Double Indemnity (1944)
Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity"
In 1944, America was in the middle of the largest war in history. Times were extremely dark, and chaos threatened American safety. Billy Wilder, a Polish Jew, had emigrated to the United States a decade prior in order to escape the rise of Nazism in Europe. He had his fair share of filmmaking by that time. He had worked with German filmmakers and had proved to be a great writer. After arriving in Hollywood, Wilder would eventually make a name for himself with a film that would break the mold of conventionality and ignite one of the most popular film movements in history with "Double Indemnity." Both visually and thematically, the film is a fervent example of counterculture against the stagnant and constrained Hollywood standard. Visually, it was a stark contrast to the films Hollywood had produced in the last twenty years. The extreme use of light and shadow seemed more like a German Expressionist film than a Hollywood one. Thematically, it dealt with murder, lust, and downright amoral behavior. Wilder, along with his writing partner Raymond Chandler, adapted the script from James C. Cain's 1927 novella of the same name. The plot centers on a woman who persuades her boyfriend to kill her husband after taking out a big insurance policy on him - with a double indemnity clause. Because of the restrictions imposed by the Motion Picture Production Code, the script was deemed unfilmable. Despite the warnings by the Hayes Production Code office not to make the film, Wilder and his producers made it anyway. The result was a film that broke ground on many cinematic fronts. It was the first time a Hollywood film explicitly explored the means, motives, and opportunity to commit a murder. Beyond that, it was the ignition point for a movement that would come to be known as 'film noir,' a term coined by French critic Nino Frank.
The film centers on an insurance salesman named Walter Neff, who comes into his office building to confess to a crime he committed. He recounts the crime in a Dictaphone while a gunshot wound to his shoulder continues to bleed out. The rest of the film is a flashback as told by Walter through his Dictaphone. Walter narrates how he met the alluring Phyllis Dietrichson, wife to a client of his that he is trying to renew the insurance on his vehicle. The two become seductively intertwined and hatch a plan to take out a life insurance policy on her husband with a double indemnity clause without his knowing. Once the policy is taken out, the two murder her husband and plan to leave as soon as the money clears. However, Walter's boss, Barton Keyes, begins to investigate the strange coincidence and eventually closes in around Walter and Phyllis. Knowing that he will be found out, Walter goes to Phyllis's home to kill her. He does, but not before she shoots him. Walter finishes narrating the events only to discover that Keyes has been standing in the doorway listening the whole time. The two friends share one last moment together. Keyes illustrates his hurt over the betrayal and Walter dies.
The key to fully understanding the themes of the story is to fully understand America in the 1930s and 1940s. The film is set in sunny Los Angeles, one of the most important cities in the country. It is home to wealth, abundance, and most importantly, Hollywood. It is a shining emblem of the American Dream. It is also known for being incredibly artificial, hiding darkness beneath the bright lights of glitz and glamor. "Double Indemnity" is predicated on the contrast between the artificiality of allurement and the amoral soullessness hiding under the surface. In this way, the film is not only about Hollywood, but America itself.
Everything within the film contains examples of this artificiality, both visually and thematically. In the opening scene, Walter Neff drives up to the haughty Dietrichson chateau. The scene is filled with bright sunlight, children playing in the street, and most importantly, the house itself, which could only belong to someone of extreme means. The opening scene demonstrates what lies on the outside: bright lights, fun, and wealth. However, whenever Walter talks his way into the Dietrichson house, the visuals change dramatically. Where once there were bright lights from the sun, now there is a stale, darkly lit room. Where once there were children playing, now there is only silence. And once where there was visual economic abundance, now there are overturned ashtrays, dust, and grub. Wilder and his cinematographer, John F. Seitz, even blew aluminum particles into the air so that, as they floated down, they looked just like dust. These visual cues encapsulate what lurks just under the facade of modern society. Seitz also utilized stark black and white colorization to great effect. He used 'Venetian blind' lighting to cast lines on the setting and faces of the characters to give the illusion of prison bars trapping the characters. This 'Venetian blind' lighting method became a signature in the 'film noir' catalog. The characters themselves were also incredibly artificial. Their lusting after each other never really stemmed from any sort of romance, but rather it was an excuse to act on their amoral impulses hiding within themselves. Wilder even went as far as providing visual cues to the characters' sense of artificiality. One of the most iconic elements of the film is the wig that Barbara Stanwyck wears. Now iconic, the blonde wig caused problems for the producers who believed it looked too fake. This was the exact reason Wilder insisted on it, as it "[made] her look as sleazy as possible," emphasizing the "phoniness of the girl." The combination of these elements created a thematic idea that most film noirs thereafter would pull from: the darkness lying just under the surface of the artificial American dream.
Another element that links with the notion of the American Dream stems from the industrialization of modern America, thus causing similar industrial effects to its inhabitants. In the opening scene of the film, Walter stumbles into his office building, as the camera pushes in over his shoulder on the line of identical desks that consume the office. This is the image of a colorless American business purgatory, a homogenized workforce. This viewer notes the similarities between this shot and a similar shot from King Vidor's 1928 silent masterpiece, "The Crowd," which explores similar themes of a homogenized America. Walter works for his insurance company, which day in and day out, places a dollar value on human life. A system that dehumanized everyone creates in Walter the same dehumanized outlook. Not only this, the sheer abundance and comfort that every character inhabits seem to create this restless stagnation that results in dark and amoral behavior. Los Angeles before the Westward boom was nothing more than desert and airy nothingness. After the industrial revolution, everything changed. The characters are now part of this industrial machine. They live in a world of total security. Walter's office building, the large mansion Phyllis resides in, and the supermarket all convey this sense of security for the characters. But it also represents their entrapment. Even the supermarket is completely artificial. All the food is processed, pre-packaged, and lifeless. Nothing in it is remotely 'natural.' In most film noirs to follow, the characters believe they can 'buck the system' that holds them up, only to discover that this system is far too powerful. It is because the system dehumanizes them that they cannot beat it. After Walter commits the perfect murder, his arrogant bosses don't believe in a simple case of suicide or accidental death. They have the same bleak outlook on humanity, and therefore are able to easily catch the killers. This capitalist, industrial American utopia creates inhumane individuals, restless and itching to enact their dark whims.
"Double Indemnity" is often cited as one of the greatest films of all time and helped develop the noir style many film buffs know today. Despite being nominated for seven Academy Awards, the Academy felt the film was too dark and controversial to award it anything. Despite all attempts to block the film by censors and 'morally superior' third parties, "Double Indemnity" was a massive success that helped launch Billy Wilder and film noir into the stratosphere. Perhaps the reason viewers admired the film was that it seemed to reflect their inner turmoil. At the height of World War II, American society seemed to understand its own contradictions between a fabricated outside and a dark, messy, and corrupt inside. The film showcases our own restless desires and violent, lustful, and amoral fantasies bubbling under the surface of every day at the office, every supermarket visit, and every 'how do you do, neighbor?" It is the perfect encapsulation of the black heart lying in the center of the promise of the American Dream and the center of ourselves.
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