Bad girl movies

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008)

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (July 2008)

"Bad girl movies" are a subcategory of film noir labeled by latter-day movie buffs to describe the dark films of the 1940s and 1950s starring beautiful women on the wrong side of the spirit and/or the letter of the law. The movie posters to these films usually featured sexy artwork of the lady in question, posed seductively, and these images today in original posters and reproductions are as collected today, as are the films themselves are on VHS and DVD.

Among the classic "bad girl" performances are:

• Ida Lupino in They Drive by Night (1940)
• Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon (1941)
• Joan Crawford in A Woman's Face (1941)
• Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity (1944)
• Ann Blyth in Mildred Pierce (1945)
• Ann Savage in Detour (1945)
• Gene Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
• Ava Gardner in The Killers (1946)
• Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
• Martha Vickers in The Big Sleep (1946)
• Jane Greer in Out of the Past (1947)
• Jayne Meadows in Lady in the Lake (1947)
• Lizabeth Scott in Dead Reckoning (1947) and Too Late for Tears (1949)
• Joan Bennett in Scarlet Street (1948)
• Leslie Brooks in Blonde Ice (1948)
• Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1946) and The Lady from Shanghai (1948)
• Anne Baxter in All About Eve (1950)
• Peggy Cummins in Gun Crazy (1950)
• Joan Fontaine in Born to Be Bad (1950)
• 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)
• Gaby Rodgers in Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
• Jane Russell in The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956)
• Mamie Van Doren in High School Confidential (1958)

Others in the "bad girl" category include: Gloria Grahame, Angela Lansbury, Dorothy Malone, Beverly Michaels, Jane Randolph, Audrey Totter, Claire Trevor, Marie Windsor and Shelley Winters.

Perhaps the ultimate bad girl movies are women in prison films with the women in question behind bars; the majority of these films were made well after the classical film noir period and include one of the more socially-conscious films of the genre, Why Must I Die?

See also

• Femme fatale
• Film noir
• Girls with guns

This film genre-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e