Film / Double Indemnity

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A classic 1944 Film Noir directed by Billy Wilder, adapted by Wilder and Raymond Chandler from James M. Cain's novella of the same title (originally serialized in Liberty magazine in 1936). It is widely considered to be the definitive film noir, and was a codifier for many tropes of the genre.

Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) is a successful but bored insurance salesman who encounters Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) when he arrives to discuss auto insurance with her husband. After the two have exchanged some innuendo-laden banter, Phyllis tells Fred that her marriage isn't a particularly happy one, and the pair quickly conspire to trick her husband into taking out a generous life insurance policy with her as the beneficiary—and ensure that he meets a tragic "accidental" end soon thereafter.

Neff, who has eleven years' experience in the insurance business, believes that he has the brains to pull off The Perfect Crime. The one obstacle is his colleague and close friend Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), a brilliant claims manager who can spot a phony insurance claim a mile away.

The story is narrated in flashback by Neff, who is making a confession into his office Dictaphone.

Provides examples of:

• 20 Minutes into the Past: A 1944 film set in 1938.
• Actor Allusion: Keyes says repeatedly that Lola "sounds like she drinks straight from the bottle," just like his actor's most famous role, Rico, is seen doing right before the climax of his own film.
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: The film hews very close to the book for the most part (though it eliminates some revelations about Phyllis), but the ending is both spatially and temporally more compact. Its main differences are in the dialogue (Chandler believed Cain's dialogue wouldn't translate well to the screen) and the use of the Framing Device of Neff recounting the story into the dictaphone. Walter and Phyllis commit suicide at the end of the book, rather than face prison and/or execution for their crime. In the movie, violent confrontation ensues.
• Adaptational Heroism: Zig-Zagged. When the film was in pre-production, it was Chandler's idea to make Keyes a lovably-passionate Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist, whereas in the novel, he doesn't have nearly as much characterization.
• Adaptation Name Change: Walter Neff was Walter Huff in the novel, and Mr. and Mrs. Dietrichson were Mr. and Mrs. Nirdlinger; the latter choice was specifically because Chandler and Wilder thought that Nirdlinger was too silly a name for such a serious story.
• Affably Evil: Walter is a smooth-talking and charismatic insurance salesman and a very likable and sympathetic protagonist who acts like The Everyman. This makes it easy to forget that he's a murderer who killed an innocent man for "money and a woman" and even attempts to frame an innocent person for his crimes. Though he does call it off at the last minute and has a Heel Realization.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Neff may have been a greedy murderer but his pitiful and tragic demise makes you feel so sorry for him. Heck, you might even feel bad for Phyllis as her conscience/love for Neff catches up to her before she dies.
• Anti-Hero: Walter Neff.
• Apocalyptic Log: Neff's Dictaphone recording, and his diary entries in the original novel.
• Arc Words: "Straight down the line."
• Asshole Victim:
  • Played with in regards to Mr. Dietrichson. While certainly loudmouthed and obnoxious, it's hinted that a great deal of what Phyllis tells Neff about him is exaggerated or made up in order to get him to go along with her plan.
  • Also, Phyllis herself.
• As You Know: Justified as Walter is nervous that Phyllis might forget something and so repeats every stage of the plan, with Phyllis testily informing him that they've already gone over it.
• Battleaxe Nurse: Phyllis was the nurse for Lola's mother, and Lola believes that Phyllis was responsible for her death.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Neff is a murderer, while Phyllis is his willing accomplice. If Lola is telling the truth, Phyllis killed her mother, as well. If Phyllis is to be believed, the main victim, Dietrichson, was a horrible if not abusive husband. Keyes is a generally decent person, although his investigations are for the benefit of the insurance company, not any notions of justice.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Nino, who at first appears to be nothing more than an excuse for Walter to interact with Lola.
• Chiaroscuro: A few scenes of Phyllis and Neff alone together, such as when Phyllis stays at Walter's apartment and when Walter confronts her in the Dietrichson living room.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Phyllis. Dear God, Phyllis. There is no single accomplice that she doesn't plan to eventually turn on.
