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A Closer Look at Double Indemnity

                                                  
                                                 

While watching Double Indemnity, I was taken by surprise at the characterization of Walter Neff, the male lead of the movie. Being told that "weak and frustrated men" are a classic aspect of film noir, I was confused by Walter Neff"s personality. He seemed confident and successful and a little bit cocky to be honest. These are definitely not traits you expect in a weak character role. However, I knew that Mr. Neff must follow the stereotypes of film noir to an extent, so I took a less "on the surface' look at the part he plays throughout the movie.

The audience is introduced to a rather sweaty Mr. Neff sitting in his office making a confession about the crimes he has committed. This version of the man does in fact seem both weak and frustrated. He seems like a man that did not have the strength the keep what he had done buried, and instead cracked under the pressure, forcing him into a desperate confession. However, when the movie jumps into the flashback of what has happened, we see a relatively happy man who is confident enough in his job to be friends with the boss, and is quick witted and "cool" when he meets a beautiful woman in a towel (Phyllis Dietrichson). In these opening scenes I was impressed with his ability to always have a response to anything thrown at him, and with the way that he seemed to present himself as superior regardless of who he was around.  Further into the film, the audience sees Walter develop a well thought out plan of how to commit insurance fraud against Mr. Dietrichson. This plan makes him seem more intelligent and confident in his ability as well as the dominant role because of the way he tells Phyllis exactly what to do without need for her input.

With this successful, intelligent personality that Walter has comes a weakness. At first look it was hard for me to identify the flaw in Walter's confident front, but when I thought about all of the times he seemed strong and why it became clear. Everything that he committed himself to with confidence was for Phyllis. And this is where his weakness appears. He is weak in his self-control when in relationships with women. When first meeting Phyllis, he seemed very confident and cocky, but he also got very flirtatious and strayed away from his actual intentions of business. His lust for this beautiful (but married) stranger, clouded his vision immediately and made him weak to her actions. Furthermore, as his relationship with Phyllis grew more intimate, he became less able to stick to his moral values. This is seen how at first he was cautious of her obvious desires to profit of her husbands death, but ended up coming full circle and planning the murder from beginning to end. While Walter could not see what was happening and kept up his self-confidence, he was actually falling victim to his weakness.

Walter Neff is a man very controlled by his head on the outside and his hormones on the inside. He is someone that likes to feel on top and prides himself in thinking that he is better than others, both intellectually and morally. This too applies in his relationship with women. However, with women comes being overruled by his hormones. This allows him to be manipulated and taken advantage of because he puts trust in women he fancies without actually considering the implications of his actions. With this closer look we see, Walter Neff really is a film noir male character.

"It may be a man's world, but men are easily controlled by women." -Ashly Lorenzana