I'm proud to say that I've arrived at yet another milestone in my blogging: my 200th posting. It's been an extraordinary journey and one I hope you have enjoyed. It seems like only yesterday that I posted my 100th. Tempus fugit, as the cliche goes.
I didn't quite know how to celebrate my two-double-aught but someone might recall my promise to post a list of some of my favorite female screen villains sometime back. This posting serves as a bookend to a previous posting, which addressed some of my favorite villains from the movies. Unfortunately only one woman made said list; villainy is mostly a male-only club. But I've managed to cobble together a list of some of my favorite lady-Lucifers. It wasn't easy but I had criteria I felt I wanted to adhere to; one of them was to avoid obvious choices; The Wicked Witch of the West, Cruella De Vil, Maleficent, the alien from Alien, etc. Another was to broaden the parameters of how we might define villain, as you'll soon see. And it will be abundantly clear that I included only one female baddie from a foreign film. If it's difficult finding a selection in American films, it's nearly impossible in films overseas.
Of course, it is always necessary for me to say the group is but a scant representation of a larger pool. As always, they are arranged in no particular order. If I've overlooked some of your favorites, please feel free to list them in the comment section.
Thank you for visiting my blog during these past 200 postings. I hope you return for the next...200?
1.) Janine "Smurf" Cody (Jacki Weaver)--from the film Animal Kingdom
Janine "Smurf" Cody, the matriarch of a family of mostly scary criminals, is also one of its most dangerous and most intimidating. When she sounds sweet and benignly maternal, she is at her most chilling. Of the fiendish society listed herein, she may the most frightening. Jacki Weaver earned a well-deserved Academy Award nomination for her role.
2.) Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway)--from the film Chinatown
Evelyn Mulwray is more a victim than a heavy. As daughter of the thoroughly evil Noah Cross (John Huston), she comes with more than just a little baggage and skeletons. But in Polanski's film, no one is innocent and no one is free from complicity in wrongdoing. Evelyn withholds information and always knows more than she lets on. She is more a tragic figure than anything else but in Chinatown, she seems be coated in a layer of filth her pretty face and lovely outfits can't mask. Does she really deserve to be on this list? Maybe not but what the hell Jake, it's Chinatown.
3.) Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon)--from the film Election
If there was ever a succubus inhabiting the body of an ambitious, high school overachiever it is Tracy Flick. More than willing to play dirty to win a high school election, she also isn't averse to going public with sensitive information about her teachers or threatening legal action. She will get ahead by any means necessary. She is the diabolical antithesis of Max Fischer of Rushmore, who has ambitions but also a soul of platinum. Beneath Tracy's perky disposition lies the heart of a cutthroat. What she eventually becomes is more than just a little disquieting. As funny as Election can be, it's female antagonist is its dark edge.
4.) Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino)--from the film The Last Seduction
Bridget Gregory is my kind of villainess. Bridget's weapons are her deviousness and her hot-as-a-soldering iron sexuality, which she uses to devastating effect. Making abject fools of most every man she seduces, Bridget gets what she wants and isn't bothered by something as silly as scruples.
5.) Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft)--from the film The Graduate
Mrs. Robinson might make any cinephile's villain list but I couldn't resist including her on my own. If she isn't at the summit of feminine malevolence, I don't know who is. It isn't a coincidence that we see her often in animal prints; mostly jungle cats because she is all predator and as slick as any feline. Bancroft's performance is quite brilliant. I'll always remember the scene where she uses violent coercion to exact a promise from Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) that he won't ask her daughter out. She pulls his hair then, securing his promise, she releases him; only to look over her nails to ensure they're intact. The act is effectively subtle and speaks volumes about her stone-cold demeanor.
6.) Mrs. Eleanor Shaw Iselin (Angela Lansbury)--from the film The Manchurian Candidate
Mrs. Iselin made my former villain list too. She might be what Tracy Flick will become in middle-age. Ambitious and power-mad, she is willing to sell her soul to America's cold war enemies to reign as an evil queen in Washington. Cunning, ruthless and cruel, she is a hawk, eagle and vulture all rolled into one. A most excellent villainess.
7.) Suzanne Brown (Lara Flynn Boyle)--from the film Red Rock West
Suzanne Brown and Bridget Gregory would make a terrific coffee klatsch. Suzanne too knows how to use her feminine wiles like a stiletto and she almost makes a chump out of Michael Williams (Nicolas Cage). Her refrain about running to Mexico becomes a sort of gag. You wouldn't want to turn your back on Suzanne Brown or fall prey to her charms; she's a beauty with horns and a tail.
8.) Summer Wheatly (Haylie Duff)--from the film Napoleon Dynamite
Everyone knew someone like Summer Wheatly in high school and if you're a guy, girls like her made the experience very unpleasant, if not a living hell. Poor Napoleon (John Heder) can't even get her to join him in a game of tether-ball. Her derisive rebuffs are this teen witch's stock in trade. Though she doesn't pursue the school presidency with Tracy Flick's heartless aggression, she still expresses nothing but dismissive scorn for her mild-mannered competitor; Pedro (Efren Ramirez). Her campaign speech is both funny and mildly obnoxious as she takes a swipe at Pedro when she says, "Who wants to eat chimmychangas all the time--not me." Summer might not occupy the lowest circle of Satan's kingdom but Hell's vestibule isn't out of the question.
9.) Marietta Fortune (Diane Ladd)--from the film Wild at Heart
One would be hard-pressed to find good in David Lynch's demoness. She comes on to her daughter's boyfriend then hires assassins to have him killed. She is creepy, slimy and given to painting her face red, which gives her a more malign appearance. It's amusing to listen to Marietta wrap her southern belle gentility around what is essentially a venomous spirit.
10.) Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver)--from the film Working Girl
Nothing worse than a boss who plays nice to your face then steals your ideas behind your back then uses them to get ahead. Even worse when said boss denigrates you in subtle ways, such as the scene in the film when Katharine has Tess (Melanie Griffith) make the rounds at a party with a hot, steaming cart of Chinese dumplings, which leave her face a sweaty mess. Katharine Parker is the avatar of Reagan-era opportunism and she embodies it well. She could make you believe a glass of arsenic is really cherry syrup before you're undone by your error.
Many more evil chicks could have made this list and much more could be said about the people on it. I hope you enjoyed this brief romp around my selection. I also hope it made a worthy subject for my 200th posting.
Looking forward to having you back soon.
Animal Kingdom, Chinatown, Election, The Last Seduction, The Graduate, The Manchurian Candidate, Red Rock West, Napoleon Dynamite, Wild at Heart and Working Girl.
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