Blog Entry #4

Question #1

In the past few weeks, we were given the opportunity to both read James M. Cain’s 1936 novel titled, Double Indemnity and to watch Billy Wilder’s 1944 classic noir film with the same title.  The plot to both the novel and film are similar, but it is their endings that make them both different.  In the novel, Walter uncovers Phyllis’ murderous past and decides to kill her off, but before he gets to her, he is double-crossed by Phyllis and shot.  He later chooses to confess to committing the crime because of his loving affection to Lola and to protect her from being falsely accused.  This confession leads Keyes to construct a plan in which Walter and Phyllis end up leaving the country on board the same freighter that is bound to go nowhere.  Due to their murderous pasts, they both contemplate on the idea of committing suicide by jumping off the boat into shark-infested waters.   This ending, in my opinion was appropriate to the novel but not film noir.  The novel left me feeling unsatisfied in how it ended so abruptly and how the characters were not brought to justice in a usual film noir sort of way.  The abrupt ending leaves you with a sense of being left in limbo.  Film noir, in a way, is usually straightforward but the novel just leaves you asking questions.  Walter and Phyllis were also given a twisted sense of justice in which it felt like the author left the ending open for the reader’s imagination.  In contrast to the novel, the film spares both Walter and Phyllis from committing suicide.  The film’s version portrays Walter as more of a father figure type to Lola rather than him being in love with her as it was in the novel.  Walter also uncovers Phyllis’ murderous past and decides to kill her.  The film shows Walter going to her home with the intention of killing her, but she too has her own plans of killing him.  Phyllis shoots Walter once in the shoulder, wounding him.  He then walks up to her and turns her own gun on her, killing her.   After narrating his story in Keyes’ office, Walter confesses everything to Keyes and then succumbs to his wound.  The film’s version compared to the novel, is much improved and falls more to the category of film noir.  The film included a type of continuous tension in the storytelling that continued all the way to the end.  The sense of justice was also well defined; it had more death and darkness to it.  We saw that both Walter and Phyllis determine their own fates, not by taking the easy way out, but turning on each other.

Question #3

           

The film version of Double Indemnity is told in a confessional first person narration flashback, a principle of film noir.  This type of narration helps to draw the audience into Walter’s world, pushing the viewer to experience the events through his eyes and to identify with his character who is going through the process of becoming morally corrupted. The audience becomes morally involved, almost to the point where we are rooting for him.  But with this type of narration, we can sense the death and downfall of Walter even before we get to the conclusion.