Double Indemnity Essays

Double Indemnity Double Indemnity is a 1944 film noir directed by Billy Wilder starring Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck. The film starts out by a successful insurance salesman returning to his office with a gunshot wound on his shoulder dictating a confession for his friend Barton Keyes, this starts the story off in flashback form. The flashback begins with Neff meeting Phyllis Dietrichson during a routine house call for her husband’s automobile insurance renewal, during this time Phyllis asks

Double Indemnity involves a murder plot formulated to receive a maximum payout on accidents insurance. The story centers on an insurance salesman, Walter Neff and his involvement in the murder of Mr. Didrekson, his client. The setup goes that after meeting Phyllis Didrekson, Phyllis and Walter decide to kill Mr. Didrekson off so they can be together. Mr. Neff first deceives Mr. Didrekson into signing an accident insurance contract. In this contract, the policy of double indemnity is introduced; in

The two films, Double Indemnity (1944) and Body Heat (1981), are both very similar even with the thirty-seven year gap between them. In Double Indemnity, Walter Neff, an experienced salesman for his local insurance company, meets the seductive wife of one of his clients, Phyllis Dietrichson. They have an affair and quickly decide to kill Mrs. Dietrichson’s husband so she can collect the proceeds of the accident insurance policy and be with Walter Neff. Neff comes up with a plan to kill her husband

moral injustice of the story. Originally perceived as good people, Walter and Phyllis veer off to a path of darkness. However, saying that the murder will be "straight down the line" is meant to overtly contrast the reality of the situation (Double Indemnity). Another moral challenge that is displayed well through the film is Walter's care for Lola. As twisted as it is, the story hints that Walter's concern for Lola may be rooted in his guilt for murdering her father. Rationally, it is understandable

The Double is a British film that is based off a Russian novella written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The film is believed to fall under the genre of dark comedy thriller—which means that the films expresses a suspenseful tone with occasional instances of morbid humor. The director of the film is Richard Ayoade, who is well-known in the UK for directing other successful films, such as: Submarine. In relation to The Double, Richard Ayoade successfully constructed a well-developed film that modernized the

A fetish, as categorized by Sigmund Freud in his article “Fetish,” develops after a young boy realizes the genital differences of the sexes—that women lack a penis (Freud, 153). The anxiety that is produced from this awareness is quickly forgotten, due to the fact the woman possesses something else: breasts, feet, legs, etc. But ultimately the young boy is unaware of the feelings that are occurring. Fetishized elements are present in Russ Meyer’s 1965 film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Meyer employs

Spellbound follows a female psychiatrist named Dr. Constance Peterson at a mental hospital who is considered by her fellow doctors as one of the best. When Dr. Anthony Edwardes arrives at a that hospital to replace the outgoing hospital director, he begins to behave very strangely, and soon Constance discovers that he is not who he claims to be. He is actually an impostor, suffering from a serious case of amnesia. His real name is John Ballantyne, and all of the circumstantial evidence indicates

Neff Said: Mise-en-scene and Sound in Double Indemnity Film Noir is a genre filled with many interesting conventions. The films within Film Noir use narration, performance, lighting, and blocking in order to tell tales of murder, betrayal, and questionable morals. In this sense, Double Indemnity is a classic Film Noir film. It is a story of two ill-fated lovers lured by lust and greed to commit a heinous act: murder. The main focus of the film (and of this essay) is on Walter Neff and Phyllis

ethical lapse by a corporate model catering to the public. This same notion of moral wrong-doing is equivalent to the movies Scarface and Double Indemnity. This paper will discuss

Should Double Indemnity Be Considered a Film Noir? Double Indemnity was published in 1944, directed by Billy Wilder. According to Filmsite.org, film noir become popular during the 1940. Tim Dirks, writer and editor of Filmsite.org, listed Double Indemnity as one of the greatest film noirs in history. There are many elements that classify Double Indemnity as a film noir, such as flashbacks, violence, dark settings, the dangers of what being in love could cause, and the list is endless. Double Indemnity

vulnerable, dishonesty, merciless, etc. In Double Indemnity, our main character Walter Huff fits this description. Not to mention his anti-hero characteristics, I’ll talk about his motivation, which he chooses to murder a man to get money and the man’s wife. This merciless quality is definitely something that a hero doesn’t have. According to The Greatest Femmes Fatales in Classic Film Noir, “The femmes fatales in film noir are mysterious, duplicitous, subversive, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory

