Double Murder...er, Indemnity

1.  In film noir, many of the male leads are weak, frustrated men. While you are watching Double Indemnity, make a mental note of Walter Neff’s characteristics. What kind of man is he? What is his relationship like with women?

Walter Neff in Double Indemnity is portrayed as an astute, good-working man.  His boss says that he has a big heart, and he is a war hero.  He is tall, has strong facial features--everything implies his strength and manliness.  However, the first view of him is in the dark, hurriedly looking around his office and then sitting down, beginning to confess his crime to his boss.  This gives the audience the duality of his personality, like seen in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  He is both smart, honest, and and trustworthy, as well as unsure, nervous, and exposed.

Neff introduces Phyllis in a way that the audience immediately sees her as a manipulative person.  He describes the sickly sweet smell of honeysuckle as one of murder, explicitly revealing Phyllis' murderous desires, but only fully exposing its entire meaning when the audience sees him kill her at that house.  He is already caught in her black-widow's web when he meets her, her flirtatiously inviting him in in her bath towel, and him going in.  They flirt at first, but when Phyllis mentions life insurance, he quickly discerns that she could kill her husband and get his money.  He intelligently leaves, then negates his actions by meeting her again.  He is superficially strong in his stances, but with a beautiful woman, his tenacity crumbles.  Kissing her and calling her "baby" after two days of seeing her further implies that he is gullible, too entranced to realize the facade of a seemingly innocent woman.  He then uses his intelligence and the trust he has at his work to kill Phyllis' husband in an elaborate plan with the intent of double indemnity.  His positive traits are diverted to do negative actions; he transforms from Jekyll to Hyde.

Neff, however, feels extreme remorse after he kills the husband.  When seeing someone walking on a street towards him, he realizes that he can't hear the man's footsteps.  This could be an allusion to Macbeth, for Macbeth can't say "Amen" after killing King Duncan.  In Double Indemnity, the effect is the same in that it shows Neff's guilt and heightened nerves, but does not have any religious implication.

In his post-murder state, he feels relaxed around genuinely innocent Lola.  This offers the insight that Neff, in his Dr. Jekyll, or true, self, has a moral compass when it comes to women.  However, this does not in the least deny the weakness that he has in the presence of a conniving woman and how his irrevocable actions are so easily spawned.  Even in the end, Neff, after killing Phyllis, tries to make sure that Lola can be happy with her cheating boyfriend Nino Zachetti, but also tries to save himself.  He is frank with his boss, Keyes, but asks him to give him time to escape.  Had he reverted back to an honest, responsible man, and not a weak, hiding one, and he would completely give himself up.  Is he still attempting to be a masculine figure? Yes--his ever-smoking state proves this at the end as he lays on the ground, defeated, and tries to take a smoke.  However, instead of easily lighting his own match, his boss does it for him.  The end result is clear: people who do not fall into the foolish trap of deceit and murder will prevail.  Those who do end up on the train, "straight down the line."