The classic noir femme fatale who rose to prominence in the WWII years (1941-1945) regularly
defied or transgressed social norms and subverted patriarchal traditions or conventions.
Some of the most famous are Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941), Phyllis
Dietrichson in Double Indemnity (1944) and Vera (no last name) in Detour (1945). Seen as a
threat to all those institutions and social constructions that afforded women very little agency, the
duplicitous, sexually aggressive, and often lethal single woman (or a woman plotting to become
a widow) was a source of great cultural unease in the black and white world of noir.
And then there is Ellen Berent in the 1945 film Leave Her to Heaven, perhaps the most
frightening femme fatale we have seen.
Discuss how Ellen’s character subverts and/or perverts the post-war expectations of audiences
and the typical tropes of the femme fatale. Consider how she is the inversion of the usual
aggressively seductive woman and is instead a “monster” of domesticity who inhabits the roles
assigned by modern patriarchy with a vengeance. How does she compare to any of the other
more typical femme fatales we have seen thus far?
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