• Cigar Chomper: Keyes has a cigar in his mouth by the end of nearly every scene he is in.
• Contrived Coincidence: Dietrichson just so happening to injure his leg (and subsequently failing to file a claim under the insurance policy he didn't know he had) is what leads to Keyes Spotting the Thread.
• Creator Cameo: The film's co-screenwriter, Raymond Chandler, appears briefly in one scene. He is sitting and reading a newspaper as Neff leaves Keyes's office.
• Danger Takes a Backseat: Justified in that Phyllis, the driver, is part of the murder plot and Walter is hiding back there to kill the passenger.
• A Deadly Affair: Walter and Phyllis plan to kill Mr. Dietrichson and run away together.
• Deadly Hug: How Phyllis meets her end.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Used as part of the murder scheme.
• Deadpan Snarker: Neff and Keyes both do plenty of snarking.
• DIY Threat Detection: Walter balances a bit of cardboard on his phone's bell so that it will fall off if the phone rings, allowing him to determine whether anyone tried to call while he was out of his apartment.
• Double Entendre: Walter and Phyllis exchange many of these.
• Downer Ending: Walter and Phyllis both die, and Keyes loses his best friend.
• Establishing Character Moment: Keyes' introductory scene, in which he tears apart a guy trying to claim insurance on his truck by revealing that the man had set fire to it himself. The scene is irrelevant to the plot, but it serves to thoroughly introduce Keyes, his methods, his quirks, and his relationship to Neff.
• Evil Stepmother: Phyllis is revealed to have killed Lola's biological mother and then married herself into the Dietrichson family, later axing off her husband (Lola's father) as well.
• Femme Fatale: Literally; Phyllis not only kills her husband and his first wife, but shoots Walter.
• Foregone Conclusion: The film opens by telling us that Walter didn't end up getting the money or Phyllis.
• Framing Device: Neff's recounting of the story into the dictaphone.
• Gory Discretion Shot:
  • The camera pans to Phyllis's face while Neff kills Dietrichson. In the novel, he begins to describe how he used one of the husband's crutches to kill the man, then adds "I won't tell you what I did then. But in two seconds he was curled down on the seat with a broken neck, and not a mark on him except a crease right over his nose, from the crosspiece of the crutch."
  • When Walter kills Phyllis, he does so in a way that avoids showing any blood (with his back to the camera).
• Grand Staircase Entrance: Our first look at Phyllis, wearing nothing but a towel. We get a couple of subsequent Leg Focus shots as she comes down the stairs.
• Gut Feeling: Keyes' "little man" who alerts him to any attempted Insurance Fraud.
• Have You Told Anyone Else?: Neff to Lola; an unusual case in that the character who knows something is not immediately killed for it.
• Heel Realization: Walter has one at the end of the film that prompts him to turn himself in.
  • Phyllis also seems to have one right before Walter kills her.
  • Foreshadowed by Phyllis:
    Phyllis: Because you don't want the money anymore even though you could have it because she's made you feel like a heel all of a sudden?
• Hero Antagonist: Keyes's role as an antagonist comes from a desire to prevent the company from being defrauded (by murder), which, while perhaps not heroic, certainly positions him above Neff.
• How Much Did You Hear?: Neff to Keyes when the latter walks in on his confession at the end.
• How We Got Here: The narrator gets shot prior to the movie's start, and retells everything before dying. In other words, he slowly bleeds to death for the whole movie, not kicking it until the end. The book begins with him on a ship, also suffering from a gunshot wound, shortly before his Suicide Pact with Phyllis.
• Insurance Fraud: The plot of the film revolves around Phyllis' attempt to arrange her husband's murder and collect his insurance money, which pays double in the event of accidental death (i.e., double indemnity).
