Double Indemnity (1944) - Film noir report

 Probably one of the most famous ever film noirs was Double Indemnity (1944) directed by Billy Wilder. With the lead characters being Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray who was best known for the film although he went onto star in over one hundred films during his acting career. The film is regarded as possessing the classic characteristics of film noirs and it was released at a time when the genre of noir was beginning to enter its best years. The title “double indemnity” refers to the clause in a life insurance contract which states in certain instances such as a railway accident as in the film, there can be a double payout of insurance, this is key to the central murder which starts the downfall in chain of events in the film. Double Indemnity is portrayed using a non linear narrative with the end of the film being shown at the start before a flashback to how the main character, Neff, got into the mess, before the flashback catches up to the end at the start of the film.

 The film starts of with the main character Walter Neff (played by MacMurray) walking with some limp to an office where he picks up a Dictaphone and recalls how he got into the mess he is in. Not long into the flashback Neff first encounters Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck) as he calls round her house to speak to her husband who is at work and does not appear. The visit is just a custom renewal visit for Neff to attempt to get Phyllis’s husband to renew his automobile insurance. They exchange in flirtatious talk before Phyllis asks Neff if it is possible to take out a life insurance policy for her husband without him being aware of it. It is at this point that Neff decides to leave as he is aware that Phyllis is considering murdering her husband of which he wants no part. Over time however Phyllis wears Neff down after visiting him at his house, he agrees to the sinister plan which involves killing Phyllis’s husband in unusual circumstances, so that the double indemnity clause will be triggered in his life insurance policy.

 However through his experience in insurance Neff is aware that for the plan to be a success and the double payout to be received there must be no flaws in the killing. The first problem which is facing Neff and Phyllis is that they must get Phyllis’s husband to sign the insurance policy without him knowing that it is a life insurance policy. To do this Neff arranges to visit the Dietrichson house and the plan is to make Mr Dietrichson think he is signing an insurance contract to renew his automobile policy when in fact he is signing a life insurance policy on himself. Neff shows composure to keep his cool and no allow Mr Dietrichson to see what the contract really says. The signing of the contract goes smoothly and Neff takes a fee from Mr Dietrichson for signing the contract.

 After a series of secret meetings Neff and Phyllis carry out their plan. They drive Mr Dietrichson (who has obtained a broken leg which unexpectedly moved their plan forward) to the train station. On the way Phyllis who is driving takes a turn of the route and Neff strangles to death Mr Dietrichson. The next scene shows Neff entering a train impersonating Mr Dietrichson with crutches pretending to have a broken leg. Neff jumps off of the back of the train and later Phyllis and Neff drop the body of Mr Dietrichson onto the train track making it look like an accident that he fell off in order to claim the double indemnity clause for an unexpected accident.

 After the body is found on the track the firm where Neff works are ordered as expected to payout the double indemnity to Phyllis. However Keyes (Porter Hall) who is Neff’s boss is suspicious about the death although the police treated it as an accident. Keyes claims to have a knack for knowing when something is not right in an insurance claim and decides to investigate before paying out the money to Phyllis. This worries Neff, so he decides that he and Phyllis cannot meet for a while during investigation, although Neff believes that Phyllis truly has feelings for him and that they could be together. It later emerges through Keyes’s observations of Phyllis that she is seeing her dead husband daughter’s boyfriend Nino (Byron Barr) which Neff discovers and decides to attempt to frame Nino as Phyllis’s accomplice which is Keyes theory to the killing. To do this Neff plans to kill Phyllis and make it look like Nino killed her and this will act as revenge for Phyllis leading him on.

 Neff arrives at the Dietrichson house and is invited in, Phyllis pulls out a gun to Neff’s surprise before he could and shoots Neff, in a sudden turn of events Phyllis declares that she never loved Neff “until a minute ago, when I couldn’t fire that second shot”. A wounded Neff does not believe her however and as the two go to hug Phyllis facial expression changes as she feels a gun pressed against her and Neff shoots her twice killing her.

 The movie then reaches it climax which is also the start in the non linear narrative style which Double Indemnity employed. Neff is shown talking into his Dictaphone before Keyes walks in to hear enough of the story to realise that Neff was behind the elaborate plan although with Phyllis. Upon seeing Keyes, Neff pleads to him to be allowed the chance to attempt to flee to Portugal, to this Neff makes his move out of the building but before long he collapses to the floor. The final scene shows Keyes lighting Neff’s (who is in evident pain from the gunshot wound Phyllis inflicted on him) cigarette before the credits play out.

