WEBVTT - Double Indemnity | Archive 0:00:03.870 --> 0:00:05.809 What kind of a show are you guys putting on 0:00:05.850 --> 0:00:08.450 here today? You're not interested in art? No. Well, look, 0:00:08.470 --> 0:00:09.830 we're going to do this thing. We're going to have 0:00:09.869 --> 0:00:10.590 a conversation. 0:00:13.050 --> 0:00:17.080 Hey, film spotters. It is Wednesday, archive drop time. And 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:21.150 as we are now into November, or as some call it, 0:00:21.220 --> 0:00:23.960 I think maybe even our friend and colleague Mariah Gates 0:00:24.540 --> 0:00:29.300 technically coined it, Noirvember. We're going with that. We're going 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:31.840 to share this month, Josh. Sam had a great idea. 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:35.180 Let's just share over the course of November. Every episode 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:39.949 will be a noir film, a neo-noir review, and maybe 0:00:39.979 --> 0:00:42.370 we'll get to our top five neo-noirs that we did 0:00:43.010 --> 0:00:46.729 several years ago. So we're going to go in chronological order, 0:00:48.530 --> 0:00:54.160 beginning with 1944 and Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity, which Unlike 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:56.480 the shining, which we still don't know whether or not 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.180 we've put into our Pantheon. That's a refocus joke that 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:02.540 will make more sense later. I do believe we put 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:06.190 double indemnity in the Pantheon officially. It certainly belongs there. 0:01:06.250 --> 0:01:08.170 And that's the one we're kicking things off with. 0:01:08.630 --> 0:01:10.350 I mean, you might want to double check that, but 0:01:10.370 --> 0:01:13.390 it does sound right to me. We reviewed this together 0:01:13.430 --> 0:01:16.130 at least, and maybe for sure it went in then 0:01:16.390 --> 0:01:19.290 in 2022, because that's when we did our Barbara Stanwyck marathon. 0:01:19.310 --> 0:01:24.130 What a great marathon. Baby Face, Stella Dallas, The Lady Eve, 0:01:24.750 --> 0:01:28.830 Meet John Doe, Ball of Fire, and then, yeah, Double Indemnity, 0:01:29.050 --> 0:01:32.000 which was, I don't think it was, it wouldn't have 0:01:32.020 --> 0:01:35.179 been the first time I saw it. Was it? Was it, Josh? 0:01:35.220 --> 0:01:36.920 I think it was, actually. It might have been. 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:38.660 I think that was a big blind spot for you. 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.929 Yeah. This will be answered in the review. It will be. 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:42.970 People are about to hear, of course. 0:01:43.069 --> 0:01:44.890 It will be ahead of you. We remind you that 0:01:45.050 --> 0:01:49.100 access to the Film Spotting Archive over 1100 episodes counting 0:01:49.140 --> 0:01:51.400 all the bonus episodes. Actually, if you count everything, it's 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:54.820 well over 1200 or maybe 1300 episodes. That's just one 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:57.810 of the benefits of joining the film spotting family. You're 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:00.850 really supporting the show, keeping us doing what we're doing. 0:02:01.130 --> 0:02:04.290 You get bonus shows, a weekly newsletter, early access to 0:02:04.370 --> 0:02:07.070 event tickets, and a whole lot more. Speaking of that, 0:02:07.890 --> 0:02:11.070 we think we may have details soon on an event 0:02:11.290 --> 0:02:14.190 in a major U S city. It's a tease, but 0:02:14.210 --> 0:02:17.079 if you're a family member, You will get early access 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:21.040 to that. So here from September 2022 is our Sacred 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:22.940 Cow review of Double Indemnity. 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:26.220 See what I mean, Walter? Sure, I got good eyesight. 0:02:27.220 --> 0:02:28.620 You mean you want him to have the policy without 0:02:28.660 --> 0:02:31.220 him knowing it. And that means without the insurance company 0:02:31.260 --> 0:02:33.740 knowing that he doesn't know it. That's the setup, isn't it? 