Very similar to his the postman always rings twice, cains double indemnity is dialoguedriven and a combination of existential dread. Cain, who wrote noir classics the postman always rings twice 1946 and mildred pierce 1945 as well. If you like your dialogue hardboiled, your lighting shadowy, and your femmes fatales preposterously evil, then look no further. One of the most prominent visual representations of masculinity in double indemnity is the relationship between walter neff and barton keyes, one having the qualities of a malefemale relationship. The double indemnity novel community note includes chapterbychapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context. Cinematography in double indemnity media design and. Cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Immediately download the double indemnity summary, chapterbychapter analysis, book notes, essays, quotes, character descriptions, lesson plans, and more everything you need for studying or teaching double indemnity. Many paramount titles in the universal library lack a proper selection of original source materials, and i am told that in this case a great deal of effort was expended to obtain a high quality presentation. Double indemnity learn with flashcards, games, and more for free. The contents of that farce, if by some horrible misfortune youve never seen double indemnity, nor know aught of its plot, is an insurance fraud scheme. Double indemnity 70th anniversary limited edition blu. Walter in this story isnt a hero hes a criminal and a murderer, which is established from the start. Double indemnity 1935 is one of the classic, toughtalking murder stories of the late 1930s.
Walter is often seen smoking, a masculine trait, but. Cain novel by wilder and raymond chandler, double indemnity represents the highwater mark of 1940s film noir urban crime dramas in which a. Double indemnity has all the hallmarks of film noir its a moody, pessimistic crime story with strong overtones of spiritual bankruptcy and moral cynicism. Ruth brown snyder persuaded her boyfriend, judd gray, to kill her husband albert after having her spouse take out a big insurance policy with a doubleindemnity clause. Double indemnity law and legal definition uslegal, inc.
Double indemnity and the hollywood production code b. Supersummary, a modern alternative to sparknotes and cliffsnotes, offers highquality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. Walter huff, double indemnity walter huff is just your runofthemill insurance salesman, maybe a slightly sharper operator than most, until the day he stops by the nirdlinger place to renew a policy and meets the new mrs. Some of the changes made to the double indemnity screenplay were definite improvements on the book, probably due to the fact that raymond chandler was a cowriter on the movie. These relationships also have power dynamics that emphasize and help push the story forward. In an essay that radically questions the very existence of film noir, marc. A better name for the stage play double indemnity might be double identity because the creators of the tonally uneven. Double indemnity is the second book i read of james m. Double indemnity is a 1934 detective novella by james m cain. It is quite short especially if you ignore the padding in the foreword which serves no real purpose. Nirdlingers inconvenient husband has to be eliminated so that his wife. Cinema style filebarbara stanwyck straight down the line.
Director, giles croft, says that on reading the book he knew it was for him because it had the right combination of pulp fiction, high theatricality, sex and murder. Premiere of double indemnity, adapted by david pichette and r. Double indemnity and the politics of gender curnblog. Cain 18921977, double indemnity is based upon a true story about a weakwilled insurance agent, walter huff, who falls for sultry blond, phyllis nirdlinger. Double indemnity study guide contains a biography of director billy wilder, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Cain novel by director wilder and novelist raymond chandler, it tells the story of an insurance salesman, played by fred macmurray, who is lured into a murderforinsurance plot by barbara stanwyck, in an. The story was based on a 1927 crime perpetrated by a married queens woman and her lover. Theres a clause in every accident policy, a little something called double indemnity. This brief but complex novel is a perfect example of the ordinaryguygone disastrouslywrong story that cain always pulls off brilliantly.
In the film characters get caught up in relationships that they have to keep hidden. Double indemnity film 1944 15question multiple choice quiz. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. This onepage guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of double indemnity by james m. It is ironically in the creation of this snake, phyllis nirdlinger, that cain. Double indemnity reading questions powered by oncourse. The insurance companies put it in as a sort of comeon for the customers. Film analysis of double indemnity film studies essay.
It was strange reading this book as it times it seemed like i was watching an old black and white movie. Take our free double indemnity quiz below, with 25 multiple choice questions that help you test your knowledge. In the first major scene of billy wilders 1944 film double indemnity, protagonist. The film double indemnity directed by billy wilder is a wonderful work that focuses heavily on relationships between characters. In 1943, the story of double indemnity had earned the label of unfilmmable in hollywood due to its controversial and immoral subject matter biltereyst 148. The best of film noir sizzles with crackling, sardonic dialogue, veiled lust, terrific blackandwhite photography, and overtones of. Double indemnity is a blackandwhite crime story that combined a number of elements now known as film noir hallmarks. Hes seduced by phyllis and the thrill of doing something outside the scope of his. The characters, scenario and stylistic elements of double indemnity all perfectly represent this group of hollywood films from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Billy wilder only made one proper film noir, but it was a doozy. Dietrichson is found dead on a traintrack, the police accept the determination of. Why is phyllis in double indemnity hailed as one of.
