Ok, I'll come out and "play" on this one. By "anti-heroine,"
I suppose you
mean someone who is a featured protagonist, not just the
femme fatale who
lures the protagonist. In other words, someone both
hard-boiled and
positive within the moral world of the film. Understood in
that way, the
question is interesting:
--How about the Secretary, played by Ella Raines, in
Siodmak's film of the
next group read, DG's "The Phantom Lady"? Seems to me she's
the
protagonist of the film, and one of the interesting things is
how
hard-boiled she has to become to get at the truth. [Won't go
further since
this is for future discussion.]
--Second nomination is Peggy Cummins' character in "Gun
Crazy," the 1949
version. My film reference calls her a "femme fatale," and I
suppose she
is, but to the extent the film becomes a sort of "Bonnie
& Clyde" picture,
with a team of anti-heroes, her love of guns and what they
can do pushes
the action forward. A very good film.
Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>
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