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Step into the shadows with some of classic Hollywood noir’s most dazzling and dangerous femmes fatales. These unforgettable women led men into traps of love, greed, and deadly betrayal, each weaving a web of seductive power and dark secrets. From sultry singers to cold-hearted manipulators, discover the sirens who defined an era and turned noir into timeless suspense.
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00:00Don't you think he ought to have accident insurance?
00:02Uh-huh.
00:04What kind of insurance could he have?
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most dangerous, dazzling,
00:11and unforgettable femme fatales from classic Hollywood film noir.
00:15For this list, we're looking at women from the golden age of noir who led the men around them straight
00:20into trouble.
00:22You've got to trust me, Mr. Spade.
00:24Oh, I'm so alone and afraid.
00:27I've got nobody to help me if you won't help me.
00:3210. Gilda Munson, Gilda
00:35Gilda, are you decent?
00:38Me?
00:48Sure, I'm decent.
00:49Is Gilda a femme fatale or merely treated like one by every jealous man in the room?
00:55That tension is exactly what makes her such a movie change's temperature.
00:59As Gilda, she's glamorous, wounded, performative, and impossible to possess.
01:04Would it interest you to know how much I hate you, Johnny?
01:08Very much.
01:10I hate you so much that I would destroy myself to take you down with me.
01:16Her marriage to casino owner, Balan Munson, and her tortured history with Johnny Farrell
01:21turn the film into a bruised romantic power struggle disguised as exotic noir intrigue.
01:26Then there's Put the Blame on Mame, a number so charged with provocation that it practically defines the image of
01:33the post-war screen siren.
01:34Put the Blame on Mame, boys, put the blame on Mame, boys, put the blame on Mame, boys, put the
01:42blame on Mame.
01:429. Vera, Detour
01:45How far did you say you were going?
01:48Los Angeles.
01:49L.A.? L.A.'s good enough for me, mister.
01:53That's what I was afraid of.
01:54What'd you say?
01:56Oh, nothing, just thinking out loud.
01:58People get in trouble for doing that.
02:00What's your name?
02:02You can call me Vera if you like.
02:03Do you live in Los Angeles?
02:05No.
02:06Vera is what happens when noir strips away the soft-focused glamour, leaving only pure survival instinct.
02:13Played with savage brilliance by Anne Savage, Vera enters Detour like a curse hitchhiking on the side of the road.
02:20She clocks Al Roberts almost immediately, realizes he's hiding something, and proceeds to squeeze him for everything he's worth.
02:30Keep the windows shut.
02:31What? Okay.
02:34The old crow downstairs said there's a folding bed behind this door.
02:43You know how to work it?
02:49She isn't seductive in the polished Hollywood sense. In a movie already built on lousy choices, she's the final trap
02:57snapping shut.
02:58Few femme fatales have ever seemed this raw, this mean, or this grimly believable.
03:04Even if you did tell the cops I was in on it with you, what could they do to me?
03:10They might give me the same medicine they gave you.
03:12Yeah.
03:13A rope.
03:16But I'm on my way, huh?
03:20All you'll be doing will be rushing it.
03:22Number 8.
03:23Martha Ivers
03:24The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
03:26Don't you think I'm entitled to an explanation?
03:30What do you want me to say?
03:32I don't want to put words in your mouth.
03:34I'd prefer that you would.
03:36All right.
03:36When did you get drunk?
03:37Where did you get drunk?
03:38Why did you get drunk?
03:39Barbara Stanwyck was already noir royalty thanks to double indemnity, but Martha Ivers gives her a different kind of fatal
03:47power.
03:47As a young woman, she becomes inextricably tied to a death that shapes the rest of her life, and by
03:53adulthood, she's wealthy, influential, and emotionally imprisoned by the past.
03:58Her marriage to Walter O'Neill is less a romantic than a mutually assured blackmail arrangement.
04:04Couldn't you see blackmail in his eyes?
04:07I haven't your experience with criminals.
04:10You will.
04:10When Sammy starts to shake you down.
04:13Release the girl.
04:14Maybe he'll just pick her up and leave.
04:16Leave?
04:16Do you think he'll leave a touch worth millions?
04:19There's only one way you'll find out.
04:21Release the girl.
