Analysing an Opening Sequence - Double Indemnity

Analysing an Opening Sequence

Double Indemnity (Wilder, 1944)

Double Indemnity is most certainly a film noir thriller – a perfect example of the genre, in fact. It’s heavy on the shadows and the intrigue; it’s not so heavy on the colour. Here, the pleasantly grainy streets of Los Angeles are the home of vice, hard-boiled men of the street, flaming metal garbage drums and black-and-white treachery. The main character, insurance salesman Walter Neff, is familiar enough to warm the heart of any fan of the genre. His trenchcoat and hat are the staple attire of the hardboiled noir lead. However, Neff has not always been this way, as shown in the following flashback. The flashback itself is an oft-used technique of film noir, and it gives a good reason for the use of narration. In this case, the narration is explained by the Dictaphone that Neff is spilling his story into. Although looking back nowadays the film is such perfect noir that it almost seems like a parody, that is not its intention.

The lack of colour in the city streets immediately sets the viewer into the right mindset. The short credits sequence is accompanied by an ever-present orchestral soundtrack which continues throughout the entire opening. The camera plays few tricks, staying mostly with mid-shots and tracking Neff’s progress, first in his car, then in his office. However, it takes nearly a minute and a half from Neff’s entrance onto the screen for his face to be shown – even longer for his face to be shown in close-up. The camera stays behind him; the viewer only sees the back of his hat and hears his distinctive voice. As he enters his office, the room is almost entirely in darkness. It’s difficult to pick out what’s going on until Neff turns on his desk lamp, illuminating the room and casting heavy shadows. The orchestra plays softly but menacingly in the background. When Neff’s face is finally seen from a medium close-up he is revealed to be soaked in sweat. In the Dietrichson household, the living room windows are naturally covered by Venetian blinds which cast barcode shadows across the floor, walls, and Neff. Double Indemnity was actually one of the first films to make use of this classic noir technique. Here, Neff comments on his surroundings through the narration, describing what the viewer can see in fairly explicit detail.

The film starts with an assumedly-white background, the credits fading in and out over the top in a period-appropriate font. Behind, the silhouette of a man on crutches lumbers closer and closer to the camera. The music increases in intensity. Just as the silhouette is about to engulf the screen, the picture fades quickly into Los Angeles, where Neff’s car is zooming down the street in a fashion that almost seems purposefully sped-up and is reminiscent of a ‘caper’ film.

The opening is structured to be the set-up to the main story, which actually happened in the past. As Neff arrives in his office, the events of the rest of the film have already happened. He picks up the Dictaphone and proceeds to explain his story, which is when the film fades into flashback. He is addressing his confession (“I don’t like the word ‘confession’”) to a colleague, Keyes, although since the audience is listening in he may as well be addressing it to them. Listening in as his sinful story unfolds, the audience is intrigued. Neff doesn’t seem like a bad man, but his shaken exterior gives away the fact that he’s done something bad. The question is, what? “You said it wasn’t an accident. Check.” This line is a fantastic creator of tension, ramped up by the following one: “You said it wasn’t suicide. Check.” Neff doesn’t need to say the next line for the audience to get the message, but he does anyway. “You said it was murder… Check.”

Neff is an insurance salesman, a job which carries with it certain connotations of legal grey areas and dodgy dealings. He is monosyllabic at first, giving little attention to the enthusiastic and balding porter who greets him at the door. The little man claims that the company don’t tell him anything, although he doesn’t seem to mind very much. In the flashback, Neff is greeted by an un-co-operative maid, who makes the assumption that he is simply selling something. She is brushed off by the introduction of the film’s femme fatale: Phyllis Dietrichson. Phyllis enters the frame dressed in only a towel and is all too keen to answer Neff’s call. She wastes no time in flirting with him. A classic femme fatale, Phyllis has her own agenda and has no intention of letting any men get in her way. In its very characteristics, film noir is filled with these flawed, human characters, and although Neff confesses for the whole world to hear that he was involved in murder, the audience can predict that there was more to the crime than simple malice. By watching the film, they may find him to be relatable, reasonable, or simply betrayed. The maid comments that he’s probably after the liquor cabinet. When it comes to semiotics, there are plenty of parts of the opening that carry specific meanings. As already mentioned, Neff is identifiable as the hardboiled lead even before he says a word, simply thanks to his specific choice of hat and coat combination. There is also no doubt that the streets at night are not without their seedy connotations. At the time of the film’s release, Los Angeles was a hotbed for motion picture industry and a familiar sight for cinemagoers. To viewers watching nowadays, the thought that springs to mind after seeing that the picture is not in colour is most likely going to be the image of film noir – grizzled detectives prowling through smoky alleyways and newspaper headlines spinning towards the screen.

