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52-494: Ann Savage (born Berniece Maxine Lyon , February 19, 1921 – December 25, 2008) was an American film and television actress. She is best remembered as the greedy cigarette-puffing femme fatale in the critically acclaimed film noir Detour (1945). She was featured in more than 20 B movies between 1943 and 1946. Effectively leaving the film business in the mid 1950s, Savage made occasional appearances on television and worked for industrial and inspirational film producers from

104-610: A brunette ) in the first of several outings with Tom Neal in Klondike Kate (1943). At this time, during World War II, Savage was also a popular pin-up model, including posing for a centerfold in Esquire shot by George Hurrell . She was a tireless seller of war bonds on two nationwide drives coordinated by Hollywood studios with the United States government. Although Savage and Neal did not see eye-to-eye (she found him "childlike"),

156-403: A maneater , Mata Hari , or vamp , is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of literature and art. Her ability to enchant, entice and hypnotize her victim with a spell was in the earliest stories seen as verging on supernatural; hence, the femme fatale today

208-735: A vamp , a reference to The Vampire , Philip Burne-Jones 's 1897 painting, and Rudyard Kipling 's later 1897 poem, and the 1909 play and 1915 film A Fool There Was . Female mobsters (including Italian-American Mafia or Russian Mafia ) have been portrayed as femmes fatales in films noir . Femmes fatales appear in James Bond films. The femme fatale archetype exists in the culture, folklore and myths of many cultures. Ancient mythical or legendary examples include Inanna , Lilith , Circe , Medea , Clytemnestra , Lesbia , Tamamo no Mae , and Visha Kanyas . Historical examples from classical times include Cleopatra and Messalina , as well as

260-671: A 21-year-old gas station attendant, Clark Tennyson. The couple divorced three years later. After a second, even briefer marriage to Douglas Worthington from 1944 to 1945, she married her agent Bert D'Armand in January 1946. D'Armand, who was 18 years older than Savage, proved to be a stabilizing influence on the actress's life. The two left California in the mid 1950s, moving to Manhattan and later, before Bert's death in 1969, splitting their time between New York and Florida. After Bert's death, Savage returned to Los Angeles to be near her mother. There she took odd jobs to finance flying lessons, becoming

312-493: A Woman! , one of a dozen films with Savage released in 1943. Although Columbia typically groomed its girls in the mold of Rita Hayworth , Savage's look echoed Ann Sheridan , although her customary blonde locks were reddened for Footlight Glamour (1943) "so that the star, Penny Singleton , would be the only blonde on screen." She joined Joan Davis and Jinx Falkenburg in Two Senoritas from Chicago (1943) and starred (as

364-953: A female serial killer who murders several men. The femme fatale is one of the most mesmerizing of sexual personae. She is not a fiction but an extrapolation of biologic realities in women that remain constant. Sexual Personae (1990) by Camille Paglia The femme fatale has carried on to the present day, in films such as Body Heat (1981) and Prizzi's Honor (1985) – both with Kathleen Turner , Blade Runner (1982) with Sean Young , The Hunger (1983) with Catherine Deneuve , Blue Velvet (1986) with Isabella Rossellini , Fatal Attraction (1987) with Glenn Close , Basic Instinct (1992) with Sharon Stone , Damage (1992) with Juliette Binoche , Final Analysis (1992) with Kim Basinger , Dream Lover (1993) with Madchen Amick , The Last Seduction (1994) with Linda Fiorentino , To Die For (1995) with Nicole Kidman , Lost Highway (1997) with Patricia Arquette , Devil in

416-729: A few femmes fatales in films as To Die For , The Paperboy , Moulin Rouge! and The Northman . The archetype is also abundantly found in American television. One of the most famous femmes fatales of American television is Sherilyn Fenn 's Audrey Horne of the David Lynch cult series Twin Peaks . In the TV series Femme Fatales , actress Tanit Phoenix played Lilith , the host who introduced each episode Rod Serling -style and occasionally appeared within

468-415: A hierarchy situation with which the protagonist disagrees. Paul Holmes mentions that this technique also enables other group members to learn the protagonist's view of important people. Role reversal helps the protagonist see their interpersonal relationships more objectively and transcend the habitual limitations of egocentricity. In sum, role reversal helps the protagonist, the auxiliary, the director, and