04:22When Van Heflin's Sam Masterson returns to town, Martha sees the possibility of escape, or maybe another person to pull
04:30into the wreckage.
04:31Stanwyck makes her both frightening and pitiable.
04:34A woman who has everything except peace.
04:37We'd always be afraid of him.
04:39We couldn't live that way.
04:40We'd be fools to let him go knowing so much about us.
04:43You may have a little trouble squaring this one.
04:45You broke into the house.
04:46You demanded money.
04:47You tried to attack me, and I shot you in self-defense.
04:49I have a right to kill in self-defense.
04:51That's what the law says, doesn't it, Walter?
04:53Number 7.
04:54Jane Palmer
04:54Too Late for Tears
04:56Well, you almost killed us doing it, but we got away from it.
04:59Now what happens?
05:01Hasn't it hit you yet, Alan?
05:02The money was literally thrown in our laps.
05:05No one in the world knows we have it.
05:07Get a hold of yourself, Jane, will you?
05:09It's a bag of dynamite.
05:10That was a payoff, probably blackmail.
05:12We turn that bag over to the police or the...
05:16Don't stop, Alan.
05:18He's almost a block behind.
05:19In Too Late for Tears,
05:21Elizabeth Scott plays a seemingly ordinary woman
05:23whose life changes when a bag of stolen cash
05:26is tossed into her car by mistake.
05:29Plenty of noir characters stumble into trouble,
05:31but Jane doesn't stumble.
05:33She adapts fast.
05:35I don't want the money that bad.
05:37Do you take me back to shore or do I swim?
05:39If you move, I'll shoot you
05:41and tell them you killed my husband.
05:44If I go along with you, I get the gas chamber.
05:48I wonder how good a shot you are.
05:50There'll be no gas chamber for either one of us, Danny.
05:53They saw me get on this boat with my husband.
05:54They're going to see me get off with him.
05:56Scott's smoky voice and cool stare
05:58make Jane feel frighteningly composed,
06:01even when the walls are closing in.
06:03She isn't chasing love, revenge,
06:05or survival in any noble sense.
06:07She wants the money, the life it promises,
06:10and the power that comes with it.
06:12By the time she reveals her true nature,
06:14it's already too late for everyone around her.
06:17You don't think I want to do it?
06:19I couldn't kill Alan.
06:20I tried to convince myself I could kill him,
06:22but when the time came, I couldn't do it.
06:23How did he die? Pneumonia?
06:25It was an accident.
06:26He opened my purse and the gun fell out.
06:27I don't know what happened after that.
06:29I killed it.
06:30But I didn't know it then.
06:31I'm not going to die for it.
06:33We've got to do it, Danny.
06:34We've got no other choice.
06:35Number 6. Kitty Collins, The Killers
06:38Jake tells me you're a fighter.
06:41Do you like the fights?
06:42I'm afraid I've never seen one.
06:44No kidding.
06:46I hate brutality, Mr. Anderson.
06:48The idea of two men beating each other to a pulp
06:50makes me ill.
06:53I saw all Swedes' fights.
06:55How wonderful of you.
06:57I could never bear to see a man
06:58I really care for being hurt.
07:00This classic noir, which features
07:02Burt Lancaster's debut screen performance,
07:04begins with only Swede Anderson resigned to his fate.
07:08As the story unfolds, we come to understand
07:10how much of that doom leads back to Kitty.
07:13She doesn't need to overplay the danger
07:15because the Swede does half the work for her.
07:18What's the matter with you?
07:20What do you mean, what's the matter?
07:22You're nervous.
07:23You're all in sweat.
07:24You keep your mouth shut if you don't want to.
07:26It's slap shut.
07:27You've been asking for it lately.
07:29Hey!
07:30Any objections?
07:32Yeah.
07:33Keep out of this, Swede.
07:34She's his girl.
07:36Mind your own business, Swede.
07:37Kitty is elusive
07:39and always aligned with her own interests.
07:42The Swede may be physically powerful,
07:44but around Kitty, he's helpless.
07:46Watching Kitty at work
07:47makes you realize why the killers
07:49turned Ava Gardiner into a bonafide superstar.
07:53You know why Colfax hates you?
07:55Because of me.
07:58He's no fool.
07:59He sees what's happened.
