Bad girl movies
From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
File:Harlow-publicity.jpg
Jean Harlow played a bad girl in Red-Headed Woman (1932)
"Bad girl movies" are a subcategory, mostly, although not exclusively, of films noir, labeled by latter-day movie buffs to describe dark films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, but some earlier, and others later, starring provocative, scheming, often sexy or beautiful, but compelling even when not, women, almost always on the wrong side of the spirit and usually the letter of the law. Some are quite young, others not. Manipulative, larcenous, murderous, vengeful, troubled or depraved, they were occasionally misunderstood, softened or redeemed, but sometimes only at death's door. Some very early and much later exemplars got away with their crimes, but most paid, one way or another, as the censors required. These film's posters usually featured sexy artwork of the actress, posed seductively. Currently, these images in original posters and reproductions are as valued as are the films themselves.
Such performances include:
- Margaret Livingston in Sunrise (1927)
- Louise Brooks in The Canary Murder Case and Pandora's Box (both 1929)
- Ruth Chatterton in Madame X (1929)
- Jeanne Eagels in The Letter (1929)
- Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel (1930), Shanghai Express (1932), and Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
- Myrna Loy in Renegades (1930), The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), and Thirteen Women (1932)
- Lili Damita in Friends and Lovers (1931)
- Bebe Daniels in The Maltese Falcon (1931)
- Wynne Gibson in City Streets (1931), My Son Is Guilty (1939), and Double Cross (1941)
- Joan Crawford in Letty Lynton (1932) and A Woman's Face (1941)
- Ann Dvorak in Three on a Match and The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (both 1932)
- Jean Harlow in Red-Headed Woman (1932)
- Anna May Wong in Shanghai Express (1932)
- Constance Bennett in Bed of Roses (1933)
- Joan Blondell in Blondie Johnson (1933)
- Frances Dee in Blood Money (1933)
- Miriam Hopkins in The Story of Temple Drake (1933)
- Margaret Lindsay in The House on 56th Street (1933)
- Barbara Stanwyck in Ladies They Talk About (1933), Double Indemnity (1944), The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), and Crime of Passion (1957)
- Bette Davis in Of Human Bondage (1934), The Letter (1940 remake of 1929 pre-Code version), The Little Foxes (1941), Beyond the Forest (1949), Another Man's Poison (1951), and Dead Ringer (1964)
- Loretta Young in Midnight Mary (1933) and Born to Be Bad (1934)
- Benita Hume in Suzy (1936)
- Wendy Barrie in The Saint Takes Over (1940)
- Ida Lupino in They Drive by Night (1940) and Lust for Gold (1949)
- Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon (1941; remake of 1931 film)
- Betty Field in Blues in the Night (1941)
- Faye Emerson in Lady Gangster (1942)
- Ginger Rogers in Roxie Hart (1942) and Black Widow (1954)
- Patricia Morison in Calling Dr. Death (1943), Dressed to Kill (1946), and Song of the Thin Man (1947)
- Anne Baxter in Guest in the House (1944), All About Eve (1950), Bedevilled (1955), and The Come On (1956)
- Veronica Lake in The Hour Before the Dawn (1944)
- Cornelia Otis Skinner in The Uninvited (1944)
- Claire Trevor in Murder, My Sweet (1944) and Born to Kill (1947)
- Ann Blyth in Mildred Pierce (1945)
- Kay Francis in Allotment Wives (1945)
- Lynn Merrick in Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion (1945)
- Gertrude Michael in Allotment Wives (1945)
- Ann Savage in Apology for Murder and Detour (both 1945)
- Gene Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
- Veda Ann Borg in Accomplice (1946)
- Ava Gardner in The Killers (1946), The Bribe (1949) and My Forbidden Past (1951)
- Jean Gillie in Decoy (1946)
- Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
- Martha Vickers in The Big Sleep (1946) and The Burglar (1957)
- Janis Carter in Framed (1947)
- Jane Greer in Out of the Past (1947) and Station West (1948)
- Jayne Meadows in Lady in the Lake (1947)
- Lizabeth Scott in Dead Reckoning (1947) and Too Late for Tears (1949)
- Alida Valli in The Paradine Case (1947)
- Joan Bennett in Scarlet Street (1948)
- Leslie Brooks in Blonde Ice (1948)
- Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai (1948)
- Dorothy Lamour in Lulu Belle (1948)
- June Vincent in Shed No Tears (1948)
- Marie Windsor in Force of Evil (1948), The Bounty Hunter (1954), and The Killing (1956)
- Dorothy Hart in Undertow (1949)
- Virginia Mayo in Flaxy Martin (1949)
- Lauren Bacall in Young Man with a Horn (1950)[1]
- Peggy Cummins in Gun Crazy (1950)
- Faith Domergue in Where Danger Lives (1950)
- Joan Fontaine in Born to Be Bad (1950)
- Laurette Luez in D.O.A. (1950)
- Lee Patrick in Caged (1950)
- Audrey Totter in Tension (1950)
- Jane Wyatt in The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)
- Angela Lansbury in Kind Lady (1951), Please Murder Me (1956), All Fall Down (1962), and The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
- Beverly Michaels in Pickup (1951) and Wicked Woman (1953)
- Christine Norden in The Black Widow (1951)
- Jan Sterling in Ace in the Hole (1951) and Female on the Beach (1955)
- Gloria Grahame in Sudden Fear (1952), The Big Heat (1953) and Human Desire (1954)
- Marilyn Monroe in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) and Niagara (1953)
- Cleo Moore in On Dangerous Ground (1952) and One Girl's Confession (1953)
- Jean Simmons in Angel Face (1952)
- Peggie Castle in I, the Jury (1953)
- Jean Peters in A Blueprint for Murder (1953)
- Gaby Rodgers in Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
- Simone Signoret in Les Diaboliques (1955)
- Barbara Hale in The Houston Story (1956)
- Jane Russell in The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956)
- Diana Dors in The Unholy Wife (1957)
- Jeanne Moreau in Elevator to the Gallows (1958) and The Bride Wore Black (1968)
- Mamie Van Doren in High School Confidential (1958)
- Brigitte Bardot in The Truth (1960)
- Juliette Gréco in Crack in the Mirror (1960)
- Annu Mari in Branded to Kill (1967)
- Kathleen Turner in Body Heat (1981) and Prizzi's Honor (1985)
- Theresa Russell in Black Widow (1987)
- Nicole Kidman in Malice (1993), To Die For (1995), Birthday Girl (2001), and The Golden Compass (2007)
- Lena Olin in Romeo Is Bleeding (1993)
- Alicia Silverstone in The Crush (1993)
- Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction (1994)
- Connie Nielsen in The Ice Harvest (2005)
- Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl (2014)
References
- ↑ Bacall in Young Man with a Horn, primalscenes.blogspot.com; accessed August 14, 2014.