 As I mentioned previously Double Indemnity is seen as one of the best known noirs of all time and thus shows typical characteristics which noirs are noted as having. One of these characteristics is the non linear narrative employed which tells the story with the end at the start and the audience slowing are made aware of how the events occurred before the story catches up to the start scene. This type of narrative was common to film noirs and is used among other things to draws the attention of the viewer immediately and make them want to find out how the sitituation in the start scene occurred which Double Indemnity effectively achieves.

 Another characteristic of typical types of film noirs which is evident in Double Indemnity is the characters used in the storyline. There is Neff who is the everyday working man trying to earn an honest living and happens to meet the wrong person in Phyllis who persuades him to attempt to cash in by breaking the law and murdering. As with many noirs the anti-hero which is often the central character to the storyline makes one mistake and thus goes on a never ending downhill spiral. A further typical noir character is Phyllis she is a classic femme fatale, attractive, deceiving and deadly. Phyllis uses her charm and level of deceit to lure Neff into her cunning plan before betraying him and showing a killer instinct shooting him at the end of the him though she does show some compassion which in the end leads to her death. This is in fitting with many femme fatales which have appeared in noirs over the years but perhaps it may be argued that Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson was the best example of fatales. Stanwyck was already one the leading actresses in America and the film was somewhat a risk to her career as it was so low budget. However it was a success for both the creators of it and the actress herself due to its success.

 A typical noir scene in Double Indemnity is the face off between Phyllis and Neff. It is common for noirs to end with the main characters (man and woman lead) breaking up in some way usually death or being caught by the police. It was inevitable that there would not be a happy end for Phyllis and Neff as is the values which film noir brings the audience. The common messages shown in film noirs is that making one wrong decision can cause things to spiral for the characters involved, crime doesn’t pay and do not trust anyone with betrayal being a feature in many noirs. These messages are shown clearly in Double Indemnity which is part of what makes it known as one of the best examples of film noir.

 The atmosphere of Double Indemnity is quite on edge with many parts of it being nervy for the main characters following Phyllis’s proposal to Neff to help her kill her husband for money. There are several examples of this throughout the film, one is the meeting with Phyllis and Neff’s insurance company, another is the killing itself the music picks up before the attack on Phyllis’s husband, these scenes help to create a tense atmosphere to the film throughout.

 Moreover the cinematography in Double Indemnity makes use shadows from the blinds of windows many times in order to cut the actors faces into pieces in typical noir fashion. Noirs were famous for their femme fatales and making woman characters appear dominant and in Double Indemnity the cinematography is cleverly used to make Phyllis seem powerful an

d demanding. One example of this is the high angle shot of Phyllis on the balcony with Neff below with Phyllis being the much more imposing figure and very much in control.

 Double Indemnity throughout in typical noir style goes from shot to shot using a dissolve edit to do this. The shot from the previous scene slowly disappear and the next shot comes into focus. An example of the film using this is at the start as Neff starts his flashback to how he got in the mess he is in, the shot of Neff talking dissolves from the screen with the flashback shot taken over the screen, this is a technique commonly used in the editing of film noirs. The film uses dissolve along with more convectional editing styles such as straight forward cuts and jump shot to transition between shots.

 Furthermore one distinction between classic era film noirs and other types of movies is the mise-en-scene they use. Film noirs were known in their classic period to be crime thrillers which were dark, deadly and sometimes seductive with their femme fatales. This stereotype is largely down to the how noirs make use of the black and white pictures by using shadows to effect creepy type setting and using tall buildings with huge shadows. The clothing of the male characters was usually formal suits and trench coats. While the female characters were dressed attractively to lure male characters in before later showing true killer instincts.

 Additionally Double Indemnity follows these mise-en-scene principles of noirs. Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck) is a dressed a you would expect femme fatale to be while Keyes and Neff were formally dressed as insurance salesmen. The props the film uses are very much in keeping with creating the darks shadows and lamps, furniture and stair banisters are used to do this. Different shades of dark colours are used for lighting throughout the film to create a mysterious visual for viewers.

 The music the movie employs is mostly of a frantic nature and plays continuously through much of the nervy scenes for the characters involved. Examples of this being used are in the killing of Mr Dietrichson and the meeting between Phyllis and Neff’s work colleagues. In other scenes there is calmer music played this is mostly after the killing of Phyllis’s husband.