520-468: A licensed pilot in 1979. Her manager quoted her as saying that she loved flying because it put her "closer to God and Bert". She also became part-owner of a small tool company and later took a secretarial course and became a docket clerk receptionist and then a secretary at the law firm Loeb & Loeb in Los Angeles. Savage was keen on the "preservation and celebration of all things Hollywood", becoming

572-428: A mother-daughter relationship as an example. First of all, role reversal helps the protagonist to feel and understand the other role and how it reacts with its environment. For example, the daughter gets more awareness about how her mother feels about and reacts to the role of the daughter. The second reason is that role reversal helps the protagonist observe himself as if in a mirror. Through playing her mother's role,

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624-500: A screening of Detour held as a tribute to director Edgar Ulmer with Ulmer's widow Shirley . During the early 1950s, Savage began working in television and found that she liked performing in anthology drama series, such as Fireside Theatre , Schlitz Playhouse of Stars , and The Ford Television Theatre . She also guest-starred in episodes of Front Page Detective , Gang Busters , City Detective , and Death Valley Days ( The Pioneers ). She continued, however, to act on

676-595: A sound stage at the age of 17 at MGM Studios to be screen tested by Edgar Selwyn . Ann spent time among the more famous Hollywood kids of the day, such as Lana Turner , Judy Garland , Freddie Bartholomew , and Deanna Durbin . Berniece's MGM test did not work out, prompting her to get her teeth capped and acquire theatre training at the Max Reinhardt workshop on Sunset Boulevard . Reinhardt oversaw her name change, and Berniece became Ann Savage. The Reinhardt school's manager, Bert D'Armand, became Savage's agent, and

728-508: A volunteer and advisory board member of Hollywood Heritage . Savage's exposure and the praise heaped on Detour led to her appearing in the 1986 film Fire with Fire and in a guest role on the television show Saved by the Bell . In 2007, she enjoyed a comeback, and rave reviews, when Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin cast her as his mother in his My Winnipeg (2008), a "personal portrait of his hometown". Maddin, according to Savage's manager,

780-426: A workplace. The protagonist is invited to show the posture, the way of speaking, the behavior, the emotion, the attitude, and any other information of their significant other. This technique helps the protagonist explore any information of the role. Several books have described how to conduct role reversal. Psychodramatist and author Lewis Yablonsky proposes four reasons for the function of role reversal. He takes

832-417: Is lackadaisical , intriguing, or frivolous. In some cases, she uses lies or coercion rather than charm. She may also make use of some subduing weapon such as sleeping gas , a modern analog of magical powers in older tales. She may also be (or imply that she is) a victim, caught in a situation from which she cannot escape. In early 20th-century American films, a femme fatale character was referred to as

884-561: Is a fan of Detour , and Savage's role in his film—"a part that had been tipped to bring her an Academy Award "—also "introduced her to a legion of new fans, including Steven Spielberg , John Travolta , and Martin Scorsese ". Maddin has stated that he cast Savage because she "would have scared the pants off Bette Davis ". My Winnipeg was critically acclaimed and won prizes from both the Toronto Film Critics Association and

936-465: Is also often found in the genres of opera and musical theatre , where she will traditionally have a mezzo , alto or contralto range, opposed to the ingénue 's soprano , to symbolize the masculinity and lack of feminine purity. An example is Hélène from Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 . The term has been used by the media in connection with highly publicised criminal trials, such as

988-568: Is still often described as having a power akin to an enchantress, seductress, witch, having power over men. Femmes fatales are typically villainous, or at least morally ambiguous, and always associated with a sense of mystification, and unease. The term originates from the French phrase femme fatale , which means 'deadly woman' or 'lethal woman'. A femme fatale tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, or sexual allure. In many cases, her attitude towards sexuality

1040-752: The Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Her personal and career memorabilia will become part of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin alongside the archives of Robert De Niro , David Mamet , David O. Selznick , Gloria Swanson , and others. In 2005, Savage was elevated to the status of "icon and legend" by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . In 2007, Time named Savage's role as Vera in Detour one of

1092-825: The San Francisco Film Critics Circle as well as the Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival and a Genie Award nomination. Remaining blonde through her eighties and continuing to attend film festivals and galas, Savage had a series of strokes and became a resident of the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in California. She died in her sleep on December 25, 2008, aged 87. Her remains are interred with her husband Bert D'Armand at

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1144-470: The femme fatale as a subject. In the Western culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the femme fatale became a more fashionable trope , and she is found in the paintings of the artists Edvard Munch , Gustav Klimt , Franz von Stuck , and Gustave Moreau . The novel À rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans includes these fevered imaginings about an image of Salome in a Moreau painting: No longer

