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April 1996, Week 1

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Subject:
From:
"[Mark Toscani]" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 4 Apr 1996 18:38:33 -0500
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> Dear Screen-Lers:
>
> For a new course for next year tentatively entitled Women Who Kill, I am
>seeking recommendations of films that are directly about women who murder
>one or more people during the course of the film.
 
 
I immediately thought of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford films:
 
Bette Davis kills her lover in THE LETTER (1940).
She kills a few people (husband, stranger, later herself by accident) in
ANOTHER MAN'S POISON (1952).
She gives it to another husband in THE LITTLE FOXES (1941).
She does a hit and run in IN THIS OUR LIFE (1942).
Oh, boy....she murders a husband again in BORDERTOWN (1935).
She kills an ex-lover in DECEPTION (1946).
She kills her husband's friend in BEYOND THE FOREST (1949).
She hits her maid with a hammer and starves her sister to death in WHATEVER
HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962).
She murders her twin sister in DEAD RINGER (1964)...it is later discovered
that the murdered twin sister killed her husband!!!! So, Bette gets to play
two different characters who carry out two seperate murders--all in the
same film!!!
 
 
Joan Crawford killed slightly fewer people:
 
In LETTY LYNTON (1932), she poisons an abusive boyfriend.
She kills an ex-lover in self-defense in A WOMAN'S FACE (1941).
Her daughter (Ann Blyth) kills Joan's 2nd husband in MILDRED PIERCE (1945).
She frantically shoots another ex-lover in POSSESSED (1947).
She shoots the local corrupt sheriff in FLAMINGO ROAD (1949).
In her head (you have to see the movie) she shoots her husband and plants
evidence to pin it own her husband's naughty girlfriend in SUDDEN FEAR
(1952)...just rent this incredible film noir!!!!
She shoots Mercedes McCambridge in JOHNNY GUITAR (1954).
She drives her sister-in-law to suicide in QUEEN BEE (1955).
She shoots her husband after finding out he raped their adopted daughter in
THE STORY OF ESTHER COSTELLO (1957).
And, finally, she hacks to death (ala Lizzy Borden) her hubby and his
girlfriend in the wonderful opening sequence of STRAIT-JACKET (1964)!!!
 
I hope this helps,
 
Mark Toscani
 
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