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Rating: 
Summary: Great on the trees, less satisfying on the forest
Review: Almost all of the big (and not-so-big) "dames" who populated that extraordinary decade when film noir flourished make up this reference-volume of thumbnail sketches. The profiles tend to be rather assembly-line, though; after a colorful introductory paragraph, the first sentence of the next invariably reads, "Born February 7, 1919 in Goldfield, Nevada..." or some such. And whole careers are sketched, though emphasis is given to noir roles, including plot summaries and a selection of reviews; not to be morbid, but the details of their deaths -- too many of them painful and premature -- are welcome, reminding us that these vital woman, often underrated and badly used, continued to live after their careers had flickered out. Still, this big, thick, academic-looking book is welcome in immortalizing in print such black sapphires as Claire Trevor, Hope Emerson and (my favorite) Marie Windsor. (Others such as Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford are more satisfyingly covered in books of their own.) One could quibble with the inclusion of some actresses or, more seriously, the exclusion of others (where is the Mary Astor of The Maltese Falcon and, especially, Act of Violence?). The book's major disappointment, however, is the lack of a unifying theme, of a meditation on how these actresses came to portray the indelible femmes fatales, or even good gals, in film noir, and on what film noir tells us about the yin and yang of the sexes in postwar America. A solid (if pricey) reference work, it's just a little stolid.
Rating: 
Summary: Great reference book -- and entertaining, too!
Review: I loved this book! It was great to read about some of the stars that I've loved for years, like Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, and Joan Crawford, and still learn something new about their lives. Even more interesting was reading about actresses like Coleen Gray and Helen Walker, whose faces (but not names) I knew, and Peggie Castle and Dorothy Hart, whom I'd never heard of before. Also, reading the book made me want to see these movies. The author did a great job with providing facts in an entertaining, easy-to-read, engaging style. In addition to the entertaining text, the photos in the book were beautiful. Highly recommended!!
Rating: 
Summary: A deserved recognition of forgotten actresses
Review: This reader has mixed feelings about Karen Burroughs Hansberry's "Femme Noir." On one hand, the author resurrects undeservedly forgotten actresses such as Peggy Cummins, Sally Forrest, Dolores Hart, Virginia Huston, Dorothy Patrick, and the wonderful Marie Windsor. On the other hand, one is tempted to question the inclusion in a book sub-titled "Bad Girls of Film" the likes of goody-two-shoes Jeanne Crain and even the aforementioned Dorothy Hart. In her necessary selection, Miss Hansberry included actresses who, granted, appeared in film noir but but whose roles were not noir at all. Instead of Dorothy Hart, for example, who usually played the nice wife, one might have chosen Ann Savage, the femme fatale of the quintessential B-noir, Detour. With that said, "Femme Noir" obviously belongs on the shelf of most film buffs.
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