08:02Why did you ever go back to him, Kitty?
08:06Maybe because I hate him.
08:08I'm poison sweet to myself
08:10and everybody around me.
08:11I'd be afraid to go with anyone I love
08:13for the harm I do to him.
08:14Number 5.
08:15Cora Smith
08:16The Postman Always Rings Twice
08:18My husband tells me your name is Frank.
08:21That's right.
08:25Well, Frank, around here,
08:26you'll kindly do your reading
08:28on your own time.
08:31Your husband?
08:32Nick told me I was through for the day
08:34and I thought he was boss around here.
08:35The best way to get my husband to fire you
08:38would be not doing what I tell you to do.
08:41Cora Smith is introduced
08:42in an unforgettable classic Hollywood moment,
08:45Lana Turner in white,
08:47looking like a warning sign.
08:48Stranded in a dull marriage to Nick Smith,
08:51Cora sees drifter Frank Chambers
08:53as both a lover and an escape route.
08:55Will you be able to hear
08:56the bathtub water on him from down here?
08:59I can't help hearing it.
09:01Besides, he always starts to sing
09:03when he turns the water on.
09:04We're gonna sink or swim
09:06in how we tell that story.
09:07Well, I won't miss.
09:09Nick was taking a bath.
09:11You were outside wiping off the car.
09:13I was hiding in the kitchen.
09:14Their chemistry is sweaty and dangerous,
09:17but The Postman Always Rings Twice
09:19is smart enough to make that desire
09:21feel claustrophobic rather than romantic.
09:24Cora doesn't simply
09:25lure Frank into crime.
09:27The two bring out the worst in each other.
09:29Still, she's the spark.
09:31Turner plays her as desperate
09:32to own something better
09:34than the life she's been handed.
09:36That, that other, that other girl,
09:39she, she didn't mean anything to me.
09:41She told me you were going away with her.
09:44Why didn't I?
09:45I planned to and not ever come back.
09:47Why didn't I go away and never come back?
09:50Because we're chained to each other, Cora.
09:52Don't tell me you love me.
09:54But I do.
09:55Number 4.
09:56Elsa Bannister,
09:58The Lady from Shanghai.
09:59If you're a sailor, Michael,
10:01there's a job for you.
10:02Would you like to work for me?
10:06I'd like it.
10:14I'm shipping out tomorrow.
10:16So are we,
10:17to the west coast by way of the canal.
10:19We're short of that on the crew.
10:20Rita Hayworth's transformation
10:22for The Lady from Shanghai
10:24was a shock to audiences,
10:26with her famous red hair cut and dyed blonde.
10:29But that's not where the intrigue ends.
10:32Elsa pulls Orson Welles' Michael O'Hara
10:34into a world of wealth,
10:36legal games,
10:37sexual jealousy,
10:38and murder,
10:39all while seeming both vulnerable
10:41and deeply calculating.
10:43I've looked at those pills
10:44so many times.
10:45Pills?
10:46The ones my husband takes
10:47to kill the pain
10:49and wondered if enough of them
10:51would kill my pain.
10:53The pain of just being alive.
10:55Her marriage to Arthur Bannister
10:57is poisonous,
10:58her motives are slippery,
11:00and her presence
11:01turns every scene
11:02into a trap.
11:03The legendary
11:04Funhouse Mirror climax
11:05exemplifies the film's
11:07central trick.
11:08Every reflection
11:09hides another lie.
11:11Elsa isn't just fatal
11:12because men want her,
11:14she's fatal because
11:15nobody can truly see her.
11:17And what about me?
11:18We could have gone off together.
11:20Into the sunrise.
11:23You and me
11:24or you and Grisby?
11:26I love you.
11:27One who follows his nature
11:29keeps his original nature
11:30in the end.
11:33What haven't you heard ever
11:34of something better to follow?
11:40No.
11:42Number three,
11:43Kathy Moffat,
11:44Out of the Past.
11:45Nothing in the world
11:46is any good
11:46unless you can share it.
11:48Maybe you want to go home.
11:49Maybe that's why I'm here.
11:51Is it?
11:56Well, there's always
11:57Jose Rodriguez.
11:58If it gets too lonely,
11:59there's a little cantina
12:00down the street
12:01called Pablo's.
