Great Noirs: Double Indemnity

Double Indemnity - 1944

Director: Billy Wilder

Double Indemnity, in my opinion is a prime example of film noir; it’s a classic within the genre and perfectly defines everything noir stands for; Crime, murder, femme fatales and misery. The antagonist, a salesman named Walter Neff meets the wife of one of his clients and they have an affair. To gain accidental insurance of her husbands death there is a plot to murder him though Walter Neff aims to receive a “double indemnity clause” and get twice the amount of money (hence the title of the film). He succeeds in fooling the police once the woman’s husband is found dead on a railway track though the insurance company is suspicious and believed the death was intentional. This story-line is typical of film noirs as the wife/adulterer is described as “seductive” which is typical of the representation of women in the genre’s era.