Marlene Dietrich Betty Grable Rita Hayworth
Photo: Myrna Loy
More recently, scholarship on film noir has seen the role of femme fatale as empowering, pointing to Bette Davis and Kathleen Turner, among others. One of the purest archetypal representations, however, also comes from Hammett. Gabrielle Dain in The Dain Curse is sexually attractive, belongs to a cult, uses drugs, and has small, pointed ears and teeth. The detective has to imprison her in a cottage to see her through delirium tremens and exorcise her lust. Raymond Chandler gave the same physical features to murderous, sex-obsessed Carmen Sternwood in The Big Sleep. Had he succumbed to her, Marlowe would have been shot at the novel's end. Other classic femme fatale characters (not pure archetypes) are Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon, Velma Valento/Helen Grayle in Farewell, My Lovely, Cora in The Postman Always Rings Twice and Phyllis in Double Indemnity. These characters are more individuated and less archetypal in appearance and personality. Authors tend to deploy the femme fatale in signature fashion. Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer novels are filled with buxom blonde killers. Ross Macdonald treats his female characters much more sympathetically and psychologically; few qualify as archetypal. James M. Cain lessened his use after Double Indemnity; his widowed heroine in Mildred Pierce (1941, not covered in this study) makes her way alone through the Depression. Use of the archetype has not been restricted to male writers. Honey West, the detective created by Gloria and Forest Fickling, embodied many archetypal conventions in her "blonde bombshell" appearance.
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Joan Crawford
The femme fatale appears in many contemporary works. Even those writers who avoid the archetype or "unmask" it, such as Sara Paretsky and Sue Grafton, sometimes use it negatively. A good example of how the femme fatale is used creatively is Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. There Sam Spade is attracted to three women, a motif that echoes the ancient Greek Fates, who tell men the future. He is involved in an adulterous affair with his partner's wife, Iva Archer. His secretary, Effie Perrine, is a tom-boyish, competent girl-next-door who would make the perfect spouse. Brigid O'Shaughnessy, the femme fatale, seems to promise sensuality and wealth, but Spade sees through her – and uses her when she thinks she is using him. The novel's end leaves Spade alienated from Effie, who is, ironically, mad that he rejected the "romance" of Brigid, while Iva knocks at the door. It is a grim morality play about making your bed and lying in it. The femme fatale in movies predates the advent of film noir. Theda Bara and Marlene Dietrich already played the role in the silent era. The type appears in the 1930s crime movies and then in film noir. Bette Davis was an early example and later used the conventions to portray strong characters (Beyond the Forest, The Letter). Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford, who had played strong-willed, working women in the 1930s, enhanced their fading careers in the 1940s by playing some of the most dramatic femmes fatales: Stanwyck in Double Indemnity, Clash by Night and Witness to Murder; Crawford in The Damned Don't Cry, Possessed and Sudden Fear. Ida Lupino was one of the most convincingly human of the movie femmes fatale (The Asphalt Jungle), contrasting with the icy eroticism of Stanwyck (High Sierra; Beware, My Lovely; While the City Sleeps). Other notable performances include Lana Turner's in The Postman Always Rings Twice, Joan Bennett's in Scarlet Street, and Rita Hayworth's in Gilda and The Lady from Shanghai.
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