Greatest Femmes Fatales in Classic Film Noir

I Wake Up Screaming (1941) is a black-and-white suspense film starring Betty Grable, Victor Mature, and Carole Landis. The film is an early example of the film noir style.[1] It is based on the novel with the same title by Steve Fisher, with a screenplay by Fisher and Dwight Taylor. It was one of the few times Betty Grable had a straight dramatic role in a picture.

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 Warner Bros. film based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett and a remake of the 1931 film of the same name. Written and directed by John Huston, the film stars Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade; Mary Astor as his femme fatale client; Gladys George, who received third billing despite having a relatively minor role; Peter Lorre; and Sydney Greenstreet in his film debut. The film was Huston's directorial debut and was nominated for three Academy Awards.

Double Indemnity is a 1944 American film noir, directed by Billy Wilder, co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. The script was based on James M. Cain's 1935 novella of the same title which originally appeared as an eight part serial in Liberty magazine. The film stars Fred MacMurray as an insurance salesman, Barbara Stanwyck as a provocative housewife who wishes her husband were dead, and Edward G. Robinson as a claims adjuster whose job is to find phony claims. The term double indemnity refers to a clause in certain life insurance policies that doubles the payout in cases when death is caused by accidental means.

Murder, My Sweet is a 1944 American film noir directed by Edward Dmytryk, and starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, and Anne Shirley. The film was released in the United Kingdom under the title Farewell, My Lovely, which is the title of the 1940 Raymond Chandler novel it is based on, and also the film's original American title.

Laura is a 1944 American film noir directed by Otto Preminger. It stars Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews and Clifton Webb. The screenplay by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Elizabeth Reinhardt is based on the 1943 novel of the same title by Vera Caspary. In 1999, Laura was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The American Film Institute ranked the film #73 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills, the score #7 in AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores, and it was ranked the fourth best film in the mystery genre in AFI's 10 Top 10.

The Woman in the Window (1944) is a film noir directed by Fritz Lang that tells the story of psychology professor Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson) who meets and becomes enamored with a young femme fatale. Based on J. H. Wallis' novel Once Off Guard, the story features two surprise twists at the end. Scriptwriter Nunnally Johnson founded International Pictures (his own independent production company) after writing successful films such as The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and other John Ford films, and chose The Woman in the Window as its premiere project. Director Fritz Lang substituted the film's dream ending in place of the originally scripted suicide ending, to conform with the moralistic Production Code of the time.

Detour (1945) is a film noir cult classic that stars Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake and Edmund MacDonald. The movie was adapted by Martin Goldsmith and Martin Mooney (uncredited) from Goldsmith's novel and was directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. The 68-minute film was released by the Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), one of the so-called "poverty row" film studios in mid-twentieth century Hollywood.

Fallen Angel is a 1945 black-and-white film noir directed by Otto Preminger, with cinematography by Joseph LaShelle, who had also worked with Preminger on Laura a year before. The film features Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, and Charles Bickford. It was the last film Faye made as a major Hollywood star. Disappointed at how studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck cut her role out of the picture, Faye left the studio the day after a preview screening, and did not make another film until State Fair (1962).

Leave Her to Heaven is a 1945 American 20th Century Fox Technicolor film noir motion picture starring Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, with Vincent Price, Darryl Hickman, and Chill Wills. The story revolves around a femme fatale who entraps a husband and commits several crimes motivated by her insane jealousy. The story was adapted for the screen by Jo Swerling, having been based on the best selling novel of the same name authored by Ben Ames Williams. The film was directed by John M. Stahl. Tierney received an Oscar nomination as Best Actress in a Leading Role for this film. The film grossed over $5,000,000 and was Fox's highest-grossing picture of the 1940s.

