Femme fatales have existed since the dawn of narrative art. This intoxicating female archetype is known for her alluring sensuality and dark habit of causing harm or destruction to any man who falls into her grasp. From the sirens of Greek literature and Shakespeare’s Lady MacBeth to the vamps of the silent film era and gangster movie gun molls, femme fatales have continued to change with times.

A surge of classic examples arose in pulp literature and the subsequent film noir heyday of the 1940s and 50s – possibly a response to shifting gender roles in the wake of World War II. Many consider Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis Dietrichson to be the prototypical film fatale of the silver screen. In Double Indemnity, this magnetic blonde seduces a hapless salesman and convinces him to kill her husband in order to cash in on the titular insurance policy.

Despite her classical origins,...