Femme Fatale: The Patsy

As we come to the end of the classic noir era, we wrap up our examination of the femme fatale through two late-career pictures from some of the best who ever did it, Fritz Lang and Otto Preminger, both no strangers to this podcast. Angel Face and Human Desire together represent an intriguing evolution of the femme fatale, right as a new wave of cultural upheaval approaches and the genre departs Hollywood for a few decades. Join us as end one age but begin another with two more women who kill. Recommendations:Tristan: Shree 420Fred: Rebecca, Seven BeautiesWritten & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred PelzerA Strange Phantom ProductionMusic by Kevin MacLeod.Learn more about us or follow us on Letterboxd

The battle of the sexes takes on a literal dimension with these two marriage focused tales of infidelity and violence. We're heading out of the big city, first to visit a sleepy fishing town on the Northern California coast, and then across the country for the greatest honeymoon destination of them all, Niagara Falls. And we'll have none other than Marilyn Monroe along with us for the ride, so buckle up because somebody's bound to go over the waterfall before it's all said and done.Recommendations:Tristan: Nagina, Jewel ThiefFred: Eye of the Devil, Night is Short Walk on Girl, Margaret, Johnny GuitarWritten & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred PelzerA Strange Phantom ProductionMusic by Kevin MacLeod.Learn more about us or follow us on Letterboxd

U.S. noir crashes headfirst into the burgeoning European art house in a fiery car wreck of subdued passions and bourgeois ennui. Come for the brooding car mechanics, stay for the affairs of the heart with this double feature.Recommendations:Our respective Top 10s of 2023!Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred PelzerA Strange Phantom ProductionMusic by Kevin MacLeod.Learn more about us or follow us on Letterboxd

Last episode, we learned what happens, sometimes, when you get in deep with the boss’s wife. But what happens when that wife is played by Rita Hayworth? A whole lotta great noir, as this week's episode proves, with a double bill of Gilda and The Lady From Shanghai.Recommendations:Tristan - Late SpringFred - Next of KinWritten & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred PelzerA Strange Phantom ProductionMusic by Kevin MacLeod.Learn more about us or follow us on Letterboxd

There's something so sturdy, so fundamental to the format: a drifter comes to town. He gets a job - and then he meets the boss's wife. And suddenly everything goes to hell. In tonight's episode we begin a double header of boss's wife stories with the first U.S. adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice followed by the ice rink noir (!) Suspense.Recommendations:Tristan - Timekeepers of Eternity, City of PiratesFred - Stop Making SenseWritten & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred PelzerA Strange Phantom ProductionMusic by Kevin MacLeod.Learn more about us or follow us on Letterboxd

We're back from an unexpected holiday break to look at the yang to the femme fatale's yin - the patsy. We're going to examine two very different versions of the archetype filled out by classic noir actors - one a soulful sucker played by Edward G. Robinson, the other a suspicious drifter played by Glenn Ford, in our double header of Scarlet Street and Framed.Recommendations:Tristan - Center StageFred - Timekeepers of EternityWritten & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred PelzerA Strange Phantom ProductionMusic by Kevin MacLeod.Learn more about us or follow us on Letterboxd

What happens when you take the jaded fatalism of noir and mix it with the character-first focus of classic melodrama? Two fantastic films of the 1940s, Leave Her to Heaven and Mildred Pierce, each of which involves a self-absorbed young woman destroying her family in pursuit of her own slice of the American dream. Recommendations:Tristan - Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem KahaaniFred - Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans & Earrings of Madame de...Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred PelzerA Strange Phantom ProductionMusic by Kevin MacLeod.Learn more about us or follow us on Letterboxd

July 1944. Los Angeles. Enter Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson, high atop a looming stairwell, clad only in a towel. Enter the femme fatale, as we know her, into classic Hollywood. Counter-balancing the icy-cold Phyllis Dietrichson is a no-less chilly, but far more sympathetic waitress named Stella, drawn from a comparatively minor Otto Preminger film. Both women slot neatly into the developing vision of women who pull over-eager protagonists into their wake, but their stories unfold in starkly different fashions. Join us as we look at Double Indemnity and Fallen Angel.Recommendations:Tristan - Thief & The Last of the MohicansFred - Electra, My Love & Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant MayhemWritten & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred PelzerA Strange Phantom ProductionMusic by Kevin MacLeod.Learn more about us or follow us on Letterboxd

Before noir reached American shores, it was festering in Europe in the shadow of fascism. The femme fatale was no different, her need for advancement intersecting with the oppressive environment swallowing the continent. Tonight we'll be looking at three different examples of the proto femme fatale as it crosses over with poetic realism and neorealism - and two of them come from that noir ur-text, The Postman Always Rings Twice. By comparing La Bete Humaine (1938), The Last Turning (1939), & Ossessione (1943) we can take a snapshot of the femme fatale right before the noir era kicks off and becomes the archetype we know and love today.Recommendations:Tristan - One Way PassageFred - BarbieWritten & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred PelzerA Strange Phantom ProductionMusic by Kevin MacLeod.Learn more about us or follow us on Letterboxd

We look back to the prehistory of noir and the early days of cinema to find the origins of the femme fatale on the silver screen. A tale as old as time - in this case, all the way back to Greek myth. In today's episode we delve into three films from the tail end of silent cinema and the start of the sound era - Pandora's Box, The Blue Angel, & La Chienne - to examine the fallen woman and see how she foretells the fatale's form. Recommendations:Tristan - DeadlochFred - Queen of EarthWritten & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred PelzerA Strange Phantom ProductionMusic by Kevin MacLeod.Learn more about us or follow us on Letterboxd