Mildred Pierce is a 1945 Warner Bros. feature film starring Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, and Eve Arden in a film noir tale about a long-suffering mother and her ungrateful daughter. The screenplay by Ranald MacDougall, William Faulkner, and Catherine Turney was based upon the 1941 novel Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Jerry Wald with Jack L. Warner as executive producer. Mildred Pierce was Crawford's first starring film for Warner Bros. after leaving MGM, and won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Scarlet Street is a 1945 American film noir directed by Fritz Lang and based on the French novel La Chienne (The Bitch) by Georges de La Fouchardière, that previously had been dramatized on stage by André Mouëzy-Éon, and cinematically as La Chienne (1931) by director Jean Renoir. The principal actors Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea, had earlier appeared together in The Woman in the Window (1944) also directed by Fritz Lang. The three were re-teamed for Scarlet Street. The film was later featured in an episode of Cinema Insomnia.

The Big Sleep is a 1946 film noir directed by Howard Hawks, the first film version of Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel of the same name. It stars Humphrey Bogart as detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as the female lead in a film about the "process of a criminal investigation, not its results." William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, and Jules Furthman co-wrote the screenplay. In 1997, the U.S. Library of Congress deemed this film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," and added it to the National Film Registry.

The Blue Dahlia (1946) is an American film noir directed by George Marshall and written by Raymond Chandler. A navy officer returns home to an unfaithful wife, who is later murdered. The film marks the third pairing of stars Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake.

Decoy is a 1946 American film noir. Directed by Jack Bernhard, the film stars Jean Gillie, Edward Norris, Robert Armstrong, Henry Rudley, Sheldon Leonard and Marjorie Woodwarth. The film was produced by Jack Bernhard and Bernard Brandt as a Jack Bernhard Production, with a screenplay by Ned Young, based on an original story by Stanley Rubin. Decoy is a showcase of how film noir can do so much with so little. Short-lived Jean Gillie stars as one of the film genre's toughest femme fatales, a drop-dead beauty who chemically revives her sweetheart-in-crime after he gets the gas chamber. She's after money, not love: he knows where the loot is stashed

Gilda (1946) is a black-and-white film noir directed by Charles Vidor. It stars Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth in her signature role as the ultimate femme fatale. The film was noted for cinematographer Rudolph Mate's lush photography, costume designer Jean Louis' wardrobe for Hayworth (particularly for the dance numbers), and choreographer Jack Cole's staging of "Put the Blame on Mame" and "Amado Mio", sung by Anita Ellis.

The Killers is a 1946 American film noir. It is based in part on the short story of the same name by Ernest Hemingway. The film was directed by Robert Siodmak and features Burt Lancaster in his screen debut, as well as Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, and Sam Levene. An uncredited John Huston and Robert Brooks co-wrote the screenplay, which was credited to Anthony Veiller. In 2008, The Killers was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The Postman Always Rings Twice is a 1946 drama-film noir based on the 1934 The Postman Always Rings Twice novel by James M. Cain. This adaptation of the novel is the best known, featuring Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn, Leon Ames, and Audrey Totter. It was directed by Tay Garnett, with a score written by George Bassman and Erich Zeisl (the latter uncredited). This version was the third filming of The Postman Always Rings Twice, but the first under the novel's original title and the first in English. Previously, the novel had been filmed as Le Dernier Tournant (The Last Turning) in France in 1939, and as Ossessione (Obsession) in Italy in 1942.

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is a black-and-white film noir released in the United States in 1946, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott and Kirk Douglas in his film debut. The movie is based on the short story "Love Lies Bleeding" by playwright John Patrick, using the pseudonym Jack Patrick, and was produced by Hal B. Wallis. The screenplay was written by Robert Rossen and Robert Riskin, who was not credited, and was directed by Lewis Milestone. The film was entered into the 1947 Cannes Film Festival.

Born to Kill is a 1947 film noir starring Lawrence Tierney and directed by Robert Wise. It was the first film noir to be directed by Wise, who later directed The Set-Up (1949), The Captive City (1952), and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). The film also features Claire Trevor, Walter Slezak, and Elisha Cook Jr.

Dead Reckoning is a 1947 Columbia Pictures film noir starring Humphrey Bogart and Lizabeth Scott and featuring Morris Carnovsky. It was directed by John Cromwell and written by Steve Fisher and Oliver H.P. Garrett based on a story by Gerald Drayson Adams and Sidney Biddell.

