Yr 13 Film Noir - Double Indemnity

1. Double Indemnity
dir by Billy Wilder 1944

2. Background
• Adapted from a short novella by James M Cain
• Adapted for the screen by Raymond Chandler (a
detective novelist)
• Directed by Billy Wilder ( A Jewish émigré ) who went
on to direct A list films like Sunset Boulevard
• Nominated for best film Oscar and 6 others (didn’t win
as was considered too risqué (adultery and murder!)
• Was one of the films that bought film noir to the
‘masses’ – it was an A list film, because of its actors –
when many were considered B list

3. Why do we study it?
It’s considered one of the best
film noir examples because:
• It has great actors (Barbara
Stanwyck, Edward G
Robinson and Fred
McMurray were A list actors
who drew in audiences)
• Phyllis Dietrichson is a
classic femme fatale
• Walter Neff is a completely
flawed male hero

4. Why do we study it?
• It has typical noir
themes of greed and lust
leading to adultery and
murder
• It has a typical narrative
structure – 1st person
narrative (voiceover)
and flashback
• It’s a biased narrative
because it’s first person

5. Why do we study it?
• It has typical Noir visual
style
• It has fabulous double
entendre – nearly didn’t
get released because it
was considered too
risqué
• It has its roots in hard
boiled fiction (plot,
character, themes)
• It can be connected to
the society of the time

6. Pulp Fiction
Straight after the story was
first published, film
companies were competing
to buy the property. Then
the Hays Office put the
kibosh on it. They said:
“The general low tone and sordid flavor of
this story makes it, in our judgment,
thoroughly unacceptable for screen
presentation before mixed audiences in the
theater. I am sure you will agree that it is
most important…to avoid what the code calls
"the hardening of audiences," especially those
who are young and impressionable, to the
thought and fact of crime”
The pulp novella by James M. Cain
was published in serial form in 1935.
Pulp books often provided the plots Eight years later they decided to try again.
to film noir. At first the Hays Office said no, then they
What do you think
changed between 1935 relented, although they did insist Phyllis
& 1943 that caused the used a larger towel.
Hays Office to change
its mind?

7. You are looking for:
• Corruption!
• Innuendo
• Expressionistic camera work (shadows, extreme
angles)
• Fatalism – a belief that you are unable to change
your destiny.
• A failure of crime to pay
• Femme Fatale – wicked Spiderwomen
• Flawed Males – ready to be led astray by the
aforementioned wicked women.

8. The skull beneath the skin - Beautiful suburb, everything should
be ideal. Kids are frolicking in the streets, but look at the cracks
in the road.

9. Who has the power? Look at the
angles.
“I hate to think of you having a smashed fender or
something when you’re not, uh, fully covered”

10. What do these shadows represent?

11. The anklet - the 1940s tramp stamp
“That’s a honey of an anklet”
“We were talking about automobile insurance, only you were thinking
about murder. And I was thinking about that anklet”.
“… I kept thinking about Phyllis Dietrichson - and the way that anklet of hers
cut into her leg”.

12. It’s all in the delivery / direction
Phyllis: Nettie! Nettie! Oh I forgot, today's the maid's day off.
Neff: Never mind the beer, iced tea'll be fine.
Phyllis: Lemon? Sugar?
Neff: Fix it your way. As long as it's the maid's day off, maybe there's
something I can do for you...like running the vacuum cleaner.

13. Phyllis returns Walter’s hat – spot the
very deliberate mistake.

14. Walter leaving his hat behind.

15. Look at the way the shadow falls
across her face. Shadow = ?

16. Ellipsis & Innuendo
I don’t want you to hang, baby

17. Walter & Phyllis hang out in the baby
food isle.

18. Into the dark / Cat smile

19. Out of control
The film opens with a car careening down the dark streets of Los Angeles.
The car, like it’s driver, Walter Neff, is out of control.

20. The voiceover – influence from
Pulp Fiction
• One of the typical conventions of noir is the use of voiceover.
• Double Indemnity lets you know right away who is speaking,
when, and from where, but other films use voice-over and
flashback more ambiguously.
• We need to think about the motives of narrative voices, how
much they know and whether they are telling the truth, when
and to whom they are speaking. This is a biased version of
what happened because it’s from Walter’s POV
• In this way, Noir emphasises the narrative gaps, and the
possibility that narratives can deceive.
• The snappy dialogue you hear comes from the pulp novels

21. Influences on this film - Hardboiled
• Generally refers to a type of detective crime
fiction.
• Contain unsentimental portrayals of violence
and sex.
• Began in the mid 1920s. Refined by Raymond
Chandler in the late 1930s.
• Plots were pillaged for noir films in the 1940s,
and their authors were employed to write the
scripts.

22. The Hardboiled Detective (Dick)
• He works alone.
• He is between 35 and 45 years or so, a loner and a tough guy.
• His usual diet consists of fried eggs, black coffee and cigarettes.
• He hangs out at shady all-night bars.
• He is a heavy drinker but always aware of his surroundings and able to
fight back when attacked.
• He shoots criminals or takes a beating if it helps him solve a case.
• He is always poor.
• Cases that at first seem straightforward, often turn out to be quite
complicated, forcing him to embark on an odyssey through the urban
landscape.
• He is involved with organized crime and other lowlifes on the "mean
streets" of , preferably Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, or Chicago.
• A hard-boiled private eye has an ambivalent attitude towards the police.
• It is his ambition to save America and rid it of its mean elements all by
himself.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_crime_fiction#Hard_boiled_American_crime_fiction_writing

23. Alienation
= Noir protagonist
+ Obsession (flawed male)
• What is the evidence that Walter Neff is alienated?
– What are the societal causes of this alienation?
• Who is Neff obsessed by? What is the evidence of his
obsession? I was thinking about that dame upstairs and the way she had looked at me, and I
wanted to see her again, close, without that silly staircase between us.
– I knew I had a hold of a red hot poker, and the time to drop it was before I
burnt my hand off.
– I was all twisted up inside and I was still holding on to that red-hot poker. And
right then it came over me that I hadn't walked out on anything at all, that the
hope was too strong, that this wasn't the end between her and me. It was only
the beginning.

24. Allure + Manipulation = Femme
Fatale
• She has been a feature of literature and art
over the ages and in early noir was
representative of the hard boiled novel
women. Look here for more information:
• http://www.detnovel.com/FemmeFatale.html
• She is manipulative, deceptive, alluring, cat-
like, over sexualised, independent, duplicitous,
predatory, ego-centric, selfish, narcisstic…