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:36.680 Is there anything wrong with it? No, I think it's lovely. 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:39.380 Then if some dark, wet night, that crown block did 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:41.400 fall on him. What crown block? Only sometimes it can't 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:42.540 quite make it on its own. It has to have 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:45.260 a little help. I don't know what you're talking about. 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:46.710 Of course, it doesn't have to be a crown block. 0:02:46.750 --> 0:02:48.190 It can be a car backing over and we could 0:02:48.210 --> 0:02:50.830 fall out of the upstairs window. Any little thing like that, 0:02:50.870 --> 0:02:51.830 just so it's a morgue job. 0:02:52.330 --> 0:02:53.210 Are you crazy? 0:02:53.910 --> 0:02:56.990 Not that crazy. Goodbye, Mrs. 0:02:57.010 --> 0:02:57.350 Dedrickson. 0:02:57.450 --> 0:03:00.880 What's the matter? Look, baby, you can't get away with it. 0:03:01.570 --> 0:03:05.750 Fred McMurray and Barbara Stanwyck there in 1944's Double Indemnity, 0:03:06.150 --> 0:03:09.970 directed by Billy Wilder, written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, 0:03:10.030 --> 0:03:12.610 based on a story by James and Kane. How about 0:03:12.650 --> 0:03:14.770 all of that? It's the sixth and final film in 0:03:14.810 --> 0:03:19.350 our Summer of Stanwyck marathon. Stanwyck keeping things steamy. Adam, 0:03:19.550 --> 0:03:21.530 even as we get into fall here and summer falls 0:03:21.590 --> 0:03:25.490 behind us, still pretty steamy thanks to Stanwyck. Double indemnity, 0:03:25.530 --> 0:03:28.850 it turns out. Kind of a perfect bookend for this marathon. 0:03:28.889 --> 0:03:34.280 We began with 1933's notorious pre-code Babyface. That does have 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:38.340 Stanwyck in femme fatale mode. She's playing a determined social climber, 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:41.560 Lily Powers, who seduces and then disposes of one man 0:03:41.660 --> 0:03:44.410 after another. Here she is just a little over a 0:03:44.450 --> 0:03:47.670 decade later as one of Film Noir's preeminent femme fatales, 0:03:47.850 --> 0:03:52.400 Phyllis Dietrichson, seducing men, knocking off her husband, kind of 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:54.100 come full circle here. 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.360 A quick plot summary for the double indemnity uninitiated. We 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.240 meet McMurray's insurance salesman, Walter Neff, at the beginning of 0:04:01.260 --> 0:04:03.780 the film, confessing to a crime, not to the police, 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:07.869 but via dictaphone to his superior at the Pacific All-Risk 0:04:07.910 --> 0:04:12.090 Insurance Company. It's claims manager Barton Keyes, who's played wonderfully 0:04:12.350 --> 0:04:12.950 by Edward G. 0:04:13.010 --> 0:04:13.490 Robinson. 0:04:13.890 --> 0:04:16.810 In flashbacks, we see McMurray's introduction to Stanwyck's Phyllis, a 0:04:16.850 --> 0:04:19.410 woman who has, it appears, grown tired of life with 0:04:19.450 --> 0:04:22.600 her wealthy but controlling husband and his grown daughter by 0:04:22.630 --> 0:04:26.320 a first marriage. Against Walter's better judgment, he and Phyllis 0:04:26.380 --> 0:04:29.560 are soon setting out to commit the perfect crime, getting 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:32.580 the husband to unwittingly purchase a life insurance policy that 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.539 will pay out big when he dies and doubly big 0:04:35.900 --> 0:04:40.520 if he dies the right way. Josh, Double Indemnity is 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.060 one of my all-time favorite films. You had never seen 0:04:44.100 --> 0:04:46.969 it before this week, and while I am truly desperate 0:04:46.990 --> 0:04:48.789 to know what you thought of it, I'm going to 0:04:48.910 --> 0:04:52.669 give the floor for a moment to listener Albert Malafront, 0:04:52.750 --> 0:04:55.770 who wrote us this. I felt compelled to write in 0:04:55.810 --> 0:04:57.789 because you are covering my favorite movie of all time 0:04:57.830 --> 0:04:59.990 on this week's show, Double Indemnity. I could go on 0:05:00.029 --> 0:05:03.650 and on about everything from Wilder's direction, visual delights like 0:05:03.690 --> 