'Evelyn Mulwray In The Film Noir, Roman Polanskis' Chinatown

Movies such as the Maltese Falcon and Double Indemnity both depict femme fatale as a woman who is in fact dangerous and manipulative. To further understand the evolution of the character of femme fatale, it is imperative to analyze the character of Evelyn Mulwray from the last true film noir, Roman Polanskis’ Chinatown. Evelyn Mulwray is the ‘femme fatale’ movie and is played by actress Faye Dunaway. The movie was released in 1974, and therefore, present a different time. It was released almost thirty years after the birth of the film noir. The movie is graciously paced and ingeniously developed. Some could call it confusing due to the presence of various twists and turns throughout the movie. It surrounds the characters of J.J Gittes, the …show more content…
Evelyn shares numerous similarities, but there is no clear dichotomy. She is a mixture of good and bad, innocent and deceptive, integrity and duplicitous. Her plan to reach her goal is through manipulation. Nevertheless the goal is revealed as one with honor. She plays the role of a cool and oblivious character, when her husbands’ death is in question, even though she knows who the murderer is. She is later revealed as a desperate mother trying to protect her child. Her actions of manipulation is what categorizes her the femme fatale character. She uses manipulation to succeed in reaching her goal, and hiding the truth. Moreover, it should also be noted that she was afraid to kill Noah, her father. Yet another critical Femme fatale characteristics. Usually in a film noir, the femme fatale character isn’t scared of removing obstacles using deadly method to reach their goal. For instance, Phyllis from Double Indemnity, attempted to murder Walter as he got in her way. One could say, that the character of Evelyn Mulwray would better fit the femme fatale gone soft category, since her ultimate goal was the safety of her