film noir Noir womenfilm genre (French: “dark film”)

Noir women are often characterized as femme fatales or “spider women”; in the words of one critic, they are “comfortable in the world of cheap dives, shadowy doorways, and mysterious settings.” Well aware of their sexual attractiveness, they cunningly and ruthlessly manipulate their male counterparts to gain power or wealth; for example, by conspiring to murder an aged, wheelchair-bound (i.e., impotent) spouse. A quintessential example of the noir temptress is Kathie Moffat, as portrayed by Jane Greer in Tourneur’s Out of the Past (1947). While flirting with Robert Mitchum’s character in a Mexican café, she describes a local night spot that she thinks would be to his liking. As she leaves the café, she turns to Mitchum and coyly says “I sometimes go there”—at which point, the viewer familiar with the noir genre knows that Mitchum is on a one-way path to destruction. Nevertheless, the women of film noir often evoke sympathy, as they are frequently victims of emotional or physical abuse, with such victimization providing impetus for their vengeance. They are trapped in passionless or violent marriages and resort to murder as a means of escape, usually destroying their conspiring paramours in the process.