The Best Femme Fatale Films

Phyllis Dietrichson – ‘Double Indemnity’ (dir. Billy Wilder, 1944)

Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection

Insurance scams are a popular engine to many great noir films, but Wilder may have been the first writer/director to actually introduce the device in cinema with ‘Double Indemnity.’ Its star, actress Barbara Stanwyck and her character Phyllis Dietrichson is certainly the most formative influence on the modern femme fatale and her presence throughout the film represents a shifting point for how female manipulation was depicted on screen. To be blunt, she probably made generations of men never trust a lady, but she also reveals that the life of a woman and her position in the world — at least at that time — was largely based on the men in her life. Her desire to break these bonds and make a life for herself, though still requiring the manipulation of a man, is somewhat admirable.
Jane Palmer – ‘Too Late for Tears’ (dir. Byron Haskin, 1949)

Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection

At the root of most femme fatales is a desire for power. Often — because we live in a capitalist society — this comes in the form of money. America has always had an obsession with the mighty dollar, but post-WWII, the levels of materialism rose to new, unseen heights. Everyone wanted five kids, which means a big car and a big house with a big fridge and maybe one of those newfangled television sets, but not even all this was enough. The appearance of affluence became paramount. Not only did things have to be big, but they had to be the best. This is the conflict at play in ‘Too Late for Tears,’ which follows housewife Jane Palmer (Lizabeth Scott) and her husband (Arthur Kennedy) as they both go about receiving a windfall of strange cash in different ways. Her quest to keep it at all costs serves to remind viewers of the folly of wealth and how getting ahead will always come at a price.
Annie Laurie Starr – ‘Gun Crazy’ (dir. Joseph H. Lewis, 1950)

Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection

A tale of sex-crazed, gun-obsessed outlaws that predates the comparable ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ by 17 years and ‘Natural Born Killers’ by 44, ‘Gun Crazy’ is the B-movie version of its successors, but conveys the derangement of its characters with similar visual and narrative flair. Main character Bart (John Dall) has been a straight shooter ever since he was a boy, in life and with a gun. He has a fascination and skill with the weapon, but not with killing. That is until he meets carnival sharpshooter Annie Laurie Starr (Peggy Cummins). Through a series of unfortunate events that Laurie continues to escalate by unleashing her and Bart’s skills on others, the two become fugitives, chased by the FBI all the way down to Mexico. Laurie’s inability to control herself with a gun in her hand serves as an unfortunately still timely commentary on how open accessibility of the weapon will always lead to tragic ends.
Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton – ‘Vertigo’ (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

Image Credit: Everett Collection / Everett Collection

A film about perspective told from the mischievous, yet unflinching eye of Alfred Hitchcock offers multiple versions of the femme fatale, with Kim Novak playing a woman hired to play another woman seemingly possessed by the ghost of yet another woman. It’s all part of a complex gambit designed to frame a former detective played by Jimmy Stewart as a reliable witness to an apparent suicide. The only problem? He spots the supposedly dead woman — a woman he had fallen for — a short while later, now a brunette instead of a blonde. Initially okay with serving as the femme fatale figure, Novak’s Barton now regrets her part in the ruse and has fallen for Stewart’s Fergusen in turn. Unfortunately, once a femme fatale, always a femme fatale, and Barton and Fergusen both suffer the consequences.
Matty Walker – ‘Body Heat’ (dir. Lawrence Kasdan, 1981)

Image Credit: ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection

Amongst the bugs and sweat of the South Florida heat, a seedy, rather unskilled lawyer, Ned Racine (William Hurt), falls for the raspy voice and devilish charm of rich, unhappy housewife Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner). Turns out, this is just as she planned it. Lawrence Kasdan’s neo-noir drips with both sexuality and fear as Matty attracts Ned, then flips his world upside down. Through a mix of complex legalese and dramatic violence, the film constantly keeps viewers on their toes, culminating in an ending that for some will seem tragic and others glorious. In truth, by the conclusion of the film, you can’t help but admire this femme fatale for her intellect and dedication.
Dorothy Valens – ‘Blue Velvet’ (dir. David Lynch, 1986)

Image Credit: ©De Laurentiis Group/Courtesy Everett Collection

David Lynch is never going to do things like another artist would. He is wholly original in his thought process, as well as his narrative and visual execution, so when it comes to crafting a femme fatale, he not only takes the concept of the archetype to new places, but makes viewers entirely reevaluate this female figure’s presence throughout history. While often depicted as smarter than the men she preys upon, the femme fatale carries with her sexist implications. But with Valens, Lynch and actress Isabella Rossellini question the ability of any woman to find her way in a man’s cruel, sadistic world without resorting to using them in some manner. It’s a task Rossellini and her character are willing to bare all for in ways seductive and haunting.
Catherine Tramell – ‘Basic Instinct’ (dir. Paul Verhoeven, 1992)

