working-class bad girl with snappy sarcasm and bursts of hair-trigger exasperation, often bordering on the comical.
Alice Reed: [Offering him a drink] Let's have another.
Richard Wanley: I should say no, I know, but I haven't the slightest intention of saying it.
Richard Wanley: I should say no, I know, but I haven't the slightest intention of saying it.
Scarlet Street * 1945
Kitty March: How can a man be so dumb... I've been waiting to laugh in your face ever since I met you. You're old and ugly and I'm sick of you - sick, sick, sick!
Kitty March: How can a man be so dumb... I've been waiting to laugh in your face ever since I met you. You're old and ugly and I'm sick of you - sick, sick, sick!
Linda Darnell
Fallen Angel * 1945
Stella inspires men to embrace their lowest impulses with her cynical beauty, yet she longs for the respectability and comfort of marriage. Whether or not she would have enjoyed wedded bliss is never known, since she ends up like her celluloid doppelgänger, Vicky from I Wake Up Screaming.
Fallen Angel * 1945
Stella inspires men to embrace their lowest impulses with her cynical beauty, yet she longs for the respectability and comfort of marriage. Whether or not she would have enjoyed wedded bliss is never known, since she ends up like her celluloid doppelgänger, Vicky from I Wake Up Screaming.
Stella: You talk different, sure. But you drive just like the rest. Well, you've got the wrong girl.
Ann Savage
Detour * 1945
Vera is perhaps the most vicious example of just how unlikeable the femme fatale can be, given that the cheaper the vixen equals more spontaneous and random acts of violence. Detour delivers grim and gritty drama, thanks to the consummate performance by Ann Savage.
Detour * 1945
Vera is perhaps the most vicious example of just how unlikeable the femme fatale can be, given that the cheaper the vixen equals more spontaneous and random acts of violence. Detour delivers grim and gritty drama, thanks to the consummate performance by Ann Savage.
Vera: Life's like a ball game. You gotta take a swing at whatever comes along before you find it's the ninth inning.
Jane Greer
Out of the Past * 1947
Jane Greer played plenty of dark dames, but her Kathie joins the ranks of solid gold membership in Noirland. She wears her femme badge of honor like a second skin as she double crosses everyone up to the finish line.
But the real star here is Jacques Tourneur's use of chiaroscuro, space, and framed doorways elevate this rather convoluted noir film into the classic that still fascinates fans today.
Out of the Past * 1947
Jane Greer played plenty of dark dames, but her Kathie joins the ranks of solid gold membership in Noirland. She wears her femme badge of honor like a second skin as she double crosses everyone up to the finish line.
But the real star here is Jacques Tourneur's use of chiaroscuro, space, and framed doorways elevate this rather convoluted noir film into the classic that still fascinates fans today.
Kathie: Don't you see? You've only me to make deals with now.
Jeff: Well, build my gallows high, baby.
Jeff: Well, build my gallows high, baby.
Lizabeth Scott
Dead Reckoning * 1947
Lizabeth Scott has always held a soft spot in film noir, playing complex femmes with convoluted intentions. As Coral she easily steals every scene, reminding us of another noir queen - The Maltese Falcon's Bridgette O'Shaughnessy - who also met a sticky end.
Dead Reckoning * 1947
Lizabeth Scott has always held a soft spot in film noir, playing complex femmes with convoluted intentions. As Coral she easily steals every scene, reminding us of another noir queen - The Maltese Falcon's Bridgette O'Shaughnessy - who also met a sticky end.
Coral Chandler: Oh, it's a blue, sick world, Rip.
Peggy Cummins
Gun Crazy * 1950
Welsh-born Peggy Cummins made her mark in Hollywood as the whip-wild crazy killer femme, Annie Laurie Starr, and film noir has never been the same since.
Gun Crazy * 1950
Welsh-born Peggy Cummins made her mark in Hollywood as the whip-wild crazy killer femme, Annie Laurie Starr, and film noir has never been the same since.
Annie Laurie Starr: Bart, I've been kicked around all my life, and from now on, I'm gonna start kicking back.
Jean Simmons
Angel Face * 1952
England's freshest flower, known by her serious resume of dramatic roles, surprises us here by flying her psycho femme flag.
Angel Face * 1952
England's freshest flower, known by her serious resume of dramatic roles, surprises us here by flying her psycho femme flag.
Diane Tremayne: ...How can you say that to me?
Frank Jessup: Oh, you mean after all we've been to each other?... Diane, look. I don't pretend to know what goes on behind that pretty little face of yours - I don't *want* to. But I learned one thing very early. Never be the innocent bystander - that's the guy that always gets hurt. If you want to play with matches, that's your business. But not in gas-filled rooms - that's not only dangerous, it's stupid.
Frank Jessup: Oh, you mean after all we've been to each other?... Diane, look. I don't pretend to know what goes on behind that pretty little face of yours - I don't *want* to. But I learned one thing very early. Never be the innocent bystander - that's the guy that always gets hurt. If you want to play with matches, that's your business. But not in gas-filled rooms - that's not only dangerous, it's stupid.
Gloria Grahame
The Big Heat * 1953
Ms. Grahame embraced a Gemini aesthetic, as only a Scorpio could, delighting in living on the edge. Married four times, she not only married innovative director Nicholas Ray, but went one better and married his son, Anthony. The scandal may have dented her career, but she still continued to act.
This Oscar-winning actor excelled in roles that featured her moody, abrasive personality, and The Big Heat allowed her to play the soft-hearted, sorrowful Debby for all it's worth.
The Big Heat * 1953
Ms. Grahame embraced a Gemini aesthetic, as only a Scorpio could, delighting in living on the edge. Married four times, she not only married innovative director Nicholas Ray, but went one better and married his son, Anthony. The scandal may have dented her career, but she still continued to act.
This Oscar-winning actor excelled in roles that featured her moody, abrasive personality, and The Big Heat allowed her to play the soft-hearted, sorrowful Debby for all it's worth.
Debby Marsh: [to Bannion] The main thing is to have the money. I've been rich and I've been poor. *Believe* me, rich is better.
Married? Single? Either way, the femme fatale will always be the most popular woman in the room - and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
COPYRIGHT 2012/2021. Paulette Reynolds. All CineMata Movie Madness blog articles, reviews, faux interviews, commentary, and the Cine Mata character are under the sole ownership of Paulette Reynolds. All intellectual and creative rights reserved.
