The 100 Best Female Characters in Film

Loyal wives, loving mothers, lost lushes. Heroines, whores, homicidal hussies. They're all here, with a few slick sisters, whip-smart working girls, a screwy septuagenarian, and other women concocted out of light, shadow and sound.

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Alma (played by Patricia Neal) in Hud: This slow-drawling, womanly, wised-up housekeeper tells the incorrigible Paul Newman she'd have happily had sex with him if he'd asked her instead of trying to rape her. Suffice it to say, this takes place in Texas.

Ellie Andrews (played by Claudette Colbert) in It Happened One Night: The spoiled heiress must defy her father and run off to marry her Mr. Right if she is ever to grow up and be her own person; and then, of course, she must learn that her father was right about how wrong her Mr. Right is so that she can see that her Mr. Wrong (who happens to be her father's Mr. Right-for-her) is the real Mr. Right.

Anita (played by Rita Moreno) in West Side Story: The feisty, hot, experienced, I-like-to-be-in-America girl who's whore to Maria's virgin, and causes everybody a lot less trouble for it.

Anna (played by Deborah Kerr) in The King and I: The warmest, most gracious instrument of 19th-century Western imperialism ever invented.

Mary Hatch Bailey (played by Donna Reed) in It's a Wonderful Life: Sure, it's a portrait of unquestioning love. It's also a tribute to a lost breed--women who quietly, unfussily prevail.

Judy Barton/Madeleine Elster (played by Kim Novak) in Vertigo: Victim? Predator? Ghost? Hitchcock's enigma-to-beat-most-other-enigmas. The gal most guys deserve to meet.

Ellen Berent (played by Gene Tierney) in Leave Her to Heaven: What goes on in this all-too-pretty head? Desperate strategizing. If your crippled brother-in-law threatens to take your husband's attention away from you, simply engineer a tragic drowning. If your unborn baby makes the same mistake? Throw yourself down the stairs. Points for originality.

Lisa Berndle (played by Joan Fontaine) in Letter From an Unknown Woman: Here is a testament to and elegy for the relentlessness of hopeless love in the female of the species, and hence a plea to the male of the species to forgo the slightest encouragement if the female's love cannot be requited.

Karen Blixen (played by Meryl Streep) in Out of Africa: She had a farm in Africa. And everything failed, except her character, which was tangled up in contradictions that fueled a saving imagination.

Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester (played by Janet Gaynor) in A Star Is Born: "This is Mrs. Norman Maine." And she knows everything you need to know about Hollywood.

Fanny Brice (played by Barbra Streisand) in Funny Girl: A hugely talented Brooklyn-born ugly duckling who turns herself into an uptown swan (with a big bill).

The Bride (played by Elsa Lanchester) in Bride of Frankenstein: The prototype of today's surgery-mad starlets. And a pioneer in hair-streaking, to boot.

Berenice Sadie Brown (played by Ethel Waters) in The Member of the Wedding: The mammy whose saintliness extends all the way to not gagging the logorrheic prepubescent female she's forced to share the kitchen with.

Irene Bullock (played by Carole Lombard) in My Man Godfrey: A rich, spoiled, insecure, booze-addled, selfish, willful, utterly spaced-out, adorable, glamorous, good-hearted, Park Avenue society girl of the '30s.

Lucy Burrows (played by Lillian Gish) in Broken Blossoms: Born poor, left for dead by a father who beat her to a bloody pulp, this Silent Era heroine presses her fingers to the corners of her tremulous lips to force a smile--and fails to use her suffering as an excuse for substance abuse, abuse of others or incessant whining.

Carrie (played by Sissy Spacek) in Carrie: Every paranoid fantasy about female puberty--and girls know that in the case of female puberty, paranoid fantasy can be very close to reality--wrapped up in one pale, vengeful girl.

Catwoman (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) in Batman Returns: Guys, wanna know what happens when you (metaphorically) throw gals out the window? They get slinky the way you always wanted them to, only now they come with claws and whips, and psychological wounds transformed into lethal finesse. The best you can hope for is to get your face licked after your butt's been kicked.

Margo Channing (played by Bette Davis) in All About Eve: A warning to women about the stupidity of ever befriending younger, prettier versions of themselves. No wonder sisterhood's in short supply in showbiz.

Nora Charles (played by Myrna Loy) in The Thin Man: Authentically sophisticated practitioner of that only-works-in-the-movies marriage strategy wherein the witty, stunningly beautiful wife keeps up with, and often ahead of, her husband in such things as martini drinking, and makes the whole experience fun for both of them.

Charlie (played by Teresa Wright) in Shadow of a Doubt: A small-town girl who indulges in romantic (make that incestuous) fantasies about her namesake, Uncle Charlie, comes to realize that the dashing hero is actually a heartless murderer of women. Naturally, nobody else in the family understands this. So she must kill him herself. As must every girl.

Chris (played by Angie Dickinson) in Point Blank: The reason John F. Kennedy felt he had to do Angie Dickinson?

Queen Christina (played by Greta Garbo) in Queen Christina: Showing commendable common sense, she gives up the throne of Sweden to romance a Spanish knockout.

Sister Clodagh (played by Deborah Kerr) in Black Narcissus: A sublime notion of feminine spirituality, she's the sophisticated and very superior Mother Superior who comes from her Western tradition to a wild Eastern place and is shaken down by the rakish Englishman who is the man of her dreams and nightmares.

Daisy Clover (played by Natalie Wood) in Inside Daisy Clover: Nervous breakdowns, screaming fits, a frenzied desperation to please, serial relationships with wrong guys--the incisive portrait of an adolescent Hollywood star.

Jane Craig (played by Holly Hunter) in B_roadcast News_: The contemporary working girl at her brightest--inspired, resourceful, relentless and bonkers.

Stella Dallas (played by Barbara Stanwyck) in Stella Dallas: The tacky, self-immolating mom who watches from outside a window as her only child marries into a Park Avenue family. If this type existed today, you'd send her for a makeover and hire a gigolo to keep her occupied at the reception.

Bree Daniels (played by Jane Fonda) in Klute: The girl with the most distinctive hairdo in the history of prostitution. Not Dick Morris's type.

Mrs. Danvers (played by Judith Anderson) in Rebecca: A warning to second wives and new girlfriends about the importance of tossing out all things and people belonging to your predecessor.

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