...according to Donald Liebenson of the Saturday Evening Post (a publication I didn't know was still around...)

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/04/fatale-attraction-10-wicked-women-from-the-golden-age-of-film-noir/

The article is garden-variety overview, with little more than hushed appreciation for the bad girls of noir (back in the spotlight at the moment due to the release of the revised/expanded DARK CITY DAMES), but the list can't help but be of interest. It actually contains one surprising inclusion:

Annie Laurie Starr, GUN CRAZY (Peggy Cummins)
Phyllis Dietrichson, DOUBLE INDEMNITY (Barbara Stanwyck)
Kathie Moffat, OUT OF THE PAST (Jane Greer)*
Betty, PICKUP (Beverly Michaels)
Brigid O'Shaugnessy, THE MALTESE FALCON (Mary Astor)
Diane Tremayne, ANGEL FACE (Jean Simmons)
Jane Palmer, TOO LATE FOR TEARS (Lizabeth Scott)
Vera, DETOUR (Ann Savage)*
Helen Grayle, MURDER, MY SWEET (Claire Trevor)#
Kitty March, SCARLET STREET (Joan Bennett)#

* actresses featured as part of the original DARK CITY DAMES
# actresses featured in the added sections of DARK CITY DAMES 2.0

Certainly a respectable list, but I think many of us would prefer some others in the Top Ten.

Feel free to add some thoughts about other actresses (including those profiled in DARK CITY DAMES who aren't on this list...) and the roles they played whom you'd argue deserve some consideration. Even with fewer participants here than in the days when we could conduct a quite robust "Noir Top 25" poll, I think we should easily be able to fashion a "Top 25 Femmes Fatales" list...hope to hear from all of you on this one!