 Film noirs such as Double Indemnity were well known for there success from their era and the film itself achieved good feedback from audiences. When it was brought to cinema it main target audience would be people who were affected by the war and who were angry for different reasons as an effect of the war. This was the audience that many noirs were aimed at and the violence and law breaking behaviour reflected the feelings of many around the time, they felt frustrated and the type of actions in noirs where more real to them than movies which tried to make life seem as a happy ending, when this was not the case for many of the time the movie was released.

 Finally Double Indemnity has includes many of the ingredients which helped noirs spring to prominence during the 1940s and 1950s. It has many traits you would expect a film noir to have including a downhill spiral for the everyday man and a non linear narrative. These types of traits which were put together to create the film along with the leading actors in the film helped it to be remembered and the film was ranked at thirty eight in the top one hundred 20^th American films by the American Film Institute which shows the success which it achieved.

Neo-noir - Menmento

 Memento (2000) is a neo-noir made in America and is a physiological thriller which involves a clever plot. The film directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Guy Pearce has received following its success great reviews as well as being nominated for an academy award in both original screenplay and film editing. Along with being known for its success, the movie has also been known for making a distinction between story and plot, and this is largely down to the film making use of a non linear narrative which was popular in classic noirs. This type of narrative is employed intelligently through the movie to confuse the viewers as well as to slowly reveal to them how the events which they first see in the film occurred and the reasons behind them. The movie is based a great detail around ‘Memento Mori’ which is a short story by Christopher Nolan’s younger brother Jonathan and is adapted from this story.

 As I previously mentioned Memento uses a non linear narrative but this however is not used in the conventional way. The movie switches between two different storylines throughout – one in colour and one in black and white. The black and white story is portrayed to the audience in chronological order while the colour story is in non chronological order. By the end of the film the two separate storylines are brought together and the full picture of what had occurred at the start of the movie using non linear narrative is revealed to the viewer.

 At the start of the film the main character Leonard (Guy Pearce) is shown killing a man. It becomes clear as the story thickens that Leonard suffers from anterograde amnesia which means that his brain does not store memories of his recent events but these events are remembered by him at a later time. The movie is very much based around Leonard’s search to find the killer of his wife, at the time of the killing Leonard hit his head causing his mental condition to occur as a result, there is because of this is a close relation between Leonard and the viewer as he remembers details from his memory as the audience is shown them. Learning to cope with his mental illness throughout the film, Leonard has tattoos printed on himself to remember important details of his investigation before they are forgotten. The two storylines are switched constantly throughout the film. The black and white storyline told chronologically is based one a phone call Leonard has in a motel room in which he compares his condition of amnesia to that of a client he once knew while the colour story is told backwards (non chronologically) is based on his investigation to find he killer of his wife.

 Near the end of the film the two storylines meet as Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) reveals to Leonard that due to his memory issues he has confused his own life with Sammy’s (who Leonard refers to in the phone call) and that Leonard’s wife is already dead. Teddy says also that he and the Jimmy G, the man who is shown dead at the start and is near death on the floor at the point, had previously killed the man (John G) who is reasonable for Leonards’ wife’s death. However Leonard denies this as a possibility and vows to continue his search for John G, who Leonard believes killed his wife, at this point Teddy reveals that his real name is John G and there are many people of the same first name and initial for it to be an almost impossible search. In the final scenes of the film Leonard is shown in the queue for a tattoo of Sammy’s licence plate, which suggests to the viewer he is Leonard’s next target for the killing of his wife, and that the story may not ever reach a resolution.

 The movie is an example of how some of the classic elements which contributed to the success of film noir as a genre can be brought into a more recent society. Typically as with the classics there was a sense of the audience being drawn to support the anti-hero as through the film they grow to understand his problems after the quick reveal at the beginning and the gradual unravel of how the death occurred. Memento can also been seen as showing some traits which are common in neo-noirs such as the memory loss which is a feature in neo-noirs at times and the mix of colour and black and white to create effect as well as remind the viewer that they are watching a movie. This is a trait which is not seen in many of the classics which were portrayed in dark and mysterious way where lighting was used greatly and not colour though it was available in the classic film noir era.

 Another interesting factor to Memento is that it is constructed like classics noirs such as Double Indemnity using a non linear narrative. This immediately draws the attention of the viewer and they are encouraged to find out how the situation in the future has arisen. It is a factor however that there is a switch between the storylines rather than just a having either chronological or non chronological storyline as this helps to create to the reaction which is intended for the viewer when watching the film.