0:05:06.390 that incredible opening shot of the mysterious man in crutches 0:05:06.450 --> 0:05:09.530 advancing towards the camera, Or how about the amazing Edward G. 0:05:09.589 --> 0:05:13.170 Robinson supporting performance? But seeing that this is a Stanwyck marathon, 0:05:13.529 --> 0:05:17.100 I'd love to hear this question discussed. Is Barbara's Phyllis 0:05:17.150 --> 0:05:21.060 Dietrichson the greatest femme fatale ever? Mariah Gates beat me 0:05:21.100 --> 0:05:22.500 to this when she was on the show a couple 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.320 weeks ago, but she describes Dietrichson as peak femme fatale, 0:05:25.380 --> 0:05:28.240 and I couldn't agree more. Despite knowing at the start 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.470 the doomed inevitability of how this story is going to unfold... 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:34.580 I find the central seduction with Neff more engrossing, heartbreaking, 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.160 and sexy than any other film of this era. I 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:39.539 completely believe why Neff gets wrapped up in it the 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:41.940 way that he does, and it really is because Stanwyck 0:05:41.990 --> 0:05:44.690 is an absolute force. I love noir, but nothing in 0:05:44.710 --> 0:05:46.910 the genre comes close to this in terms of passion 0:05:46.950 --> 0:05:49.250 and chemistry, so would love to hear your thoughts regarding 0:05:49.290 --> 0:05:51.750 how she ranks as a femme fatale. Is she indeed 0:05:51.890 --> 0:05:55.880 peak femme fatale? Also, another burning question, why is this 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:59.500 not in the Pantheon? Take it away, Josh. Tell me, please, 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:03.690 whether or not you agree. with Mariah and with Albert. 0:06:04.350 --> 0:06:08.150 And tell me if you, if not agree with me, 0:06:08.310 --> 0:06:11.130 that it's one of the best films ever made. Do 0:06:11.190 --> 0:06:13.840 you at least maybe now understand where I'm coming from? 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:16.780 Oh, for sure. I mean, let's put it in the Pantheon. 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:20.479 Loved this. It was fantastic. I do want to table 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:24.580 Albert's main question here about the femme fatale ranking and how... 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.099 that relationship plays out in the movie because it might 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:32.760 be one of the areas I possibly have a critique, 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:34.580 but I don't want to start with that because I 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:39.660 loved this so much. Let's stick to Stanwyck, though. No surprise, 0:06:40.170 --> 0:06:44.230 the main reason. I probably did love this. What a thrill, 0:06:44.510 --> 0:06:47.810 once again, to watch her go to work and assert 0:06:47.850 --> 0:06:52.350 her dominance. What an entrance. I mean, at this point, 0:06:52.690 --> 0:06:56.220 moviegoers had likely been accustomed to knowing what they were 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.370 going to get from a Stanwyck performance. And this does 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:03.030 not disappoint when Neff shows up at her door to 0:07:03.070 --> 0:07:06.670 renew her husband's autopolicy and Phyllis answers the door wearing 0:07:06.710 --> 0:07:10.250 nothing but a towel, right? And it's even trumped because 0:07:10.290 --> 0:07:13.610 that's maybe an expected thing with a femme fatale character, sure. 0:07:14.110 --> 0:07:16.590 But then when she comes down the stairs after changing, 0:07:16.690 --> 0:07:19.660 I like how she's still buttoning her blouse. Love it. 0:07:19.700 --> 0:07:23.360 You know, it's just like, you could have taken 10 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:27.440 more seconds, right? Phyllis, then more of the physicality that 0:07:27.500 --> 0:07:30.640 Stanwyck always brings to her performances. She sits in that 0:07:30.740 --> 0:07:35.580 chair in the parlor with a slinkiness. I mean, there 0:07:35.620 --> 0:07:37.870 are things going on between her and that chair that 0:07:37.900 --> 0:07:41.030 we shouldn't be witnessing. I don't know how she does 0:07:41.090 --> 0:07:43.930 it because she's not really moving. It's just how she 0:07:44.030 --> 0:07:47.420 sinks into it so that the chair is caressing her 0:07:47.710 --> 0:07:52.310 as Neff watches. And, um, you know, there's more to 0:07:52.350 --> 0:07:55.700 the performance than that. However, I do think once the 0:07:55.740 --> 0:08:00.400 murder plot kicks in, we get to see additional layers. 