12:02It's nice and quiet.
12:04The man there
12:04plays American music
12:05for a dollar.
12:06If film noir
12:07had a Mount Rushmore
12:08of femme fatales,
12:09Jane Greer's Kathy Moffat
12:11would be carved in shadow.
12:13Out of the Past
12:14bestows her
12:14with one of the
12:15great cinematic entrances.
12:17White dress,
12:18Mexican sunlight,
12:19and the sense
12:20that Robert Mitchum's
12:21Jeff Bailey
12:22is already doomed
12:23before he says a word.
12:25Kathy is wanted
12:26by gangster
12:27Whit Sterling
12:27after shooting him
12:28and taking his money.
12:30But the genius
12:30of the film
12:31is how easily
12:32she makes danger
12:33feel like destiny.
12:34She lies beautifully,
12:36disappears expertly,
12:37and returns only
12:38when it benefits her.
12:40Greer's performance
12:41is the icy
12:42without being mechanical.
12:43Kathy always seems
12:44to be measuring
12:45the room,
12:46the men,
12:46and the exit.
12:48We should have
12:48stayed there.
12:49I'm trying to remember
12:50something else.
12:51I never told you
12:52I was anything
12:53but what I am.
12:54You just wanted
12:55to imagine I was.
12:56That's why I left you.
12:58Now we're back to stay.
13:00Number 2
13:01Bridget O'Shaughnessy
13:02The Maltese Falcon
13:18Mary Astor's performance
13:20in The Maltese Falcon
13:21is a masterclass
13:22in weaponized vulnerability.
13:24Bridget is tangled
13:25in greed,
13:26betrayal,
13:27murder,
13:27and the hunt
13:28for the priceless falcon.
13:30And she survives
13:30by making men believe
13:32she needs saving.
13:33Humphrey Bogart's spade
13:35is hard-boiled enough
13:36to see through her
13:37but even he isn't
13:38immune to the pull.
13:39I haven't lived
13:40a good life.
13:41I've been bad.
13:43Worse than you could know.
13:45Yeah, that's good
13:46because if you actually
13:47were as innocent
13:48as you pretend to be
13:49we'd never get anywhere.
13:50I won't be innocent.
13:52Good.
13:53That's what makes
13:53the ending so perfect
13:55and so quintessentially
13:56film noir.
13:57Bridget may be exposed
13:59but she's also revealed
14:00as one of noir's
14:01foundational figures.
14:02The woman whose softness
14:04is the sharpest blade
14:06in the room.
14:07You've been playing with me.
14:09Just pretending you
14:10cared to tap me like this.
14:12You didn't care at all.
14:14You don't love me.
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14:41Number 1
14:42Phyllis Dietrichsen
14:43Double Indemnity
15:05There are femme fatales
15:06and then there's
15:07Phyllis Dietrichsen.
15:09Phyllis doesn't just
15:10tempt Walter Neff
15:11into murder.
15:12She provides him
15:13with an outlet
15:13for his arrogance.
15:15Together,
15:16they plot the killing
15:16of her husband
15:17for an insurance payout
15:19but the film's brilliance
15:20lies in how quickly
15:21lust gives way
15:22to calculation,
15:23mistrust
15:24and fatal inevitability.
15:34Stanwyck plays Phyllis
15:36with a perfect mix
15:37of heat and emptiness.
15:38You can understand
15:39why Walter wants her
15:41but you can also see
15:42the void behind the smile.
15:44In a genre built
15:45on desire leading men
15:47into darkness,
15:48Phyllis remains
15:49the gold standard,
15:50cold, iconic
15:51and absolutely lethal.
15:54I loved you, Walter,
15:55and I hated him.
15:56But I wasn't going
15:57to do anything about it
15:58not until I met you.
15:59You planned the whole thing.
16:02I only wanted him dead.
16:04And I'm the one
16:04that fixed it so he was dead.
16:06Is that what you're telling me?
16:08And nobody's pulling out.
16:10We went into this together
16:12and we're coming out
16:12at the end together.
16:13It's straight down the line
16:14for both of us.
16:15Which noir siren
16:16would make you walk
16:17straight into the shadows?
16:18Let us know
16:19in the comments.
16:20And be honest,
16:22would you have seen
16:22the double cross coming?
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