• Jerkass Has a Point: Mr. Norton, Neff and Keyes' boss, might be a prick who has never so much as glanced at an actuarial chart in his life, but he is correct in assuming something is fishy about Dietrichson's death. He is also the first to suspect Walter of being involved with his death.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Barton Keyes, according to Neff. While we mostly see Keyes as a rather haughty and brash investigator, it is shown that he cares a great deal about Walter and considers him to be a close friend. He personally vouches for him when he is suspected to be involved with the murder and shows a fair deal of sympathy for him at the end.
• Lady Macbeth: Phyllis is this to Walter.
• Long List: Keyes' list of suicide methods.
• Love Epiphany: The only logical explanation as to why Phyllis doesn't shoot Walter a second time.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: A necessary component of the Insurance Fraud scheme.
• Manipulative Bastard: Phyllis, thanks to her amazing ability to go from Vamp to Woobie at a moment's notice, gets Walter to do exactly what she wants, and it's revealed that she has a history of this as well.
• Married to the Job: Keyes is a bachelor with almost no personal life, and, in fact, this trope applies quite literally to him. His investigative instincts led him to call off his own wedding because of his justified suspicions of his bride.
• Meaningful Echo: "I love you, too." Said jokingly early in the film, and repeated more seriously at the very end.
• Mercy Lead: Subverted at the end, when Neff asks Keyes for a couple of hours to get away and Keyes points out, quite rightly, that with that bullet wound he won't get very far ("You'll never make the border, you'll never even make the elevator.")
• Morality Pet: Lola, to Walter.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Walter is instantly smitten with Phyllis, and is willing to kill her husband to be with her.
• My Car Hates Me: One of the most tense scenes is when Walter and Phyllis attempt to make a getaway from the murder scene ... and the car stalls. Apparently this wasn't in the script but left in anyway because it works so well.
• Neck Snap: How Walter kills Dietrichson.
• Never Suicide: inverted - the simple explanation is that Dietrichson's death was an accident, while Norton argues that it was a suicide, which would be entitled to a much smaller payout. While Keyes disproves this theory, he later deduces the gist of the real plot.
• Not the First Victim: Walter and Phyllis murder Phyllis's husband, apparently to free her from a loveless marriage. And then Lola reveals that Phyllis caused her mother's death to get at her family money.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging:
  • Walter requires an independent witness to his attempt to sell insurance to Mr. Dietrichson, but isn't happy when it turns out to be Dietrichson's daughter, reminding him that innocent people will suffer for his actions.
  • Keyes notes on his dictaphone that he has known Walter for many years and that he trusts him completely and that he couldn't possibly be involved with Dietrichson's death, completely unaware that Neff himself is the murderer. Walter later breaks into his office and listens to the recording, looking deeply guilty as he does so.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • It's important that Walter and Phyllis not be seen together, so she rings up Walter to check that it's alright to come up to his apartment. He says it's OK, then right after hanging up Keyes knocks on the door.
  • Clearly what's going through Walter's mind when Mr. Jackson shows up outside Keyes' office.
• Ominous Legal Phrase Title: Based on a policy in a contract where the company agrees to pay more than expected when the death is accidental.
• One Last Smoke: In the final shot of the film, Neff takes out a blood-soaked cigarette and Keyes lights it for him.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Averted. Neff receives a (visually-downplayed) gunshot wound in the shoulder, and dies from it at the end.
• OOC Is Serious Business: In the final sequence, Keyes's composed and reserved demeanor is quite a jarring contrast to his wildly passionate and supremely confident attitude throughout the film. It really conveys how emotionally crushed he is upon discovering that his best friend and colleague was the murderer all along.
• Outlaw Couple: Averted, to an extent. After Dietrichson's death, Walter and Phyllis must stay as far away from each other as possible, to avoid surveillance. They do technically avoid becoming outlaws-by the end of the movie, both are dead before the police get involved.
• The Perfect Crime: Walter tells Phyllis she's got no chance of getting away with an insurance murder as she would be the obvious suspect, but that only starts him thinking as he has the knowledge to get away with it, and only requires a willing accomplice to do so.