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.320 This is, that's the sort of stuff that as good 0:08:03.380 --> 0:08:05.560 as it is, and as few actresses could do it 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.070 that well, you feel like Stanwyck could probably do in 0:08:08.150 --> 0:08:11.270 her sleep, but we get more layers as the movie proceeds. 0:08:11.510 --> 0:08:14.570 And the one scene I do want to highlight is 0:08:14.590 --> 0:08:18.960 the murder scene. Actually, they're driving, right? She's driving her husband. 0:08:18.980 --> 0:08:20.360 So they're both in the front seat and Neff is 0:08:20.420 --> 0:08:23.620 hiding in the back seat. And he rises up, Neff 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.100 rises up from behind to choke her husband, played by 0:08:26.140 --> 0:08:30.270 Tom Powers. Wilder cuts to a close-up for this of Phyllis, 0:08:30.510 --> 0:08:32.829 of Stanwyck, as the deed is being done, holds it 0:08:32.850 --> 0:08:35.530 for a couple of seconds. And what she gives us 0:08:35.590 --> 0:08:40.830 there is an expression that is eerily blank, which is 0:08:40.910 --> 0:08:45.720 disturbing because you want to see some level of emotion, distress, concern, 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:48.200 even if it's amoral. It's just like, are we going 0:08:48.220 --> 0:08:51.439 to get caught? She doesn't give us that, but somehow, 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:53.340 and I'd have to watch it a number of times 0:08:53.380 --> 0:08:56.939 to see what it exactly is, you sense some deep-seated 0:08:57.000 --> 0:09:00.179 terror going on in there, which is different than surface-level 0:09:00.230 --> 0:09:02.830 panic about getting caught, those other things I'm talking about. 0:09:03.570 --> 0:09:05.890 And so I think Stanwyck is doing the sort of 0:09:05.950 --> 0:09:08.690 work that, in the context of this marathon particularly, we 0:09:08.750 --> 0:09:12.870 probably expected, but giving us even more than that in 0:09:12.950 --> 0:09:14.949 her portrayal of Phyllis Dietrichson. 0:09:16.150 --> 0:09:22.280 She's remarkable, and this is a film filled with remarkable elements. 0:09:22.460 --> 0:09:26.220 I don't know that Stanwyck's performance as Phyllis is the 0:09:26.260 --> 0:09:29.100 thing that elevates this film, but it's all of those 0:09:29.179 --> 0:09:34.220 component parts working together. Wilder and the writing here with Chandler, 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.869 they know just what they're after, and they get it 0:09:38.290 --> 0:09:42.690 from Stanwyck. They get it, I think, from McMurray And 0:09:42.830 --> 0:09:45.370 I'm going to talk more about that scene, Josh, the 0:09:45.929 --> 0:09:49.349 murder scene a bit later when we get to our awards. 0:09:49.650 --> 0:09:53.069 But that blank stare you touch on, that's where I 0:09:53.110 --> 0:09:57.650 think you can probably put Stanwyck up there as peak 0:09:57.710 --> 0:10:01.500 femme fatale in that there is a. coldness to her 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:06.660 and there's an edge to her that she doesn't really soften. 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:11.260 It's as if Stanwyck understands that Phyllis, no matter how 0:10:11.350 --> 0:10:13.650 good of an actress she is, and she puts on 0:10:13.690 --> 0:10:14.290 a performance. 0:10:14.370 --> 0:10:15.210 There are times, right? 0:10:15.290 --> 0:10:17.709 Oh, I hate him, Walter. He's so mean to me. 0:10:17.809 --> 0:10:20.640 He abuses me. She puts on a performance and in 0:10:21.410 --> 0:10:23.809 the way she comes on to Walter and how much 0:10:23.870 --> 0:10:26.750 she claims to love him. But it's almost as if 0:10:26.830 --> 0:10:31.810 Stanwyck understands that Phyllis in her soul refuses to be 0:10:31.850 --> 0:10:36.140 a victim and she cannot play that part. And when 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:39.500 that murder happens, I'll unpack it a little bit more later. 