Blog #2

As with all film noir, murder is usually the element and greed, jealousy is the motivation. For example, in the website Filmsite, it states “Very often, a film noir story was developed around a male character who encountered a beautiful but promiscuous and seductive femme fatale.” This being the case, the women or better yet the femme fatale gets the man to commit her crimes on the promise of her and her money.  As seen in the novel Double Indemnity written by James M. Cain, this is exactly what happens.

The male character is an insurance salesman by the name of Walter Huff who meets the femme fatale Phyllis Nirdlinger. As is the case in all film noir, Mr. Huff is the anti-hero that is flawed and morally questionable because he decides to help Mrs. Nirdlinger murder her own husband. The reason he agrees to help her can be found on page 22 in Double Indemnity for it reads ““What would you do this for?” “You for one thing.” “What else?” “Money.”” Therefore this shows that greed and lust is the element.  

As stated in the website Filmsite the femme fatales are “mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women” and that is exactly who Phyllis Nirdlinger is.  She tries to make excuses for the reasons she wants to murder her husband, she says “He’s not happy. He’ll be better off-dead.” (pg.23) She also states that she does not love him and acts duplicitous on page 23 were she states “Please Walter, don’t let me do this. We can’t. It’s simply-insane.” In reality she’s hoping that Mr. Huff would help her double-cross her husband by seducing Mr. Huff in her web of innocence,  which is only a façade that Mr. Huff sees right away. However he still agrees to help her because as stated on page 30 “When I met Phyllis I met my plant.”

In the article, Towards a Definition of Film Noir,” the authors Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton state “film noir is [crime] from within; from the point of view of the criminal.” As well as in Double Indemnity the story is told by Mr. Huff the” criminal” for he murders Mr. Nirdlinger. It shows his point of view on how he came about his disastrous decision to commit murder and why. It shows that Mr. Huff and Mrs. Nirdlinger decided on a railway accident in order to collect twice the amount of a twenty-five thousand dollar policy under its double indemnity provision.  It shows his every thought, decision, and action he decides to make in order to get what he wants.

In the end Double Indemnity surely falls under the various definitions of film noir, a psychological thriller and crime drama, that is based on a anti -protagonist hero  that is lured to a life of crime because a femme fatale. With its subjects of violence, murder, adultery, and insurance fraud, Double Indemnity is and will always be classified under the film noir genre.