Lead bad girl Eva Mendes strutted her stuff in a strapless yellow gown, while "The Spirit's" top good girl Sarah Paulson also chose yellow, in a shorter number. Stana Katic, the other good woman in the film, chose a glittery black sheath, while Jamie King, who plays Death in the comic-strip inspired film noir went with a little black dress. Very bad Scarlett Johansson chose a strapless cream gown, while the last of "The Spirit" bad gals, Paz Vega, who shimmies her way through the movie in almost nothing, looked radiant in a purple Elie Saab cocktail dress that evoked 1950's style.

Leading man Gabriel Macht looked great, too, in a knee-length suitcoat; it helped that he had his wife, actress Jacinda Barrett, on his arm. Samuel L. Jackson, who plays the Spirit's nemesis in the action-packed story, also went with black, wise in the knowledge that he could not compete with the far-out costumes his character the Octopus sports in the film.

In fact, it was those stylized costumes inspired by looks of the 1940's and 1950's that drew Scarlett Johansson into the project, playing the Octopus' evil second in command.

"I love that fabulous Golden Age of Hollywood," she said. "The 1940's or whatever, with those beautiful costumes. And I love my geisha costume. I love it just because it's a geisha costume! Why not? It was really fun for me, and I loved how all my costumes were obviously directly correlated with Sam's costumes. Mine were always a quarter of the size of Sam's."

To check out the spectacular looks on all those gorgeous gals in "The Spirit," plan on a trip to the movies on Christmas Day.