Film Analysis of Double Indemnity

Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity is a story about Walter Neff’s outwardly struggle between forbidden love and his moralistic integrity. Walter, an insurance salesman, narrates the rollercoaster ride his life has taken after he meets Phyllis Deitrichson through flashbacks in his confession. She is interested in accident insurance for her husband, but we can surmise from her body language and flirtation with Mr. Neff that their marriage is anything but ideal. Later in the film Phyllis reveals her marital struggle but shows her true colors and true intentions. A manipulative and cold woman who uses people as she pleases, Phyllis coaxes Walter into an elaborate scheme to murder her husband. Walter goes through with the murder but Phyllis’s intentions were not to get away from an abusive husband for her new love. It is implied that this is not Phyllis’s first murder. Throughout the film and his encounters with Phyllis, Walter can’t help but still love the woman through her deceitful ways but he is visibly conflicted morally. Inevitably, he must kill her and confess as a precaution because Phyllis would’ve tossed him aside to the authorities anyway or worse kill him. 

The setting this film takes place in is Los Angeles 1944. When Walter first visits the Deitrichson household we are shown a nice neighborhood with children playing as he drives on the street. Then, when he walks up to the house there is a very grassy lawn and palm trees in the shot. This indicates a warm weather setting most likely west coast rather than east coast because the architecture of the mansion also looks different than east coast households.

Costume and Makeup are deliberately and effectively executed through the variety of outfits Phyllis wears in the film. Her lavishly detailed outfits and polished makeup contribute to the image she wants to convey to the world and Walter. An example of costume choice demonstrating who Phyllis is as a character is when she is first introduced. Walter enters the Dietrichson household where he is met by a beautiful sensual woman in only a bath towel who just returned from sunbathing. Filmed from a low angle and at a distance, we are viewing Phyllis through Walter’s eyes. Phyllis is a goddess that is comfortable enough to show off her body to a complete stranger but she also appears unattainable. Mrs. Dietrichson brushes off her provocative entrance by her attempt to remain innocent when she looks abashed and says she’ll change into something decent. Phyllis’s revealing introduction contradicts the damsel façade she reveals to Walter during their affair.

Lighting conveys the stark mood of Double Indemnity when Walter confronts Phyllis just before he kills her. Walter confronts Phyllis because he has found out that during their twisted love affair she was also with Nino Zachetti. Walter deduces that Phyllis did not truly love him.  As Walter speaks to Phyllis in the frame shown above, his silhouette is dimly lit indicating his insignificance just as he is in her life. In contrast, Phyllis Deitrichson is shown through a low angle in the center frame with sharp shadows with more light coming in than him. The low angle forces us to look up at her so we are small and insignificant to her. She looks very villainous in this shot and it is a stark contrast to her first appearance�"bright, beautiful, and romantic�"since we were viewing her from Walter’s eyes. We are exposed to Phyllis’s true nature and although she still looks beautiful in this shot we see the darkness inside her. Movement and performance are conveyed effectively through the conversation between Phyllis and Walter right before he accuses her of planning a fraudulent accident claim. In this moment, we actually believe Phyllis is concerned for her husband and is hurt by the accusation. The stage direction of this scene is executed well because Barbara Stanwyck (Phyllis) furrows her brows, looks down a few times, does some busy work with her hands on the glass, and even moves around the sofa indicating her nervous nature when she talks about how dangerous Mr. Dietrichson’s job is. This over the shoulder shot of Walter really highlights Mrs. Dietrichson’s performance as the dutiful wife and it is also slightly elevated indicating her vulnerability, although she had been pretending the whole time.

We are introduced to space in the film in terms of onscreen and off screen space. Prior to Walter and Phyllis killing Mr.Dietrichson, there are a series of cuts of medium close ups of Phyllis, then her husband, then back to her. We infer what is going on outside of the screen space because we hear the dialogue while we see one character on the screen. What makes this scene particularly strong is the part where we see a medium close up of Phyllis staring at the road while Mr.Dietrichson yells at her for honking and then hear his muffled chokes as Walter kills him. This is a perfect utilization of off screen space because we don’t need to see the brutal act of murder. Hearing the sounds of his death make it that much more suspenseful. Phyllis’s cold, hard expression as her husband is murdered right next to her is chilling and we feel disturbed because of her lack of reaction as this happens. 

Time is a mechanism that illustrates Walter’s fall from grace. Throughout the film, we switch from real time (Walter’s confession) to flashbacks with his voiceover that show how he got there. Time also reveals itself in editing transitions. For example, when Walter lists exactly how he plans the murder of Mr. Dietrichson step by step there are series of dissolves. The lengths of each shot aren’t very long making it a sequence. Each transition makes the first image smoothly over impose into the next image. In this sequence, we see Walter leaving his rate book on purpose, driving his car into a parking garage careful not to rouse suspicion of his whereabouts, him walking to his desired destination from the lot, him calling Lou Shwartz about his rate book. All of these tasks are to establish his alibi. He continues by dressing up as Mr. Dietrichson and meeting up with Phyllis to put the plan into action. Time in this montage of scenes is all in the course of several hours but the screen time is only mere minutes.