Bad Girls are not necessarily femme fatales here, but a female presence in a book or movie that wreaks havoc. There have been plenty of elderly ladies that have done such a thing. (Arsenic and Old Lace comes to mind). Or the teenager in The Childrens' Hour. Or the child in The Bad Seed.
In Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Gene Tierney plays a woman so obsessed with her new husband, she will destroy anyone she perceives to be a threat to her marriage.
I was scared to death of this movie seeing it on The Late Show as a kid.
It still scares me today. I think it might have been the first time I saw a movie where someone with the face of an angel did such hideous things.
The title is a quote from William Shakespeare's Hamlet. In Act I, Scene V, the Ghost urges Hamlet not to seek vengeance against Queen Gertrude, but rather to "leave her to heaven, and to those thorns that in her bosom lodge to prick and sting her."
Who is your favorite Bad Girl? Characters from books, tv or the movies .
20 comments:
Lilly Dillon (Anjelica Huston) in THE GRIFTERS.
What a brilliant movie.
hum, good question. I can't think of her name, but the female villain in Body Heat!
Linda Fiorentino in THE LAST SEDUCTION. When Peter Berg claims to be "hung like a horse" she demands he show her the proof.
Then there is this line:
Who's a girl got to suck to get a drink?
Jeff M.
Oh, LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN is a good one, Patti. What a vile creature. Terrific movie.
I think it's basically hard for people to believe that beautiful looking (or cute or pretty) people can and often do commit crimes. I'll be willing to bet that good looking people often get away with their misdeeds - much more than less attractive people do. Look at the recent trial whose verdict shocked us just a few weeks ago. Part of the jury analysis I read said that apparently the jury couldn't bring themselves to convict a cute girl of such a heinous crime. A hard truth about human beings.
Favorite bad girl in the movies? Hmmm.....Let me think....maybe Bette Davis in either THE LETTER or THE LITTLE FOXES.
Maybe Julianne Moore in AN IDEAL HUSBAND.
ALso - not murderously or blackmailing bad but obnoxiously, hilariously bad, Carole Lombard in TWENTIETH CENTURY.
I knew Linda Forientino would come up. Bette Davis could play victim or predator equally well.
I'm gonna have to see Leave Her To Heaven! All of the above are fun ones. Bad Seed rocks, too! Angelique in Dark Shadows; Joan Jett in the biopic; Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, Emma Peel? Play Misty for Me . . . The Beguiled.
Of course, many of our friends actually believe there was a Lilith or an Eve to blame, at least in greater rather than lesser part, for all the ills of the world.
I don't know that they wouldn't be more fun at dinner, had they existed, than, say, Liz Bathory or Cat Medici.
Jeanne D'Arc fits for some. Emma Goldman for others. Pippi Longstocking even slips in under the description provided...
There are so many, that just filtering out the less-lethal, more charming ones is a task...Emma Peel? She's a troublesome woman to many...if only she wasn't so devoted to her missing husband...among tv antiheroines, the overly literal ex-demon Anya comes to mind (from BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER)...
I didn't see Erik's answer before providing mine, mind you...
I gotta go with Joan Bennett in Scarlet Street. Or maybe Clara Bow in... well, everything she did. Or maybe Mamie.
Also, Louise and Ginny in BURY ME DEEP.
Man, there's so many to choose from.
I saw LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN on the big screen a few years back here in NYC. It was my first time seeing the movie, and I had zero clue what it was about, or what was going to happen. I think I actually screamed a little at "the big moment." I never do that in movies, but that movie is still effective today, in my opinion.
Gene Tierney was so good in this film. I haven't seen it in years.
And I'd be hard pressed to pick just one.
The two baddest girls I can think of (on film) were Ann Savage in DETOUR (1945) and Jane Greer in OUT OF THE PAST (1947). You'd really have to go a long way to beat them.
Man, oh man.
I LOVE Leave Her Heaven. Who knew Tierney could be so vile? She is definitely up there for me as one of the baddest bad women in film.
In books, Cathy from East of Eden; in the film version she was somewhat tempered but in the novel - WHOA NELLIE! Talk about leaving a path of destruction!
Another good call with The Bad Seed. My dad put me on to this film when I was younger.
Oh, good call with Cathy in East of Eden.
And I was gonna say Daisy Duck. Shows how many movies I've ever watched.
I can't imagine not watching movies although TV, I can understand.
I once watched a lot of them, I've just grown apathetic.
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