Double Indemnity-Film Noir Blog 2

      There are many aspects of film noir in the book Double Indemnity. Film noir as you know always has that detective type character that's on the fine line between lawful and unlawful.Then you have the "femme fatale" character who is the seductive, mysterious woman who charms her way into her lovers heart and then leads him into deadly and dangerous situations. Not only does the book Double Indemnity have those characters but it also has murder, mystery, deceit, fraud and twist to spice it up.

     In the first half of the book James M. Cain introduces Walter Huff  who is an experienced insurance agent and very good at his job. While trying to sell insurance to Mr. Nirdlinger he ends up coming in contact with the beautiful blonde Mrs.Phyllis Nirdlinger. She would soon prove to be the femme fatale character and lead him in to murder with her beauty and charm. According to Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton “The private detective is midway between lawful society and the underworld, walking on the brink, sometimes unscrupulous, but only putting himself at risk, fulfilling the requirements of his own code and of the figure as well. As if to counterbalance all this, the actual lawbreakers are more or less sympathetic figures.”

That quote describes the Walter Huff in this book all too well. Walter Huff not a private detective but was that law abiding citizen who could almost always tell when there was a suspicious client and would bring them down. On the other hand when Phyllis Nirdlinger pretty much seduced him and convinced him into killing her husband he couldn’t resist her. He was all for it!  From years of experience he knew all too well how to plan the murder without raising any suspicions or getting caught. After they both went thru with the murder Walter Huff went about his life trying to act as normal as possible. His boss was suspicious about it and knew there was something not right. It all made Walter Huff a bit sick. So he was playing the lawful and unlawful side at this point. He was put himself at risk by first committing a murder and secondly possibly not ends well at all.

     From the website Filmsite it states that “ the females in film noir are either of two types- dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women; or femme fatales- mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women.” In Cain’s book Double Indemnity Phyllis Nirdlinger would be described as the femme fatale character. She is a beautiful blonde with light blue eyes who seduces Mr. Huff into killing her husband for the life insurance money. She is sweet, tough and knows what she wants and knows how to get it. During the murder she seems unaffected by it. She shows no emotion or sadness of her husband being dead. She goes on about her life as if it’s just another day.

     In conclusion the book Double Indemnity has many aspects of film noir in it. From the insurance agent, to the femme fatale and all the lies, deceit, fraud and murder it has to follow. This book is a clasic example of film noir and its characteristics.