Too Late For Tears (1949)Lizabeth Scott as Jane Palmer
'She got what she wanted...with lies...with kisses...with murder!' is the tagline for the late forties Film Noir, Too Late For Tears. Alan and Jane Palmer are a young couple living in the Hollywood Hills, Jane is beautiful, vivacious and enjoying her second married after the 'suicide' of her first husband. They are on their way to a party, when a bag of 'dirty money ' is throw into their convertible. Alan wants to turn the money over the police, but Jane, being the femme fatale of this story disagrees and wants to keep all of the $60,000 that is inside the bag. Alan doesn't want to displease his beautiful wife, so locks the money in a safe and turns his attention onto trying to convince his wife to do the right thing. Jane wears alot of monochrome colours, and always has smooth glossy hair, however- the main thing you notice about her when she walks in the room is her full, pouted lips. She is on the confident/arrogant borderline, and extremely aware of all her charms. She starts lavishly spending the cash due to her lowly upbringing and will even resort to murder to prevent anyone else getting their hands on it. Her husband Alan ends up weighed down with concrete at the bottom of a lake, a detective who she seduces ends up poisoned, and it turns out she even killed her first husband before Alan! She meets a grisly end when she and her money escape to Mexico, the truth comes out on a ritzy hotel balcony- and she falls to her death when Mexican detectives raid her room.
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)Lana Turner as Cora Smith
The Postman Always Rings Twice is the story of a dissatisfied, married waitress' affair with a hapless drifter named Frank Garfield who starts to work in her restaurant, which is owned by her much older husband Nick. As femme fatales tend to be 'darker', Cora fights against this genre- always dressing in virginal white and sporting a platinum blonde hairstyle, the majority of femme fatales were brunettes in Film Noir to show the darker side of their personality,also to distinguish them from 'Hitchcock Blondes', a breed of character concieved by Alfred Hitchcock, these 'Hitchcock Blondes' were icy, beautiful and sophisticated...but not necessarily evil! Cora is also first seen with a glossy lipstick case, constantly used to exagerrate her full lips (I think we've got quite a theme, here?!) and used a symbol for her character. They start an affair almost immediately after they meet and even elope together, however- being a complete Femme Fatale, Cora knows that without money they wouldn't have much of a life together. They return back to the resturant to destroy the goodbye note that Cora left and immediately begin planning ways to kill Nick, so they can keep the resturant for themselves and enjoy a fruitful life together. After a clumsy attempt, they finally manage to murder him after staging a drink driving accident, but local police see through this and try and get them charged for murder, they are released quickly and fixing their damaged relationship. Whilst out driving, the happy couple to kiss, only for Frank to swerve and crash- killing Cora. Her lipstick case drops to the floor, she is represented by that glossy symbol of glamour in life and death. Due to his track record with cars, Frank is charged for her murder and is found guilty. Faced with the death penalty, his last lines show that he is very much under the spell of t
he femme fatale:
he femme fatale:'Father, you were right. It all works out. I guess God knows more about these things than we do. Somehow or other, Cora paid for Nick's life with hers. And now I'm going to. Father, would you send up a prayer for me and Cora, and if you could find it in your heart, make it that we're together, wherever it is?'
Scarlet Street (1945)
Joan Bennett as Kitty March
Christopher Cross is an amateur artist and cashier who falls for a beautiful prostitute after he tends to her after a fight with her boyfriend, he quickly falls in love with her as his own married life is volatile- his wife Adele is bullying, controlling and still very much enamored with her first husband, a policeman who died trying to save a woman who was drowning. The beautiful prostitute is Kitty March, and her and her boyfriend Johnny know that Christopher feels very strongly for Kitty. As Christopher has spoken about great art to Kitty, she mistakes him for a wealthy painter- together her and her boyfriend plan to milk this 'wealthy painter' for all his money. Kitty claims to Christopher that she needs protection, and therefore needs an apartment- desperate to keep up appearances he steals from the bank to put Kitty up in a lovely apartment, that also doubles as a studio for himself.His wife Adele's husband turns out not to to be dead, so Christopher is ecstatic because now their marriage is no longer valid. He runs to the apartment he has bought for Kitty, only to find her in Johnny's arms. He is shocked, but so in love, he asks her to marry him, this is the response he gets 'Oh, you idiot! How can a man be so dumb? I've wanted to laugh in your face since I first met you- you're old, ugly and I'm sick of you! Sick, sick, sick!'. Out of anger, he stabs her with an ice pick. Because her boyfriend Johnny is a pimp and generally has a bad reputation, he is charged with her murder- but Christopher is freed, but forever haunted of images of Kitty.
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