3. Kathie Moffat - Out Of The Past (1947)
Jeff ekes out a moderate living working at a petrol station until one day a henchman of Whit Sterling's comes along and tells him Sterling wants to see him. Jeff is an ex private eye who Sterling paid to find his girlfriend - Kathie Moffat - in Mexico. Jeff finds her but falls in love with her and they go on the run. Sterling sends another private eye - Jack Fisher - to find out what is going on. Kathie kills Jackson in a cold blooded way. She disappears and Jeff comes back to the USA. When Sterling finds out where Jeff is he engineers a meeting which turns out to be a ruse to blame Jeff for Jackson's death. There is a shock appearance by Kathie who has apparently inveigled her way back into Sterling's good books. After Sterling's henchman fails to kill Jeff, Kathie double crosses Sterling and kills him. She cosies up to Jeff again but he sees her for what she is and engineers a sad demise for both of them. Jane Greer as Kathie Maxwell is stunning in her role. Her beautiful facade hides a greedy, immoral and murderous harridan who is perhaps the most coldblooded of all the screen femme fatales. This is my personal favourite film noir, but I prefer its other title - Build My Gallows High - because it is much more ominous sounding and underlines the fact that Kathie would have been hanged, had she been caught. The title also captures the desolation and self hatred Jeff feels after succumbing to Kathie's charms and generally being taken in by her in a romantic sense. Kathie is a great femme fatale character because she doesn't have ulterior motives for her badness (she is not trying to knock off a husband), she just is an evil, reprehensible woman. As a study into female psychopathy, Out of the Past impresses, as well as being a solid noir.