0:10:39.540 --> 0:10:43.319 But when that murder happens, when other scenes happen between 0:10:43.420 --> 0:10:46.960 her and Walter, more exchanges where you understand really her 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.060 motivation and her psychology and where she was starting from 0:10:50.100 --> 0:10:54.650 and hoping to get to, you realize that she is, 0:10:54.670 --> 0:10:57.229 I'll use a word I've used previously in the show, 0:10:57.270 --> 0:11:00.709 there is a sinister quality to her that I think 0:11:00.790 --> 0:11:03.949 does make Phyllis stand out from even other femme fatales. 0:11:04.590 --> 0:11:09.579 Yeah, sinister is exactly the right word. The revelations you 0:11:09.620 --> 0:11:13.079 get to her character, but they're not, you know, there's 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:17.309 wiggle room too. There's enough of a question of, Because 0:11:17.330 --> 0:11:20.170 you hear about these things, her past, her relationship with 0:11:20.510 --> 0:11:24.030 her now husband's ex-wife as the nurse to her. You 0:11:24.070 --> 0:11:26.670 hear those third hand. And so you start to wonder, 0:11:26.690 --> 0:11:32.760 as Neff does, how deep does the sinister quality go 0:11:32.980 --> 0:11:35.760 in this woman? And how deep am I? And will 0:11:35.820 --> 0:11:38.020 I ever be able to get out? So it's a 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.480 great word to describe this character. Wilder and Chandler, you know, 0:11:41.500 --> 0:11:45.330 in this screenplay here, I would say this is more 0:11:45.450 --> 0:11:48.650 of a noir in terms of the plot and the language. 0:11:49.270 --> 0:11:52.229 The language is such a delight, the exchanges between the 0:11:52.530 --> 0:11:57.150 two of them. And even in Neff's recordings to this, 0:11:57.450 --> 0:12:00.130 you know, that he's giving to the Edward G. Robinson character, 0:12:00.150 --> 0:12:05.170 the narration of that just has an incredible, he's storytelling, 0:12:05.630 --> 0:12:07.790 you know, in a way that fits the character, but 0:12:07.890 --> 0:12:10.750 also just makes it so fun to listen to. It's 0:12:10.809 --> 0:12:14.030 essentially a voiceover, and sometimes those can be leaned on 0:12:14.050 --> 0:12:16.449 too heavily. It is leaned on here. It's the entire 0:12:16.490 --> 0:12:19.349 structure of the movie, but I think the writing does 0:12:19.390 --> 0:12:21.830 that well. It's maybe not so much a noir for 0:12:21.870 --> 0:12:25.810 me visually, although, as Albert mentioned, the opening credits are 0:12:25.850 --> 0:12:28.850 fantastic with this silhouette figure and the crutches coming at 0:12:28.910 --> 0:12:31.449 you menacingly, and you don't know, if you haven't seen 0:12:31.510 --> 0:12:34.170 it before, what that means, what is going on. And 0:12:34.210 --> 0:12:35.970 in terms of the filmmaking, I do want to call 0:12:36.090 --> 0:12:42.160 out two echoing shots that worked really well for me. 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:46.390 And the one comes fairly early on where it's Phyllis, 0:12:47.050 --> 0:12:49.670 it's Neff, and it's Phyllis's husband. At this point, Neff 0:12:49.710 --> 0:12:51.830 is getting him to sign the insurance papers that are 0:12:51.850 --> 0:12:55.500 part of their con, part of their scam. And we 0:12:55.540 --> 0:12:58.300 see Phyllis in the background of the shot, framed in 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:02.520 the foreground are Neff and her husband. And she's just watching. 0:13:02.540 --> 0:13:05.350 It speaks to what you were talking about, Adam. In retrospect, 0:13:06.530 --> 0:13:09.480 it's When you first watch it, you sense like it's 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:11.000 a point of suspense. Are they going to get him 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:15.260 to sign the papers, right? But in retrospect, it's such 0:13:15.300 --> 0:13:18.380 a sinister shot because she's slightly higher than the two 0:13:18.420 --> 0:13:21.600 of them as well in the frame. And then this 0:13:21.700 --> 0:13:25.640 is echoed later on here with a shot of Neff. 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:27.500 This is in the insurance offices. Neff is in the 0:13:27.540 --> 0:13:30.880 background this time. In the middle, placed between a witness 0:13:31.740 --> 0:13:35.260 and the Edward G. Robinson character, the insurance investigator Neff. 