• Pet the Dog: Walter's friendliness to Nino and Lola.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "Goodbye, baby."
• Private Eye Monologue: Well, actually a Murderer Monologue, but the effect is the same.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Subverted in the final scene. Neff is sure that Keyes is going to hit him with one of these, full of "two-dollar words," but Keyes just looks at him with eyes full of sorrow and betrayal and says:
  Keyes: Walter... you're all washed up.
• The Remake: A 1973 ABC Made-for-TV Movie directed by Jack Smight, with a script by Steven Bochco that updates the story to the '70s. Richard Crenna stars as Walter Neff, with Samantha Eggar as Phyllis Dietrichson and Lee J. Cobb as Barton Keyes.
• Revised Ending: An alternate ending was filmed in which Walter is executed at San Quentin, but the director didn't use it because he felt it was anti climatic. The footage is now lost, except for a few still frames.
• Riddle for the Ages: Neither Walter nor the audience ever finds out what was the nature of Nino's relationship with Phyllis and to what extent he was involved with her plans.
• Running Gag: Keyes ends all his conversations by pulling out a cigar and patting all his pockets for a light. He never has one at hand, so Neff has to come to his rescue with a quickly-lit match. In the last scene, their roles are reversed: Neff, dying from his bullet wound, is too weak to light a match for his own cigarette; Keyes has to light it for him.
  • The aforementioned lost ending has an even more heart-crushing payoff: after (per his own request) watching Walter's execution, Keyes instinctively starts patting his pockets, only to slowly remember that Walter won't ever be giving him another light.
• Schmuck Bait: The titular Double Indemnity clauses are clearly described as this by Walter, where the insurance agencies offer to pay double in the event of certain statistically improbable accidents so they can tempt more people into signing up. Customers still take the bait, and on average the insurer makes a nice profit from it. But this way Walter and Phyllis get to fleece the insurance company for twice the money if they can murder Mr. Dietrichson and successfully Make It Look Like an Accident.
• Seriously Scruffy: Keyes, with his rolled up sleeves, overflowing pockets and his tie worn over his waistcoat is shorthand for how obsessive and overworked he is.
• Shout-Out: Phyllis Dietrichson's surname is most likely one to classic femme fatale actress Marlene Dietrich.
• "Shut Up" Kiss:
  Phyllis: We're not the same anymore. We did it so we could be together but instead of that it's pulling us apart, isn't it, Walter?
  Walter: What are you talking about?
  Phyllis: You don't really care whether we see each other or not!
  Walter: Shut up, baby. [kisses her]
• Spanner in the Works:
  • On Walter's side: small-town yokel Jackson is in the train's observation car, where they have a brief conversation. While Jackson never recognizes Walter as the man on the train, he sees enough of him to know that the man on the train looked nothing like the real Dietrichson.
  • On Phyllis' side: her stepdaughter (Dietrichson's blood daughter) Lola has very vivid memories of her Black Widow tendencies, and is ready to spill it all the instant things go to court.
  • There's also the broken leg which initially works in their favor, forcing Dietrichson to take the train like they want, but also raising Keye's suspicions because Dietrichson never put in a claim for it.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Keyes.
• Tricked into Signing: Walter gets Mr. Dietrichson to sign a renewal of his car insurance, then tricks him into signing an accident insurance contract under the pretense that he needs him to sign a copy for the insurance company's records. He just slides up the auto insurance form enough to reveal the area for signature of the accident insurance form, which he's hidden underneath.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Phyllis' husband.
• The Vamp: Phyllis Dietrichson.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Based on the 1927 Snyder-Gray murder, which also inspired Body Heat and The Postman Always Rings Twice.
• Villain Protagonist: Neff may be a sap who falls prey to Phyllis' manipulation, but he's also a murderer.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Keyes and Neff have shades of this... and sometimes a bit more than this.
  Keyes: Now that's enough out of you, Walter. Now get outta here before I throw my desk at you.
  Neff: I love you, too.