One a normal day in the summer of 1937, walter travels to the home of one of his clients on a perfectly normal trip to discuss renewing the mans automobile insurance. First published in book form in the volume three of a kind 1943 double indemnity has been filmed at least twice. Double indemnity legal definition of double indemnity. Representations of masculinity in double indemnity and.
As richard schickel states in his double indemnity. This includes murder by a person other than, and not in collusion with, the beneficiary of the insurance policy, and most accidental deaths. Cain puts his foot on the gas right out of the hole and never lets up. Double indemnity, published in 1934, is cains second novel and is set in the young, booming city of hollywood. Filming locations 16 production dates 1 filming locations. The following quiz is a multiple choice quiz on the film double indemnity that can be used in an englishfilm studies class. Other articles where double indemnity is discussed. Why do insurance companies pay double indemnity on railroad accidents. I vaguely recall watching the movie of the same name.
Double indemnity is one of the most unrelentingly cynical films the genre produced, with a pair of careerchanging performances from barbara stanwyck and fred macmurray and a script by wilder and raymond chandler every bit as blackhearted as james m. The desire to learn, insatiable when awakened, can sometimes lie dormant. Lang, very few had any firsthand role in the creation of german expres sionism. Walter huff was an insurance salesman with an unfailing instinct for clients who might be in trouble, and his instinct led him to phyllis nirdlinger. Directed by billy wilder and adapted from a james m. Double indemnity is a 1944 american film noir directed by billy wilder, cowritten by wilder and raymond chandler, and produced by buddy desylva and joseph sistrom. This assessment is not a trivia quiz about the story or production anecdotes. Also like double indemnity, this novel was adapted into a.
Cains 1943 novella of the same name, which originally appeared as an eightpart serial in liberty magazine, beginning in february 1936 the film stars fred macmurray as an insurance salesman. Double indemnity essays are academic essays for citation. Double indemnity and the hollywood production code wide angle b ecause of its distinct narrative and stylistic technique, billy wilders 1944 double indemnity is widely considered to be the preeminent example of the film noir. Double indemnity is a provision in a life insurance policy that calls for an additional payment, usually equal to the face amount of the insurance, in the event of accidental death. Double indemnity typically doubles a death benefit payment under an insurance policy in the event of a specified cause of death, which is usually an accident. Double indemnity is a clause or provision in a life insurance or accident policy whereby the company agrees to pay the stated multiple i. 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. What is the insurance business to huff, although it appears to be the friend of the widow and orphan. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of double indemnity by director billy wilder. In a city where insurance salesmen are close to the bottom of the social pecking order, walter huff rates as average. According to imdb, cain liked the plot solutions that billy wilder and raymond chandler came up with for the movie and would have used them in the book if he had thought of them himself.
How much does huff figure they could get for a railroad accident. Double indemnity is unique in that it contains a powerful femme fatale who is responsible for the downfall of a male figure that is also a bad guy. Robinson, and in 1973, a tv film directed by by jack smight and starring richard crenna and samantha eggar return to top of the page. She is a beautiful and alluring woman, barely older than lola, her husbands daughter from a previous marriage. But despite objections and impositions from the production code administration, through compromise and strategy, billy wilder managed to create and release the film in 1944. A term of an insurance policy by which the insurance company promises to pay the insured or the beneficiary twice the amount of coverage if loss occurs due to a particular cause or set of circumstances. The result is a compulsively readable book, which at 115 pages took me only three or four hours to read. Cain, virtuoso of the roman noir, gives us a tautly narrated and excruciatingly suspenseful story in double indemnity, an xray view of guilt, of duplicity, and of the kind of obsessive, loveless love that devastates everything it touches. Still, he is savvy enough to get through the door and get the prospect talking, except that when he makes a call to a certain mr. Cains novel three of a kind, on which the film was based. There is no doubt in double indemnity, that phyllis dietrichson, the dissatisfied wife of a wealthy older man is being sexually objectified both by the imagery of the film and by her position in relation to the other characters.
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