Directed by Billy Wilder 1944
Budget $980,000
Plot Outline:
In 1938, Walter Neff, an experienced salesman of the
Pacific All Risk Insurance Co., meets the seductive wife of
one of his clients, Phyllis Dietrichson, and they have an
affair. Phyllis proposes to kill her husband to receive the
proceeds of an accident insurance policy and Walter
devises a scheme to receive twice the amount based on a
double indemnity clause. When Mr. Dietrichson is found
dead on a train-track, the police accept the determination
of accidental death. However, the insurance analyst and
Walter's best friend Barton Keyes does not buy the story
and suspects that Phyllis has murdered her husband with
the help of another man.
CLOSE ANALYSIS
As you are watching the
film take notes on the
following elements of
noir we looked at while
studying Detour:
EXPRESSIONIST
CAMERAWORK/LIGHTING
Walters ‘confessional’ – expressionistic lighting on
Walter’s face as he begins/ends his narrative: a visual
metaphor for his desperation and tale of inescapable
doom.
Dietrichson parlour – contrast lighting through Venetian
blinds (like prison bars) and low-key lighting – creates an
image of this being Phyllis’s lair: she entraps Walter there.
Low-Angle canted shots of Phyllis as we are first
introduced to her in the opening scene. Implies her sexual
allure and power over Walter.
FLAWED HERO/ANTIHERO
Although on the surface Walter may seem the victim of
Phyllis’s conniving plan he is equally culpable – he did it
for the girl, he did for the money and he did it to see if he
could ‘crook the house’ (get away with it).
Behind his charm and mild manners he is a ruthless
criminal (adultery, murder larceny)
FEMME FATALE
Phyllis Dietrichson – manipulative, double-crossing,
seductive, anti-family. Focussed on money – married her
husband because he had money. He was his sick wife’s
nurse. Uses her sexual appeal to convince Walter to
murder her husband. Makes Walter feel sorry for her by
telling him her husband is controlling, neglectful, drinks
excessively and beats her. She is shot by Walter at the end
of the film and is killed for her sins.
Narrative / First Person Subjective
Voiceover
Walter’s final confession before he attempts to
escape to Mexico is his attempt to ‘put things
straight’ for Keyes on the Dietrichson case.
His confessions (more so than the scenes
portraying previous events) reveal Walters sinister
motivations
THEME
Walter is paranoid that Phyllis is double crossing him and
having an affair with Lola’s boyfriend.
Walter also makes references to fate – stating that fate
was giving him a sign not to go through with the murder
by having Phyllis’ husband break his leg and disrupt their
plans.