Double Indemnity

The film Double Indemnity certainly kept my interest right to the last scene. I think there were a few different reasons that my interest was kept. They were the plot, character language and water.

I was instantly excited when I realized the whole film would be a flashback because Walter Neff was recalling his whole experience with Phyllis to Keyes through a work memo. It was excited to know that what I was watching led up to the gun shot in Neff’s shoulder. I was seeing the present (the gun shot shoulder scene), the past (the flashback) and the future (the gunshot scenes after the flashback). There were many suspenseful twists that I thoroughly enjoyed—all of those occurred mostly at the end. I honestly didn’t expect to hear that Phyllis basically murdered her husband’s previous wife. I also didn’t expect both Phyllis and Neff to die by killing each other. (Well, I’m not actually sure that Neff dies.) However, I didn’t think they would go to prison. I liked how there were two main characters, but that Keyes was close enough to the audience throughout the movie that I found myself sometimes wanting him to figure things out, and then I would snap from it and continue to be on Neff and Phyllis’s side.

The second part that kept my interest was character language. There were so many lines that could become “one-liners” in the film and I really enjoyed listening to them. Wondering and thinking about them while watching made me want to keep listening. Some of the lines that I enjoyed were:
Neff: I wonder if you wonder.
Neff: How could I have known that murder smelled like honeysuckle?
Neff: I felt like a million.
Neff: I’m crazy about you baby.
Okay, so all of the ones I wrote down were from Neff, but I’m sure there were more.

The third item on my list…water, yes, water also kept my interest. When reading the article for class, I read that water is used a lot in film noir, so I was looking for it throughout the film. I might expand on this in later blogs, so I’ll just mention the parts where I saw water. The fishbowl was a prominent source of water. It was a small prop that didn’t mean too much, but the water it held was important. Also, it was raining when Neff went home after being with Phyllis for the second time. Keyes asked for water during one point.

Overall it was an enjoyable movie to watch, packed full of various twists and interesting things.

p.s.- why was Neff wearing a wedding ring?