1196-415: The "Top 10 Movie Villains" and Detour as one of the 100 best movies. In 2010, McFarland and Co. published Savage Detours: The Life and Work of Ann Savage , by Kent Adamson and Lisa Morton . Femme fatale A femme fatale ( / ˌ f ɛ m f ə ˈ t æ l , - ˈ t ɑː l / FEM fə- TA(H)L , French: [fam fatal] ; lit.   ' fatal woman ' ), sometimes called

1248-562: The 1950s to the 1970s. She made a number of live appearances at film festivals, especially for screenings of Detour . In 2007 she was cast by director Guy Maddin as his mother in My Winnipeg , "a part that had been tipped to bring her an Academy Award and which introduced her to a legion of new fans". Ann Savage was born Berniece Maxine Lyon in Columbia, South Carolina. During her early years, her family moved often as her father, an officer in

1300-1142: The Flesh (1998) and Jawbreaker (1999), both with Rose McGowan , Cruel Intentions (1999) with Sarah Michelle Gellar , Original Sin (2001) with Angelina Jolie , Femme Fatale (2002) with Rebecca Romijn , and Jennifer's Body (2009) with Megan Fox . In 2013, Tania Raymonde played the title role in Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret . In 2014, Eva Green portrayed a femme fatale in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and Rosamund Pike starred in Gone Girl . In Babylon (2022), Margot Robbie plays character with femme fatale tendencies. Academy Award-winning actress Marion Cotillard has frequently played femmes fatales, in such films as A Private Affair (2002), A Very Long Engagement , The Black Box , Inception , Midnight in Paris , The Dark Knight Rises and Macbeth . Nicole Kidman has also played

1352-604: The Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute shows her more muted presence during the Age of Enlightenment . The femme fatale flourished in the Romantic period in the works of John Keats , notably " La Belle Dame sans Merci " and " Lamia ". Along with them, there rose the gothic novel The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis, featuring Matilda, a very powerful femme fatale . This led to her appearing in

1404-500: The Past ( 1947 ). In Gun Crazy (1950), the femme fatale lures a man into a life of crime. In Hitchcock's 1940 film and Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel Rebecca , the eponymous femme fatale completely dominates the plot, even though she is already dead and we never see an image of her. Rocky and Bullwinkle 's Natasha Fatale, a curvaceous spy, takes her name from the femme fatale stock character. Blonde Ice (1948) features

1456-588: The United States Army, relocated from base to base. After he died when Berniece was four years old, her mother moved the two of them to Los Angeles. Growing up around the corner from the Jewelry District, the Broadway movie palaces of downtown Los Angeles served as her babysitter while her mother worked selling jewelry. She attended 64th Street Grammar School and Mount Vernon Junior High and first stepped on

1508-668: The actresses had to do was to look lovely, since the dialogue was ridiculous". Detour , she felt, was different. The two leads underwent role reversal , with Savage's Vera blackmailing Neal's Al, in a style described by her manager Kent Adamson as "vicious and predatory... very sexually aggressive". Although the B-feature was shot quickly in 28 days, its status has been cemented over the years. Director Wim Wenders called her work "at least 15 years ahead of its time", and The Guardian termed Ann "a Garbo for our times". More recently, critics such as Derek Malcolm and Barry Norman have praised

1560-525: The biblical figures Delilah , Jezebel , and Salome . An example from Chinese literature and traditional history is Daji . The femme fatale was a common figure in the European Middle Ages , often portraying the dangers of unbridled female sexuality. The pre-medieval inherited biblical figure of Eve offers an example, as does the wicked, seductive enchantress typified in Morgan le Fay . The Queen of

1612-526: The big screen as well, including in Allan Dwan 's Woman They Almost Lynched (1953) with Audrey Totter , Joan Leslie and John Lund . As offers for additional movie and television roles began to dwindle, Savage started appearing in commercials and industrial films before essentially withdrawing from acting by the mid 1950s. In Los Angeles in July 1938, while still using her birth name Berniece Lyon, Savage married

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1664-644: The cabaret singer portrayed by Rita Hayworth in Gilda ( 1946 ), narcissistic wives who manipulate their husbands; Ava Gardner in The Killers and Cora ( Lana Turner ) in The Postman Always Rings Twice , based on novels by Ernest Hemingway and James M. Cain respectively, manipulate men into killing their husbands. In the Hitchcock film The Paradine Case ( 1947 ), Alida Valli 's character causes