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:39.120 And he, at this point, is getting pinched, where she 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:41.300 was in a powerful position before. At this point, we 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:44.260 see he's getting pinched by those two figures. So just 0:13:44.300 --> 0:13:46.390 a little bit of filmmaking. I don't know how intentional 0:13:46.429 --> 0:13:49.890 it was to mirror those two. Probably was, knowing Wilder, 0:13:50.690 --> 0:13:52.809 but was just so effective to me. So even though 0:13:52.870 --> 0:13:56.230 this is not maybe the noir-iest looking of noirs in 0:13:56.290 --> 0:13:58.260 a lot of ways, I do think there are some 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:02.640 crucial decisions like that, which jump right out at you. 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:05.950 No, you nailed it. The slinkiness of the way she's 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:09.870 positioned in the chair, the way that dynamic changes when 0:14:09.910 --> 0:14:12.390 she's in that chair at the end of the film 0:14:12.610 --> 0:14:16.830 and they're having a different type of exchange, the imbalance 0:14:17.309 --> 0:14:21.710 of people standing and sitting, the imbalance of people who 0:14:21.790 --> 0:14:23.950 are tall and people who are not. I am going 0:14:23.970 --> 0:14:25.310 to talk more about this in a second. 0:14:25.750 --> 0:14:26.990 It all matters. 0:14:27.190 --> 0:14:30.890 It is all intentional in this film. And I do 0:14:30.910 --> 0:14:34.600 want to go back to that opening scene. credit shadow 0:14:34.980 --> 0:14:37.560 that Albert mentioned and that you mentioned as well, Josh. 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.680 First time I watched Double Indemnity wasn't something that even 0:14:40.700 --> 0:14:41.880 stood out to me. I just sort of took it 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.340 for granted as an opening credit sequence. And it was 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.100 only actually as I started to unpack more and more 0:14:48.140 --> 0:14:50.980 what this film really to me is about and the 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:55.140 themes and ideas that Wilder is exploring, did I realize 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.920 how intentional even that was. That it's not just a 0:14:58.990 --> 0:15:03.800 little bit of creative license to have a more dramatic 0:15:03.900 --> 0:15:06.780 opening to do something that's a little bit more expressionistic, 0:15:06.820 --> 0:15:10.080 like you'd expect from noir. No, there is even in 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:14.200 that opening, something intentional. There's something in terms of the 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:18.200 mood and even an idea that Wilder is just planting. 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:21.000 He's planting the seed for it right there. And I'm 0:15:21.020 --> 0:15:22.480 going to get to that. I'm going to get to 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:27.180 what I think that seed is, but the shadow shot 0:15:27.370 --> 0:15:32.680 itself is something on this viewing. I never noticed before. before, 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:37.160 how much Wilder goes back to it. And there's a 0:15:37.180 --> 0:15:39.930 part of me that wants to acknowledge that, well, it's noir, 0:15:39.970 --> 0:15:42.850 and even if it's not as dark or as bleak 0:15:42.930 --> 0:15:45.510 or as stark in terms of the black and white 0:15:45.530 --> 0:15:47.490 and the shadows as a lot of others, this is 0:15:47.530 --> 0:15:50.450 California after all, right? I mean, that's also one of 0:15:50.490 --> 0:15:54.910 the elements Wilder's exploring here is it's gorgeous, sunny California, 0:15:55.370 --> 0:15:58.750 but behind these closed doors, all these sinister things are 0:15:59.330 --> 0:16:03.220 taking place. But there's a veneer that everything is even 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:09.700 and good and cheery. And every time Walter walks out 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:14.180 that door of the house, as he leaves, that same 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:19.210 shadow figure that opens the film is there on the 0:16:19.250 --> 0:16:23.270 wall and gets imprinted on the wall. It's very deliberate 0:16:23.290 --> 0:16:26.310 to me, Josh, that it's as if every moment he 0:16:26.490 --> 0:16:30.050 comes into that house and he leaves... He's getting himself 0:16:30.150 --> 0:16:38.010 closer and closer to being that imposing, scary, almost zombie-like, 0:16:38.430 --> 0:16:43.290 doomed figure. And Wilder says, I'm going to make sure 0:16:43.370 --> 0:16:45.320 that the lighting is set up a certain way so 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:47.700 that every time he exits that door, that shadow is 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:49.880 cast large. On the wall behind him. 0:16:49.950 --> 0:16:52.270 Well, and it's also the sense he is the shadow, 0:16:52.310 --> 0:16:53.650 but the shadow is pursuing him. 0:16:53.710 --> 0:16:53.870 Right. 