that combined with the purse dropping now strikes me as very noirish in the using the feminine wiles to get ahead in a man's world type of angle
Yeah, totally! I really liked the way the noir bled into the present day--the way Chloe toppled and fell all those multiple storeys was gold and there was all sorts of gorgeous detail in the office Chloe and Jimmy apprehended the political reporter in.

I will never stop loving that icon! :-)