“Double Indemnity” is a film noir by Billy Wilder. He directed this movie in 1944, during World War II. This movie’s main sound was a extra-diegetic sound. A voiceover was used for Walter Neff to show his point of view and thoughts of the actions he committed. Wilder, also, did the voiceover to show that Walter wanted to tell the story to his good friend, Barton Keyes. Throughout the movie, there is a series of “mono sounds.” There is a low music that is heard in the background throughout the movie

noir: a trend of cinema that included a “dark, brooding atmosphere” with an “equally somber vision of life” (Rise of Film Noir 60). Characteristically speaking, this was Double Indemnity, directed by Billy Wilder and released on September 7, 1944. Although movie historians agree Maltese Falcon pioneered film noir, Double Indemnity solidified the style during Hollywood’s transition out of the Golden Age (early film noir 15). This film was the unique result of competing desires: America’s for realist

Wilder directed an award winning film noir Double Indemnity. Film noir was a popular genre of film during the 1940’s. Film noirs were crime dramas placing an emphasis on sexual motivations. In addition, film noirs were recognized by movie critics for the dark lighting and themes expressed throughout the films. In Double Indemnity, Walter Neff, an insurance salesman, perfectly fits the role of the anti-hero seen in many film noirs. In Double Indemnity, Walter Neff expresses the theory of Sigmund

Sometimes, leading the reader to have an emotion response is essential in connecting characters in the story to audience. In Double Indemnity, Phyllis walks around the huge but hollow living room when she describes her boring daily life and stories to Walter, there are some “crossing and recrossing bars of shadow cast by a window blind.” (Blaser) The director of Double Indemnity, Billy Wilder skillfully uses the shadow of the window blind to imply that Phyllis is indeed living in a prison without freedom

involved leaders who prioritized power, money, and land over basic human rights. This concept is further displayed in the James M. Cain 1935 classic noir novel Double Indemnity through the actions of the main character Phyllis Nirdlinger. Phyllis values materialistic items and money which causes her to murder ruthlessly. In Double Indemnity, Cain uses characterization of Phyllis Nirdlinger to convey how greed can be a motivator for inhumane actions in even those who appear to have compassion. Cain

The Dangers of Phyllis Dietrichson [In the time period that Double Indemnity is written, there was a change in the family dynamic due to World War II. Women were out in the workforce and a large amount of the male population was overseas at war, protecting our country.] Status Quo [Although we have our men being portrayed as strong and defending our beliefs against our enemies, the Germans and Japanese, in Double Indemnity our main character Walter Neff seems bored with his life and as a result seems

This is my second time watching Double Indemnity and something that I noticed this time around was the change in the color of Phyllis Dietrichson’s outfits as the movie progressed. The book mentions that the femme fatale is typically shown in white (149), which when we first spot Phyllis Dietrichson she’s wrapped in the white towel and then the white dress. However, as the movie progresses her outfits seem to only get darker; for example when Phyllis purposes the idea of taking out the insurance

Double Indemnity Clip Analysis The purpose of this paper is to explain and describe the stylistic choices of the selected clip from the movie Double Indemnity (1944.) Consisting of five shots, the features of the clip serve to cast feelings of uncertainty and intrigue upon the viewer. The introductory shot of the clip starts as two men enter an elevator. Extra-diegetic music plays for the total duration of the clip, adding a sense of suspense, while the whole clip is shot and shown in black and

Even though they were produced in two completely different time periods, Blade Runner and Double Indemnity share a substantial amount of similarities. Each film’s use of cinematic elements points towards them following a film noir style of filming. Though Blade Runner’s sci-fi genre does push it towards a more modernized version of film noir, commonly known as neo-noir, it still shares many similarities with Blade Runner. Low key lighting, shadows, smoke, compact spaces, and pathetic fallacy are