Double Indemnity

Access to a would-be lover is perhaps the most frequent reason for murder. That said, what do we then make of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944)? This is a film that obstinately suggests Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) could have immediate access to Mrs. Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) after their first meeting. Despite a warning from Mrs. Dietrichson that there’s a “speed limit in this state,” both knowingly enter into a flirtatious rapport. Still, if sexual attainment were the goal, adherence to the machinations of murder would not be necessary.

This, of course, gets at the heart of deception in film noir, since protagonists such as Neff follow the circumscribed machinations laid out in front of him as he heads toward the goal, making sure that every detail has “got to be perfect” and revealing that often such strict adherence to an ideal is more important than the goal itself. That is, in denying the goal itself (sexual union with Phyllis) Neff remains pure of any mundane reality of the sex. Here, Neff continually finds reasons to avoid the inevitable consummation of the sexual tryst with Mrs. Dietrichson, since the attainment of sex will destroy all that he desires and effectively defraud him of his very desire.

In this sense, he is unmistakably fetishistic, so that in not getting “it” he avoids any contamination of attainment. He becomes caught in his own artificiality, treasuring the appearance of superfluous details over the consummated act. In a Freudian reading of fantasies, Freud famously noted that the realization of a fantasy is often seen as a nightmare. In Double Indemnity that idea stands true, since the consummation of sex ruptures the ideal that Neff had been able to impose over all the details. While this can be more easily read as part of Mrs. Dietrichson’s calculating plan as femme fatale , there’s a fascination in examining Neff’s getting it as precisely tied to why the plan fails.

Ultimately, what all of the above is trying to say is that Double Indemnity is a fascinating case study in prolonging the attainment of what was always available, so a study of why Neff avoids immediate access is an interesting idea. So while the pitch-perfect mise en scene, dialogue, and performances are the immediate pleasure, think about the lingering pleasures, those that don’t desire to be consummated.

Double Indemnity: 10/10