In this video, I will examine key themes from the film 'Double Indemnity'.
When insurance salesman Walter Neff goes to the home of a client to renew his insurance policy, it is no different than any other visit. That is, until he sees this client's wife. The client's not home. Neff can't take his eyes off the little gold chain around the woman's ankle or the pom poms on her high heel shoes. Her name is Phyllis. She wants to know if she can take out an insurance policy on her husband--without him knowing about it. Neff smells trouble. He wants no part of it and leaves.
But days later he still can't get her perfume and that little ankle chain out of his mind. One day, she shows up at his place and he gives in to her, body and soul. He writes the policy on her husband with an added bonus: there's a double indemnity clause in the policy that will kick in and pay double if her husband dies of a freak accident. He could fall off a train. There's no chance of getting caught because he knows all the tricks of the trade. No one would ever suspect that her husband was murdered. Not even Keyes, his brilliant partner and Claims Adjuster at the the insurance company. No one has ever pulled a fast one on Keyes, he could smell fraud a mile away. But not even Keyes and "the little man in his stomach" can sniff a scam if the scammer was too close, Neff figures.
Double Indemnity, directed by Billy Wilder who co-wrote the script with Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep), is considered the benchmark of film noir. The film stars Fred MacMurray as Walter Neff, Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson, and the great Edward G. Robinson as Barton Keyes. Hard to believe that this film didn't win an Academy Award for anything (it was nominated for 7) as the acting and writing were spot on perfect. This film features the leanest and sharpest dialogue you will ever hear, especially the flirting exchanges between MacMurray and Stanwyck. This is THE TEMPLATE example of film noir--a good guy, a beautiful dame, deception, murder, and betrayal. This film is based on the novella of the same name by James M. Cain.