0:16:53.890 --> 0:16:56.410 Just like in that opening credits, it's pursuing us. It's 0:16:56.470 --> 0:16:59.170 coming towards the camera. Yes. At us. And so in 0:16:59.190 --> 0:17:03.150 those echoing shots you're talking about, it's it's coming after him, 0:17:03.230 --> 0:17:06.740 which is what fairly soon into the movie we realize 0:17:07.340 --> 0:17:08.080 is happening here. 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:15.100 My favorite single visual moment, though, in this film is 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.619 a transition and it goes back to the anklet. And 0:17:18.650 --> 0:17:24.300 this here, again, is just pure, wilder, directing genius. The 0:17:24.340 --> 0:17:28.780 moment when he sees her, elevation again. There's a discrepancy. 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:32.600 He's looking up at her. She's up high. She's in 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.419 an exalted position at that point, but she's hidden. The 0:17:35.460 --> 0:17:39.010 camera is even obscured. We see that she's wearing a towel, 0:17:39.030 --> 0:17:40.970 but we can't get a glimpse of her full body, 0:17:41.290 --> 0:17:44.090 just like Walter can't. You want to see it, just 0:17:44.150 --> 0:17:46.610 like Walter does, right? And then when she comes down, 0:17:46.650 --> 0:17:49.980 the fact that we see the anklet, first. We see 0:17:50.020 --> 0:17:54.619 the legs first. And she is still, as you noted, 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:57.840 buttoning up her shirt. She could have waited. She chose 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.530 not to. Very intentional to further get her hooks and 0:18:01.570 --> 0:18:06.030 the imagination going for Walter. But how about the moment, Josh, 0:18:06.050 --> 0:18:10.389 when he says in his narration something like, I couldn't 0:18:10.430 --> 0:18:14.650 stop thinking about that anklet. And we cut back to 0:18:15.930 --> 0:18:19.200 the leg, the anklet, going down the stairs. And for 0:18:19.220 --> 0:18:23.879 a split second, you think he's remembering it. It's like 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:26.610 a flashback in his head of the thing he's talking about, 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:29.130 except it's not. It's her coming down the stairs again 0:18:29.150 --> 0:18:31.270 the next time he shows up at the house. Just 0:18:31.330 --> 0:18:35.990 a beautiful bit of editing there and connecting those two scenes. 0:18:36.050 --> 0:18:39.490 But for me, why this film is among my all-time favorites, 0:18:39.869 --> 0:18:41.890 it's so many of these things we've talked about. It's 0:18:41.970 --> 0:18:48.869 the performance by Stanwyck. It's the noir dialogue and the delivery. 0:18:49.510 --> 0:18:52.590 It's the Sunset Boulevard approach in terms of the structure, 0:18:52.910 --> 0:18:55.190 which I think is really bold. Starting with that fatalism, 0:18:55.350 --> 0:18:58.130 we know where it's going to go. We know how 0:18:58.190 --> 0:19:01.230 this ends up and it's bad. It's not about that. 0:19:01.410 --> 0:19:05.490 It's about how we got there and why. And the 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:09.040 surprises along the way. Because as much as Albert talked 0:19:09.100 --> 0:19:14.619 about the relationship between Phyllis and Walter, for me, the 0:19:14.700 --> 0:19:19.639 real genius of this movie is that Wilder pulls a 0:19:19.660 --> 0:19:22.540 fast one on the audience. He's got a character who 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:25.360 says that he committed this murder and he did this 0:19:25.380 --> 0:19:28.320 whole thing for money and for a girl. And it 0:19:28.340 --> 0:19:30.120 turns out he didn't really do it at all for 0:19:30.180 --> 0:19:32.679 money and a girl. Those were elements, but that's not 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:35.630 really why he did it. And not only that, it's 0:19:35.950 --> 0:19:39.070 a film noir where he's got this relationship with this 0:19:39.730 --> 0:19:44.590 sultry woman. But what's the real love story here? This 0:19:44.650 --> 0:19:49.090 is a love story between two men. This is about 0:19:49.109 --> 0:19:53.040 the relationship. Fundamentally, Double Indemnity is about the relationship between 0:19:53.980 --> 0:19:57.460 Walter Neff and Barton Keyes. The only real love of 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:05.600 Walter's life. And the larger philosophical implications of that relationship. 