1716-573: The cataleptic spasm that stirs her flesh and steels her muscles, – a monstrous Beast of the Apocalypse, indifferent, irresponsible, insensible, poisoning. In 1891, Oscar Wilde , in his play Salome : she manipulates her lust-crazed stepfather, King Herod, with her enticing Dance of the Seven Veils (Wilde's invention) to agree to her imperious demand: "bring me the head of John the Baptist ". Later, Salome

1768-837: The crime stories of Dashiell Hammett in the 1920s. At the end of that decade, the French-Canadian villainess Marie de Sabrevois gave a contemporary edge to the otherwise historical novels of Kenneth Roberts set during the American Revolution . Film villainess often appeared foreign, often of Eastern European or Asian ancestry. They were a contrast to the wholesome personas of actresses such as Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford . Notable silent-cinema vamps include Theda Bara, Helen Gardner , Louise Glaum , Valeska Suratt , Musidora , Virginia Pearson , Olga Petrova , Rosemary Theby , Nita Naldi , Pola Negri , Estelle Taylor , Jetta Goudal , and, in early appearances, Myrna Loy . During

1820-455: The daughter sees the role of daughter from her mother's perspective. Yablonsky provides the daughter description, for example: "From the vantage point of my mother, I saw for the first time that she feels badly about her age and her looks and is putting me down because she has begun to compete with me." The next reason is that role reversal prevents the protagonist from being trapped in their own defenses. Yablonsky provides another example about

1872-550: The deaths of two men and the near destruction of another. Another frequently cited example is the character Jane played by Lizabeth Scott in Too Late for Tears ( 1949 ); during her quest to keep some dirty money from its rightful recipient and her husband, she uses poison, lies, sexual teasing and a gun to keep men wrapped around her finger. Jane Greer remains notable as a murderous femme fatale using her wiles on Robert Mitchum in Out of

1924-464: The duo would star together in Two Man Submarine and The Unwritten Code (both 1944) before their most famous film, the 1945 film noir Detour . Reminiscing in the 1980s about her career as a stalwart actress in B movies, Savage dismissed most of her roles as "mindless", saying: "The actresses were just scenery. The stories all revolved around the male actors; they really had the choice roles. All

1976-462: The era of classic film-noirs of the 1940s and 1950s, the femme fatale flourished in American cinema. The archetypal femme fatale is Phyllis Dietrichson , played by Barbara Stanwyck (who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for this role) in the 1944 film Double Indemnity . This character is considered one of the best femme fatale roles in film noir history. The character

2028-437: The fight within spouses. Through role reversal, the spouses change their positions with the other and then produce new insight of the whole interaction. This technique helps the protagonist to gain more understanding of a significant other rather than being stuck in their own perspective. The last reason is that role reversal helps an auxiliary ego understand how a specific role that they are going to play will be perceived by

2080-411: The film, with Norman calling Savage "sultry and sexy... a feline film noir star at its finest". After Detour , although Savage starred in a half-dozen more films during the later 1940s—including Scared Stiff (1945), The Spider (1945), The Dark Horse (1946), and Satan's Cradle (1949; a rare western )—her most prolific years were behind her. When Detour entered the public domain , it frequently

2132-529: The narrative. In the Netflix TV series Orange Is the New Black , actress Laura Prepon played Alex Vause , a modern femme fatale , who led both men and women to their destruction. Femmes fatales appear frequently in comic books . Notable examples include Batman 's long-time nemesis Catwoman , who first appeared in comics in 1940, and various adversaries of The Spirit , such as P'Gell. This stock character

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2184-413: The protagonist. For example, when the daughter plays the role of her mother, she provides some information and cues for the auxiliary ego to know how the role of mother should be played. This technique enables the protagonist and auxiliary to demonstrate the problematic situation that is perceived by the protagonist. Besides the above reasons, role reversal is useful for a protagonist to gain control over

2236-527: The publicity for the 1915 film. 1910s American slang for femme fatale was vamp , for vampire . Another icon is Margaretha Geertruida Zelle. While working as an exotic dancer, she took the stage name Mata Hari . She was accused of German espionage during World War I and was put to death by a French firing squad. After her death she became the subject of many sensational films and books. Femmes fatales appear in detective fiction , especially in its 'hard-boiled' sub-genre which largely originated with

