Heather does Double Indemnity

“It’s just like the first time I came here, isn’t it? We were talking about automobile insurance, only you were thinking about murder. And I was thinking about that anklet.”

The Scoop: 1944, Unrated, Directed by Billy Wilder and starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson

Tagline: It’s Love And Murder At First Sight!

Summary Capsule: An insurance salesman with a taste for someone else’s wife gets mixed up with a rotten dame that might be the death of him.

Heather’s Rating: When will they every learn that someone who’d kill their spouse to be with you is probably has a unique view of the word ”love”?

Heather’s Review: How did it come to this? How did my life come to the point where my computer crashing is such a melodramatic punch to my soul? About three years ago (ago, weeks, but it feels like years) my laptop died in my very arms. I cuddled it, stroked its keys, tried in vain to rouse it with my vain please of “ALT-F10! ALT-F10! You can’t die on me. I won’t let yoooouuuu!” Sadly, in the words of Little Britain’s Carol, “Computer says no.”

No, indeed.

At first I worried about my ability to write for MRFH. I could hardly fathom the thought of not having lappy right beside me, smiling back at me as I busily typed my sarcasm-laden critiques. Eventually I faced the hard truth: I would have to handwrite, then find a place to later type, my reviews. Use a pencil? And, and paper? Madness!. That madness carried me through my Chinatown review and I could have considered my Noir Week duty done. Alas, I can’t let my Noir Week contribution rest with a movie that I didn’t even really care for. It just isn’t fair to a genre I love so much.

So here I sit at the library, the smell of high-schoolers all around me (they smell like sandalwood, fruit, and Axe deodorant if you must know), intensely aware of my 60-minute time limit. 

Thusly, without further adue, here be my thoughts on Double Indemnity, on of the most notorious examples of film-noir.

As Kyle so rightly pointed out, there is an inherent silliness in noir film. I don’t contribute that quite so much to the genre as I do the decade. Noir is full of melodrama. Fist-biting, scenery-chewing, “John! Maaarrrsshaaa!” melodrama. So is nearly everything else put out from the late thirties to mid-fifties. I do pretty well holding back the laughter until the leading lady, swept into an embrace, throws back her head, exposing her neck (made of pudding, apparently) in what looks more like an invitation to Nosferatu than the desire to be kissed. Also remember, anytime you’re having a passionate discussion involving how things will never work between you, be sure you’re both looking over your left shoulder at all times. Never face each other. That would just be weird.

I loved Double Indemnity. It’s everything you could want in your noir film: Narration, an easily duped and cunning man (Walter), the best friend who’s just a little too close to figure out what’s really going on (there was no private eye in this movie but Keys was sharp enough that he might as well have been one), a grouchy, loveless husband/victim du jour, and a femme fatale so marvelous that one can hardly read anything about the character type without seeing the name “Phyllis Dietrichson”.

I got here what I was missing in Chinatown: A real chemistry between our doomed couple, a great sense of romance. Not that “Oh I love you darling, the way your eyes pierce the darkness, the way the Brill-O-Creme catches the light…” but this smoldering, dangerous kind of attraction that soon carries things out of control until they’re just stuck with each other for the rest of the ride. Even better than Phyllis and Walter’s relationship is the dynamic between Walter and his best friend, Keyes. The most suspenseful scenes, and the most touching, are the ones with just those two guys on screen.

The dialogue is corny at parts, but that’s to be expected with any film from the our fledgling era of filmmaking. Those corny parts didn’t dominate this script. Instead we get some great witty banter and a cutting observations by our characters.

I’ll be honest with you, as much as I like the film-noir/mystery genre, I get frustrated with the extent that some of these movies/novels go with their twisted, intricate plots. Some try so hard that it can be too much to enjoy. Double Indemnity is a movie that’s basically easy to predict, especially if you get the noir forumla. Even so, it gave me some genuine moments where I grinned and said  ”Wow, that was good!”

Double Indemnity is my personal favorite of the genre for its refusal to be boring, too over the top, or sappy. If for nothing else, I love it for the end. They pulled off the noir heart-tugger just right.

Tum tee dum. Just buying groceries, tum tum. While we talk to ourselves. Seperately and not at all together.

 Didja Notice?:

• ALWAYS check the backseat of your car.
• We never do find out the name of Mr. Dietrichson.
• That’s one really bad wig.

Is It Worth Staying Through The End Credits?:

No.

Intermission:

Silver dust was mixed with some subtle smoke effects to create the illusion of waning sunlight in Phyllis Dietrichson’s house. Boy, the forties was working hard to create inventive ways to kill people, wasn’t it?

Groovy Quotes:

Phyllis: I’m Mrs. Dietrichson. Is there anything I can do?
Walter Neff: The insurance ran out on the fifteenth. I’d hate to think of you getting a smashed fender or something while you’re not… fully covered.
Phyllis (with a little smile): Perhaps I know what you mean, Mr. Neff. I’ve just been taking a sun bath.

Walter Neff: The insurance ran out on the fifteenth. I’d hate to think of you getting a smashed fender or something while you’re not… fully covered.
Phyllis: (with a little smile) Perhaps I know what you mean, Mr. Neff. I’ve just been taking a sun bath.

Neff’s narration: It was mid-afternoon, and it’s funny; I can still remember the smell of honeysuckle all along that block. I felt like a million. There was no way in all this world I could have knownthat murder sometimes can smell like honeysuckle.

Keyes: How you doing, Walter?
Neff: I’m fine, only it seems somebody moved the elevator a couple of miles away.

Neff: And now I suppose I get the big speech, the one with all the two-dollar words in it. Let’s have it, Keyes.
Keyes: Walter, you’re all washed up.
Neff: Thanks, Keyes. It was short, anyway.

Walter to Phyllis: It’s just like the first time I came here, isn’t it? We were talking about automobile insurance, only you were thinking about murder. And I was thinking about that anklet.

Neff: Know why you couldn’t figure this one, Keyes? I’ll tell ya. ‘Cause the guy you were looking for was too close. Right across the desk from ya.
Keyes: Closer than that, Walter.
Neff: I love you, too.

Neff: Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money – and a woman – and I didn’t get the money and I didn’t get the woman. Pretty, isn’t it?
 
Phyllis: I think you’re rotten.
Walter Neff: I think you’re swell – so long as I’m not your husband.
Phyllis: Get out of here.
Walter Neff: You bet I’ll get out of here, baby. I’ll get out of here but quick.

Walter Neff: Who’d you think I was anyway? The guy that walks into a good looking dame’s front parlour and says, “Good afternoon, I sell accident insurance on husbands… you got one that’s been around too long? One you’d like to turn into a little hard cash?”

Soundtrack Review: It’s basically the same little piece over and over throught the entire film, except in a couple of more tense scenes.

DVD review: I wouldn’t know. I watched it on Netflix.

If you liked this movie, try these:

• Sunset Blvd.
• M
• The Maltese Falcon