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:09.990 Why does he do it? As he says to her 0:20:10.350 --> 0:20:13.820 in one key scene. And he's starting to grab her 0:20:13.890 --> 0:20:16.200 so tight as he's saying it that she even says, Walter, 0:20:16.220 --> 0:20:19.300 you're hurting me. He's not getting turned on by her. 0:20:20.619 --> 0:20:23.379 He's not even getting turned on by the thought of 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:27.600 committing the crime itself. He's getting turned on by what 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:31.540 it will mean if he can pull this off. That 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:34.700 Walter Neff, 35 years old or whatever he says, no 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:42.000 visible scars, the plainest boring-est, bland-est, everyday guy who nobody 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:46.540 pays any attention to and doesn't remember when he walks 0:20:46.580 --> 0:20:50.500 through the door and walks out the door. He's eminently forgettable. 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:54.919 He is going to make his mark. He is going 0:20:54.980 --> 0:21:00.550 to pull off something unthinkable. He's going to make this 0:21:00.850 --> 0:21:02.609 crime work and he's going to get paid out. It's 0:21:02.630 --> 0:21:04.970 going to be perfect, as he says, right down the 0:21:05.020 --> 0:21:06.840 line well the only way to do that is to 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:11.139 fool Keyes and fooling Keyes is the thing the movie 0:21:11.180 --> 0:21:15.639 sets up as the true impossibility so their relationship and 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:17.899 the way that he constantly he even says at one 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:20.980 point sarcastically because Keyes has just taken him down a 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:23.540 peg he says I love you too but he actually 0:21:23.619 --> 0:21:25.820 says I love you too every time he lights the 0:21:26.300 --> 0:21:28.600 cigar for him he lights the cigar for him and 0:21:28.619 --> 0:21:30.340 that's Neff's way of saying I love you too and 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:32.640 at the end of course that's mirrored and reversed by 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:39.340 Keyes lighting his cigarette, but it's about that relationship. And 0:21:39.780 --> 0:21:44.820 as I said, that larger idea of Walter Neff setting 0:21:44.940 --> 0:21:50.979 out to do something that ambitious, misguided and immoral, but 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:53.159 that ambitious. And that's where all the stuff with the 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:56.980 height comes into, right? That, that looming shadow figure getting 0:21:57.030 --> 0:22:00.990 closer and closer and larger and larger. And all the 0:22:01.030 --> 0:22:04.520 talk about the little man, Barton Keyes, a little man 0:22:05.100 --> 0:22:08.080 with another little man inside him. That's the conscience, right? 0:22:08.740 --> 0:22:11.510 And Walter's this tall guy. And what does he even 0:22:11.570 --> 0:22:15.030 say to him? He says at one point, I thought 0:22:15.050 --> 0:22:18.889 you were smarter, Walter, you're just taller. And, and Wilder 0:22:18.910 --> 0:22:20.950 plays with this in other ways, Josh, even at the, 0:22:21.490 --> 0:22:24.199 at the Mart, the grocery store where they meet and 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:27.800 have their clandestine conversations. What happens in one scene, a 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:31.959 woman interrupts their conversation, because she asks him to grab 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:34.139 something off the top shelf. And she even says, I 0:22:34.260 --> 0:22:36.320