Lady in the Lake is a 1947 American noir film that marked the directorial debut of actor Robert Montgomery who also starred in the film. It was an adaptation of the 1944 Raymond Chandler novel The Lady in the Lake. The picture features Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully, Leon Ames and Jayne Meadows. Chandler, a twice Oscar nominated screenwriter who did not author the screenplay for this or any other screen adaptations of his own novels, surprisingly disdained Montgomery's ambition to create a cinematic version of the first person narrative style of his Phillip Marlowe novels.

Out of the Past (originally released in the United Kingdom as Build My Gallows High) is a 1947 film noir directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas. The film was adapted by Daniel Mainwaring (using the pseudonym Geoffrey Homes), with uncredited revisions by Frank Fenton and James M. Cain, from his novel Build My Gallows High (also written as Homes). The film is considered by film historians to be a superb example of film noir, due to its convoluted, dreamlike storyline and its chiaroscuro cinematography (cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca also shot Tourneur's Cat People). In 1991, Out of the Past was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

The Paradine Case is a 1947 American courtroom drama film, set in England, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by David O. Selznick. The screenplay was written by Selznick and an uncredited Ben Hecht, from an adaptation by Alma Reville and James Bridie of the novel by Robert Smythe Hichens. The film stars Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Alida Valli, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn, Ethel Barrymore and Louis Jourdan. It tells of an English barrister who falls in love with a woman who is accused of murder, and how it affects his relationship with his wife.

The Woman on the Beach (1947) is a film noir directed by Jean Renoir, released by RKO Radio Pictures, and starring Robert Ryan, Joan Bennett, and Charles Bickford.

Force of Evil (1948) is a film noir directed by Abraham Polonsky who had already achieved a name for himself as a scriptwriter, most notably for the gritty boxing film Body and Soul (1947). Like Body and Soul it starred John Garfield. The movie was adapted by Abraham Polonsky and Ira Wolfert from Wolfert's novel Tucker's People. In 1994, Force of Evil was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The Lady from Shanghai is a 1947 film noir directed by Orson Welles and starring Welles, his estranged wife Rita Hayworth and Everett Sloane. It is based on the novel If I Die Before I Wake by Sherwood King.

Pitfall is a black-and-white 1948 film noir drama directed by André De Toth. The film was based on a novel of the same name by Jay Dratler, and was titled Tragedia a Santa Monica for its Italian release.. The drama features Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt, and Raymond Burr.

Criss Cross (1949) is a film noir, directed by Robert Siodmak from a novel by Don Tracy. This black and white film was shot partly on location in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles. The film was written by Daniel Fuchs. Franz Planer's cinematography creates a black-and-white film noir world. Miklós Rózsa scored the film's soundtrack. The production nearly derailed when producer Mark Hellinger died suddenly before filming began. Lancaster claimed he was unhappy with the way Siodmak and Fuchs had reworked Hellinger's idea of a racetrack heist into a fatal romantic triangle.

Gun Crazy is a 1950 film noir feature film starring Peggy Cummins and John Dall in a story about the crime-spree of a gun-toting husband and wife. The film was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, and produced by Frank King and Maurice King. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo (credited to Millard Kaufman because of the Hollywood Blacklist), and MacKinlay Kantor was based upon a short story by Kantor published in 1940 in The Saturday Evening Post. Gun Crazy was selected for the National Film Registry, and is also known as Deadly Is the Female.(1950)

The Third Man is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. The screenplay was written by novelist Graham Greene, later becoming his novella of the same name. Anton Karas wrote the score, which used only the zither; its title cut topped the international music charts in 1950.

Too Late for Tears is a 1949 black-and-white film noir directed by Byron Haskin and starring Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea. The screenplay was written by Roy Huggins, drawn from a serial he wrote for the Saturday Evening Post. The film was reissued as Killer Bait in 1955. Too Late for Tears has been in the public domain for years but there are sundry edits and running times.

The File on Thelma Jordon (1950) is a film noir directed by Robert Siodmak from a screenplay by Ketti Frings. It stars Barbara Stanwyck and Wendell Corey.