Double Indemnity

The film Double Indemnity (1944) opens up at night with Walter Niff (Fred MacMurray) an insurance salesman in 1938 is dictating a confession of murder. Told in flashbacks we see him meet an attractive married woman, Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), Niff is there to update their insurance policy, but instead plot together to kill her husband and swindle the insurance claim for $100,000 by evoking a double indemnity clause. Orchestrated by Niff who considers this a challenge to beat the system

Film Genre Essay Double Indemnity ‘Double Indemnity’ directed by Billy Wilder conforms to the Noir style. ‘Double Indemnity’ is widely believed to be one of the original Noir style films that used and started many of the Noir clichés that we know today. It is part of the Noir style because of the techniques and stylistics utilized in the film that are typical to that of most Noir films. These stylistics are explained by Paul Schrader, in “Notes on Film Noir” (1972), he writes about the stylistics

Drama film, Double Indemnity, directed by Billy Wilder, showed the love story between an insurance representative and one of his client's wife who plotted to commit insurance fraud on his company, Pacific All Risk Insurance CO., in order to be together. The insurance representative, Walter Neff, met Phyllis Dietrichson during one of his visit to Mr. Dietrichson's home. Phyllis inevitably becomes interested in acquiring accidental insurances for her husband which includes double indemnity. Walter begins

This paper examines the formal elements and stylistic features in the selected clip from Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity. The clip is two minutes and thirty-three seconds long and comprised of five shots. The scene is set in a life insurance office. The first shot of the clip captures a man named Walter Neff in a medium long shot boarding an elevator while the camera is stationary. Another man also enters the elevator and the shot quickly changes to a medium two-shot as the men engage in a conversation

Double Indemnity is a classic film noir that has set the stage for other films of the same genre. Containing themes of imminent danger, fatalism, and drama, the film artfully uses a series of cinematic techniques to tell the story of Walter Neff and his seductive partner-and-crime, Phyllis Dietrichson. By carefully analyzing the first minute and a half of the film, one can get a sense of how particular factors of the opening scene (such as lighting, sound, and set) both heighten the drama at the

How Double Indemnity fulfils the definition of Film Noir Many commentators agree that it is essential films like Double Indemnity (1944) and Out of the Past (1947) that make up perfect film noir masterpieces. They also agree that the birth of this ‘movement’ was possible with the production of The Maltese Falcon, the first textbook example of a film noir. According to French film critic Nino Frank, film noir is a film genre that is characterized by violence and pervaded by an intense ‘feeling’ of

Double Indemnity (1994) is a movie director by Billy Wilder with his screenwriting partner Raymond Chandler, which is based on James M. Cain’s famous novel. The main storylines in the book and the movie are roughly the same; it talks about how an experienced insurance seller Walter helps a housewife Phyllis to murder her husband to get the double indemnity. There are still many notable changes in the transition from book to film, like characters’ action, plot, style, and relationship between anti-hero

Film noir is a classic film style. Noir-style films often use suspense, seduction, and drama to highlight a cynical viewpoint of life. Double Indemnity uses all of these key points to create a true noir classic. Billy Wilder’s direction of the film helped to cement this film as a classic of black and white films. Wilder’s decision and storyline stayed true, for the most part, to the original source novel, while also adding and improving key details. Fred MacMurray’s and Barbara Stanwyck’s acting

In time of nation-wide alienation and loss found in post-war America, it’s clear to see why a story like Double Indemnity was so well received. The story, as Paul Schrader says, addresses “[t]he disillusionment many soldiers, small businessmen and housewife/factory employees felt in returning to a peacetime economy was directly mirrored in the sordidness of the urban crime film” (Schrader, 9-10). It does this through the eyes of Neff, an insurance sales man, who plots what was supposed to be the

Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (dir. Billy Wilder, 1944), character Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) becomes enchanted by the seductive Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck). However, through an act of lust, Neff gets involved in a murderous scheme with Dietrichson. The entirety of the movie is a flashback as Neff recalls his scheme. He records his guilty testimony onto a dictation machine, which is partially overheard by his clever boss, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson). Double Indemnity is composed