Day 117: Double Indemnity

"Do I laugh now, or wait till it gets funny?"

Double Indemnity is one of the best examples of film noir out there. To ask which elements of film noir were interesting in the film is simply to ask what was interesting about the whole movie. This film seethes, it festers in its own darkness. Film noirs are at their best when they portray the ordinary, generally decent people who are lured into a life of crime and violence due to human flaws and weaknesses. And those include greed, vanity, vengeance, and yes, love.

Thus we have the archetype of a genre that thrived before anyone gave it a label or special attention. There are levels of griminess in noirs, and Indemnity strikes the right pitch between moderately mainstream cleverness and dark dank agendas. It is a film of entertainment that still resonates with big emotions and psychological insight.

The plot and lighting are the definition of noir. We have the archetypal corruption of an on-the-level guy by outside forces that eventually brings down the whole house of cards. And it's all filmed beautifully with shadows bouncing and reeling from the sparse specks of light.

Barbara Stanwyck plays the typical noir dame to the tee. She uses everyone she comes in contact with and only looks out for her best interests, manipulating as she wishes along the way. I had an English teacher who claimed that Iago in Othello was the greatest villain ever created because he manipulated others on an emotional level and played off of genuine feelings to get his way. If we are judging villains by this criteria then not only is Mrs. Dietrichson as great a villain as Iago, she is also more tragic because she (seemingly) has a revelation and for the first time truly cares enough for someone to restrict doing evil wherein her actions would inevitably put herself in more danger. It is this achieved selflessness after a film's length of deceit and corruption that could arguably elevate Indemnity to or even past Shakespearean proportions.

Lets us not forget Fred MacMurray's Walter Neff, the atypical smooth talking slightly deviant but lovable main lead. He is lured away by lust and becomes increasingly entrenched thereafter. He acts with a certain detachment, a certain knowing cool that only few can really pull of. It is to his credit that even as he is planning a murder, following it through, and attempting to cover his tracks, we as an audience can't help but hope he somehow makes it to Mexico where he will live a quietly tormented inner life all covered up by an average Joe exterior.

For all of Neff's wisecracking, the film would be practically be moot without Edward G. Robinson's Keyes. I've always liked Robinson. He's the kind of character actor you can't help but smile when he pops up, and he does pop up often.

I really enjoy this film. I think Billy Wilder is a great craftsman whose work has obviously aged well. if the overall scope of film noir encompassed a changing America in a time of disbelief and turmoil, we still needed artists to articulate that grief and longing. A small cast of continually respected actors, directors, set designers, and editors, among others, populated that niche to great effect and produced films of both stark realism and personal enchantment. The galaxies of film are better for it.