2288-450: The stage of the recognition of the other (the stage of role reversal). Role reversal requires that one has learned to differentiate in the areas of time, place and person, and is capable of moving out of their own position into another's position to be able to enact that other role. Role reversal involves the changing of positions between the protagonist and their significant other, such as family members, friends, or people in school or in

2340-473: The trials of Jodi Arias and Amanda Knox . Role reversal Psychodrama has three important techniques: the technique of doubling , the technique of mirroring, and the technique of role reversal. Each technique represents different stages in Moreno's theory of the development of the infant: the stage of identity (the stage of doubling), the stage of the recognition of the self (the stage of mirroring), and

2392-558: The two later married. Savage was offered a screen test by Fox , but she decided not to turn up, as she knew the studio already had a bevy of pretty blondes. Savage instead made a screen test with Columbia Pictures —after playing Lorna in a Reinhardt acting showcase of Odet's Golden Boy "—and was offered a contract. Recalling Columbia mogul Harry Cohn as "a friendly Uncle type", Savage remembered Cohn being intimidated by acid-tongued Rosalind Russell . The two actresses featured together in What

2444-502: The work of Edgar Allan Poe , and as the vampire , notably in Carmilla and Brides of Dracula . The Monk was greatly admired by the Marquis de Sade , for whom the femme fatale symbolised not evil, but all the best qualities of women; his novel Juliette is perhaps the earliest wherein the femme fatale triumphs. Pre-Raphaelite painters frequently used the classic personifications of

2496-528: The year Dracula was published. The poem, which began: "A fool there was ...", inspired Porter Emerson Browne to write the play, A Fool There Was . The poem was adapted to become a 1909 Broadway production. This was followed by The 1913 film The Vampire by Robert Vignola , containing a "vamp" dance. Protagonist Alice Hollister was publicised as "the original vampire". The 1915 film, A Fool There Was , starring Theda Bara , as "The Vamp" followed. The short poem may have been used in

2548-1042: Was ranked as the #8 film villain of the first 100 years of American cinema by the American Film Institute in the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains . In a classical film noir trope, she manipulates a man into killing her husband for financial gain. Other examples of femme fatale include Brigid O'Shaughnessy, portrayed by Mary Astor , who murders Sam Spade's partner in The Maltese Falcon ( 1941 ); manipulative narcissistic daughter Veda (portrayed by Ann Blyth ) in Mildred Pierce who exploits her indulgent mother Mildred (portrayed by Joan Crawford ) and fatally destroys her mother's remarriage to stepfather Monte Barragon (portrayed by Zachary Scott ); Gene Tierney as Ellen Brent Harland in Leave Her to Heaven ( 1945 ), and

2600-475: Was she merely the dancing-girl who extorts a cry of lust and concupiscence from an old man by the lascivious contortions of her body; who breaks the will, masters the mind of a King by the spectacle of her quivering bosoms, heaving belly and tossing thighs; she was now revealed in a sense as the symbolic incarnation of world-old Vice, the goddess of immortal Hysteria, the Curse of Beauty supreme above all other beauties by

2652-477: Was syndicated on television channels and released in numerous VHS incarnations. Gaining cult status and garnering critical acclaim as "arguably film noir's greatest low-budget feature", this exposure earned Savage a new, younger following. From the 1980s, Savage also attended a number of film festivals, helping to bolster her personal status and leading her to emerge once more as "a glamorous figure-about-Hollywood at film festivals and galas". In 1983, she attended

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2704-1046: Was the subject of an opera by Strauss, and was popularized on stage, screen, and peep show booths in countless incarnations. She also is seen as a prominent figure in late 19th- and 20th-century opera, appearing in Richard Wagner 's Parsifal ( Kundry ), Georges Bizet 's " Carmen ", Camille Saint-Saëns ' " Samson et Delilah " and Alban Berg 's " Lulu " (based on the plays " Erdgeist " and " Die Büchse der Pandora " by Frank Wedekind ). Other considerably famous femmes fatales include Isabella of France , Hedda Gabler of Kristiania (now Oslo), Marie Antoinette of Austria, and, most famously, Lucrezia Borgia . Mrs Patrick Campbell , George Bernard Shaw 's "second famed platonic love affair", (she published some of his letters) and Philip Burne-Jones 's lover and subject of his 1897 painting, The Vampire , inspired Burne-Jones's cousin Rudyard Kipling to write his poem "The Vampire", in

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