Femme Fatale

A femme fatale is defined as an attractive and seductive woman, who will ultimately bring destruction to a man who becomes involved with her, often displaying the dangers of female sexuality. 

The phrase 'femme fatale' is dervied from the french for 'deadly woman.' Typically, a femme fatale will use her feminine qualitys such as charm and beauty and sexual allure in order to acheive her goals in a plot.

In the 1940's and 1950's, Film Noir captured and made use of femme fatales, an example being Phyllis Dietrichson, played by Barbara Stanwyck, who befriends and then seduces a insurance salesman and persuades him to kill her husband in the 1944 Film Noir classic Double Indemnity.