98. Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson
      Double Indemnity (1944)

Stanwyck feared that Double Indemnity would ruin her career. She’d played women who were less than virtuous, but never such a hard-boiled killer as Phyllis Dietrichson. With a pantherlike slink and some very fast talking, Dietrichson convinces smitten salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) to let her buy accident insurance in her husband’s name, then devises a nearly flawless plot to cash in on the policy. The star admitted that she was no beauty, but she oozes laser-focused sensuality, eschewing extraneous movement and working what she’s got—slowly crossing her legs and massaging the words “accident insurance” with her dark red lips. No femme was ever more fatale.

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