 As I touched on at the start Memento can be used to distinguish between a plot and a story as there can at times be confusion. The film shows this as the audience is not made aware until the very end of the whole situation and only at this point does the story make sense for the viewer. Memento therefore shows that the story is what happens in the film, as well as showing the plot is how it is revealed to viewers i.e. the order of the story being told, which is non linear.

 One of the central traits of Memento which can be easily linked to both neo noirs like Sin City and film noirs such as Double Indemnity is the use of black and white. In the chronologically told story where Leonard is on the phone, this is portrayed in black and white, which adds to the effect and mystery of the story. A scene from the phone call where the tattoo is revealed saying ‘never answer the phone’ uses different close ups and high angle shots to create the effect of almost isolation in the bedroom of Leonard. The scene is as the rest of the phone call is in black and white and shows the only source of light in the room as coming from the window which in turn creates shadows similar to the ones used in classic noirs.

Neo-noir - L.A. Confidential

One example of a contemporary film noir or neo-noir as they are also known is L.A. Confidential 1997. The film was directed by Curtis Hanson and was centred on the crime fiction novel by James Ellroy of the same name from 1990 which makes it similar to classic noirs such as the ‘The Killers’ and ‘The Big Sleep’ also based on novels. It is also important to note that the movie was based in Los Angeles 1950s as this is also around the time many of the classic film noirs were made and was the peak time for noirs. The name of the film arose from the 1950s scandal magazine Confidential. After release the film received great reviews from critics and became a success.

The storyline is based on three LAPD cops, Ed Exley (Guy Pearce), Bud White (Russell Crowe) and Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), who end up investigating the same case of a multiple murder at a coffee shop called Nite Owl. This leads to a vast amount of corruption being uncovered as the officers try to find out who is being the murders with drug, organised crime and prostitution all being linked to the case. As the story deepens it becomes apparent that there is conflict between the political leaders within L.A. and the LAPD which eventually results in a showdown.

L.A. Confidential because of how it is set as well as the technology available to it when compared to classic noirs; is a great example of a contemporary noir. A thing which is evident in the movie is the setting of it, not just in the 1950s but also in the more rural areas of L.A. and the more threatening parts of life in the city behind the glamour, this was an aspect which made noirs well known as they were very real for the audiences of their time as they showed harsher reality of living in the big cities which many people faced from day to day.

The corrupt police officers are very much reminiscent of classic noirs and this is accompanied by the high amounts of murders which were also a typical feature of the most famous noirs. The twists and turns of the story further complemented the classic noirs with this a crucial elements to surprising audiences in the classics. All of these elements contribute to making the film seem as though it is itself a noir rather than a neo-noir.

One scene in the film which is perhaps typical to noirs is the good cop – bad cop scene, where a guy is threatened firstly with his head being plunged in and out of the toilet and then by being dangled out of a window in order to gain information, this was the kind of scene which could be linked to classics. With the corrupt cop acting against his duty and level of violence is the scene is a possible to draw links to noirs of the classic era. A further thing notable in that scene was the comparisons with mise-en-scene of film noirs to the film. The three men which were in the scene were smartly dressed in suits and the office like environment draws further comparison with the view of tall buildings which were continual features in film noirs. Another thing to state of the scene was the friction between the two men being the attack, the was a edgy mood to the scene and then the sudden attack which is used to surprise the viewer, the frantic music starts around five or so seconds into the attack and lasts until the end of it. The music in itself can be seen as a direct link to the type of music frequent in the classics.




Along with in some ways drawing off elements of classic noirs, L.A. Confidential can also been as modernizing the genre and is a neo-noir for this as well as the release date of it, the movie is in colour throughout which is the first thing of note. Another thing is some of issues in the movie are not evident so much in film noirs such as pornography, institutional racism, prostitution and heroin. This may well be due the perspective of the writers etc. who made the film living in the 1990s looking back at the 1950s. Moreover this can be seen in parts of the film which reflect more what the 1950s are seen as forty or so years later and references are made in the film to life in the future. These in turn are perhaps more the messages and values which are created in the film to the audience.

You would expect that the audience of the movie due to its success and rave reviews would be more large scale than aimed at a specific sub section of society. However it could be argued that if you enjoyed the classic noirs or just crime thrillers in general then you would be more drawn to L.A. Confidential than if you did not. Many people may well say that if L.A. Confidential due to its striking resemblance to classics was not made in the 1990s but in the 1940s or 1950s and in black and white then it may well have been considered and classic noir itself. As it is though it is a neo-noir due to the time of its release but is a compliment to the director and creators of the film for much in many ways outdated values to be shown in film forty years in the future.