Image Credit: ©TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

A hot, twisty, turny erotic thriller that revels in violence, sex, and drugs almost to the point of camp, but sends a shiver down the spine nonetheless, ‘Basic Instinct’ is most known for its famous interrogation scene, featuring Sharon Stone’s Trammell facing off against multiple detectives and reducing them to mush with the light of a cigarette and the cross of a leg. Tramell is a crime novelist whose boyfriend’s been murdered in a sexually specific manner similar to a killing in her book. Too easy, right? Or at least that’s what Michael Douglas’ Detective Nick Curran wants to believe. Especially the more Tramell unleashes the wild, untethered man at the core of his being. Taking the notion of sex as a weapon to new depths of perversion, ‘Basic Instinct’ made actress Sharon Stone a star, but also wrongfully hindered her personal and professional life for years to come. The power of the movies, for better and worse.
Selina Kyle – ‘Batman Returns’ (dir. Tim Burton, 1992), ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2012), and ‘The Batman’ (dir. Matt Reeves, 2022)

Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection

Catwoman? A femme fatale? But of course! From the comics to the TV series and ultimately the feature films, Selina Kyle has always had a distinct bite (and scratch) that makes us wonder where her true loyalties lie. The answer is typically always with herself, but the romances she manages to coax Batman/Bruce Wayne into often give us hope that these two tortured vigilantes may finally find solace in one another. Perhaps the best interpretation amongst the three films versions (apologies to Halle Berry, but she played a different Catwoman character separate from Kyle) is Michelle Pfeiffer’s. Bound in leather with razor-sharp claws and a bullwhip as her weapon of choice, Pfeiffer plays Kyle/Catwoman as a woman possessed. Men have broken her down and now she plans to do the same with them, but not without using them first. Whether it’s The Penguin or the caped crusader, her seductive presence makes them putty in her hands. Anne Hathaway and Zoë Kravitz offer worthy follow-ups, but they’re subdued takes pale in comparison to Pfeiffer’s nightmarish and psychotic grasp on the character.
Suzanne Stone Moretto – ‘To Die For’ (dir. Gus Van Sant, 1995)

Image Credit: ©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

Under Gus Van Sant’s direction and working off a script by comedy legend Buck Henry (‘The Graduate,’ ‘Heaven Can Wait’), Nicole Kidman crafts one of the sillier, more vainglorious depictions of femme fatalism. Suzanne Stone Moretto is a small-town dreamer whose obsession with celebrity and being on television quickly turns deadly. While the film is a modern satire of society’s growing infatuation with becoming on-camera personalities, Kidman’s performance harkens back to seductresses of yesteryear. Yet by comically expanding the archetype’s flair for the depraved, Kidman also brings the femme fatale into a new era, serving as an early representation of a ‘Real Housewife’ before the reality series even got its starts.
Amy Dunne – ‘Gone Girl’ (dir. David Fincher, 2014)

Image Credit: 20th Century Fox Licensing/Merchandising / Everett Collection

Voiceovers, complex reveals, foiled plans. All classic staples of the noir genre, but employed by David Fincher with a sharp, sleek, modern touch in his adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s ‘Gone Girl.’ As Amazing Amy, a troubled rich kid who’s grown up to become a vindictive, my-way-or-the-highway nightmare of an adult, Rosamund Pike delivers a fresh infusion of crazy into the femme fatale figure, but her greatest ability is to make us wonder, did her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck), have it coming the whole time? Like most great femme fatales, Amy ends up on top, just not in the way you might think.

The 10 Best Femme Fatale Films to Watch After ‘Hit Man’

Harrison Richlin

Phyllis Dietrichson – ‘Double Indemnity’ (dir. Billy Wilder, 1944)

Jane Palmer – ‘Too Late for Tears’ (dir. Byron Haskin, 1949)

Annie Laurie Starr – ‘Gun Crazy’ (dir. Joseph H. Lewis, 1950)

Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton – ‘Vertigo’ (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

Matty Walker – ‘Body Heat’ (dir. Lawrence Kasdan, 1981)

Dorothy Valens – ‘Blue Velvet’ (dir. David Lynch, 1986)

Catherine Tramell – ‘Basic Instinct’ (dir. Paul Verhoeven, 1992)

Selina Kyle – ‘Batman Returns’ (dir. Tim Burton, 1992), ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2012), and ‘The Batman’ (dir. Matt Reeves, 2022)

Suzanne Stone Moretto – ‘To Die For’ (dir. Gus Van Sant, 1995)

Amy Dunne – ‘Gone Girl’ (dir. David Fincher, 2014)

Most Popular

You may also like