However, although we intend to show Esmeé shooting Jack Manning in the opening shot, the audience does not find out who she is until much later in the film. She is not identified as Esmeé, and Angela Watson (the black maid) is named Esmeé throughout the majority of the film, until the twist at the end, when it is revealed the true identity of Esmeé.
Despite this, I saw it as necessary to gather some evidence of past Film Noirs where the killer is revealed at the start, or the killer is a woman who is revealed from the start:
On a moonlit night in the opening scene, Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis), the wife of a British rubber plantation manager in Malaya, shoots and kills a man whom her male servant recognizes as Geoff Hammond (David Newell). She tells the servant to send for her husband Robert (Herbert Marshall), who is working at one of the plantations. Her husband returns, having summoned his attorney and a British police inspector. Leslie tells them that Geoff Hammond "tried to make love to me" and she killed him to save her honour.
Caged, 1950
A married 19-year-old (played by Eleanor Parker) named Marie Allen is sent to prison, after a botched armed robbery attempt with her equally young husband, Tom (who is killed). While receiving her prison physical, she finds out that she is two months pregnant. Despite the hardships she is put through under Matron Evelyn Harper, she gives birth to a healthy baby and wants to "temporarily" grant full custody to her mother. The intent is to get the baby back after she is released. However, her mother informs Marie that her callous step-father has decided that under no circumstances will he allow the baby into his house, and she uses the excuses that she's "too old" and "hasn't a penny in [her] name" as reasons why she can't leave him and help Marie. The prison is forced to permanently give the child up for adoption. Marie never sees her baby again. After her exposure to hardened criminals and truly sadistic guards, by the end of the film she leaves prison a hardened woman with debts to the criminals who helped get her released from jail.
The Sniper, 1952
A San Francisco delivery man, Eddie Miller, struggles with his hatred of women. He's especially bothered by seeing women with their lovers. Miller knows he's sick, and out of despair, he self-inflicts burns on his right hand by holding it over a stove. The doctor treating the wound in an emergency room suspects he might need psychological help, but then gets too busy to follow through.Miller begins a killing spree as a sniper by shooting women from far distances. In an attempt to get caught, he writes an anonymous letter to the police begging them to stop him. As the killings continue, a psychologist has the keys (early criminal profiling techniques) to finding the killer. The film is unusual in that its ending is completely non-violent, despite its genre and expectations raised throughout.
I Want To Live!, 1958
The film tells the story of the life and execution of Barbara Graham (Hayward) a prostitute, drug addict, and convicted perjurer. Graham is the product of a broken home, and works luring men into fixed card games.At one point, she attempts to go straight but marries the "wrong man," and has a child. When her life falls apart, she returns to her former professions and gets involved in a murder. She claims her innocence, but is convicted and executed.
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