Scene analysis of 'Double Indemnity'

This is a scene analysis of Billy Wilder's classic film noir 'Double Indemnity'.

This film looks at how being too close to somebody or something can interfere with your ability to be objective, like being in a bad relationship or, in the case of this film, how accommodating mothers are unable to see faults in their children.

In this film, insurance salesman Walter Neff—played by Fred MacMurray—is the kid and claims manager Barton Keys— played by Edward G. Robinson— is the mother. Like a child, Walter Neff is reckless, he’s irresponsible, and he likes to take risks and be slick. He’s superficial and impulsive, judging things by 1st impressions. When he sees Phyllis—played by Barbara Stanwyck—on the top of the staircase with that towel wrapped around her body, and later when she comes down the staircase with that little gold chain around her ankle and he gets a whiff of her perfume he knows that he has to have her regardless of the fact that the woman is married. He just wants her and this selfish desire on his part blinds him to the moral consequences and inherent hazards of his decision to help her kill her husband and collect on the double indemnity clause in his life insurance policy. But Phyllis isn’t the only reason that Neff agrees to help her collect on the policy; he really wants to see if he can outsmart Barton Keys who has never been outsmarted by a phony claim. 

The mother/son dynamic between Keys and Neff occasionally alternates between that of a father and son with Keys dispensing fatherly advice to Neff. But after Mr. Dietrich is murdered, Neff stays in mother mode, unable to accept all obvious signs pointing to Neff as the murderer.

In Chapter 4 on the DVD, Keys gripes about insurance salesmen selling policies to anybody. Neff sells more policies than anyone in the company but Keys overlooks him and complains about all the other insurance salesmen. 

In Chapter 14 on the DVD, Neff sneaks into Keys office to get find out how much the man knows about who killed Phyllis’ husband. Neff finds a recording Keys made confirming Neff as a suspect. But Keys puts the blame on Lola’s boyfriend, Nino Zachetti, who he’d seen visiting Phyllis on a number of occasions. Keys says that he doesn't suspect Neff because he’s known the man for years, again repeating the same pattern of denial he demonstrates in Chapter 4 where he blames “the company” instead of Neff for selling policies to anybody. Keys also has a feminine type of intuition that he refers to as the “little man” in his stomach to catch insurance scammers. 

The film ends in a scene showing the intimate bond between a mother and her wayward son, a common scene you see with mothers who stand by their bad kids through thick and thin. Despite all the sins Neff has committed from adultery, to murder, to trying to frame an innocent man for murder—despite all these awful things on Neff’s part, Keys, like a forgiving mother, cradles him in his arms and says “I love you, too.” The mother is always the last to accept the truth about her kids and she’s also the last one left when everyone else is nowhere to be found.