The film is rated PG, as it is generally viewable for all despite its dark themes. Although this is true, it is not a film that children would be interested in due to its heavy themes of drama and psychology. It is more intended for adults, from the late twenties and beyond. That said, film noir attracts a cult audience in this day and age, and Double Indemnity holds a nostalgic grip on those who remember seeing it in the pictures back in the day. The phrase ‘they don’t make ‘em like this any more’ walks hand in hand with this film. The preferred reading would be that in this world where the shade is more grey than simply black or white, the average man can resort to crimes he never would have imagined he was capable of, but he will be punished for them. Not everyone is going to agree with this, however, and these people may take an oppositional view that the film is giving out a message of “the world is corrupt, just roll with it!” They may even think that the film is rotting the morals of society. Of course, to take this view you would have to ignore the ending where Neff pays for his crimes, but not everyone is going to finish the movie before they make up their minds on whether they agree with it or not. The negotiated view is somewhere in between, with the understanding that the consequences of crime can outweigh the benefits, but it’s not really right to show an ordinary man sinking to murder for the sake of a beautiful woman. Speaking of women, there are two sides of the argument concerning Mrs. Phyllis Dietrichson. Some may argue that as an independent woman who twists men around her little finger, she is a liberating force for her gender. Despite this, there is always the lingering view that it is wrong that a woman should use her sex appeal in such a way. As a male, British teenager born nearly fifty years after the film’s release, times have changed and the sex references and murder plots seem tame in comparison to the content that gets through nowadays. What is most interesting about the film is its wonderful noir appeal – a quaint snapshot of a movie from a different time.

The main acting trio of the film took a lot of difficulty to bring together, mostly because its need for flawed characters. Fred MacMurray, a.k.a. Walter Neff, had starred in genuinely dozens of films before his appearance in Double Indemnity. He was a star, but Double Indemnity has become one of his most iconic performances for being cast outside of his usual ‘nice guy’ type. Barbera Stanwyck had an equally impressive filmography, even more so, when she was cast. In fact, she also had little history of playing killers, which made her nervous at the time. She needn’t have been, as her performance got her nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards in 1944. Just to round off the trio of bruisers, Edward G. Robinson (not seen in the opening, but his character, Keyes, is who Neff is addressing in his recording) had an even bigger filmography at the time of release – he officially acted in fifty films before Double Indemnity. There was no problem of an obscure cast.

The film was produced ‘industrially’ by Paramount Pictures and it was the film which established Billy Wilder as a directorial juggernaut. It was actually based off of a book written a year earlier by James M. Cain, which was in turn based off of a real crime that happened a few decades before. There is always an audience for films based off of a true story, and likewise people will faithfully flock to see a film adaption of a book they have read. In both the book and the film, Double Indemnity’s adulterous themes were quite controversial at the time, and unpopular with the censors. The film’s advertising campaign boldly stated “‘Double Indemnity'—the two most important words since D.W. Griffith's 'Broken Blossoms.” The posters for the movie are typical of the time: a painting of MacMurray and Stanwick embracing, over the top of a pink background (an unusual colour for noir). Robinson looks on with interest from the left. This is by far the most common poster for the film, although others do exist, with variations on the theme but always displaying all three of the stars. By 1939, Wilder had already received one Academy Award Nomination and had directed number of box office hits. After its release in 1944, Double Indemnity was nominated for seven Academy Awards. Disappointingly, it won none of them. Since then, it has gone on to be considered an absolute classic and is frequently a part of “Best 100…” film competitions.