A touch of noir - Joan Bennett

Film noir, for all practical purposes, begins in the 1940s and thrives into the 50s, psychologically fueled by the angst of World War II and the Cold War, thematically fueled by the popularity of the pulp fiction detective, and practically fueled by the fact that these were cheap pictures to make in an age where the big studios were losing their power and television was beginning to raise its competitive head. Studios eventually went broke trying to make movies that you couldn't see at home, like Cleopatra or Hello Dolly, but nobody went broke making black and white pictures where femme fatales led hapless males over the brink without doing much more than batting an eye. As a matter of fact, in those days, all a femme fatale could do was bat an eye, or maybe show an ankle. This was still the old Hollywood, after all, with the Code still in effect. These gals didn't have to do more, though. That batted eye or that turned of an ankle was all it took. Guys were stupid lunks back then. They still are, for that matter, but nowadays it takes more to get them to prove it. Sometimes...

Film Noir’s Hard Luck Ladies: Joan Bennett profiles one of the actresses who may not be that well remembered, but who did the femme fatale job to a turn. In fact, her life is pretty fatale:

Wanger, already suspicious of his much younger wife, was having her followed by a private detective. When Wanger was informed that Bennett and Lang were spending sweaty afternoons together in a Beverly Hills apartment, he flew into a rage. On December 13, 1951, he found Bennett and Lang returning from a midday tryst, and as they were getting out of Bennett’s car, he shot Lang in the crotch with a .38.

Can the plots of her films match up to that? Can even today's tabloids do the trick? Eat your heart out, Lindsay Lohan.