Double Idemnity.

So as I'm perusing the interview on illprofessors.com with Arlen Escapeta from the new horror movie, Friday the 13th, I see that her favorite movie is Double Idemnity. Coincidently, I just watched that movie for my film criticism class and enjoyed it!

*Sorry...I got a tad bit of a spoiler for those of you that just so happen to read this and haven’t seen it...!*

Double Idemnity is a classic black and white film released in 1944. The film describes the story of Walter Neff, a salesman for an Insurance Company and a married, Phyllis Dietrichson. Phyllis has an affair with Walter. They fall in love and plan to murder her abusive husband so she can get the insurance money and begin her life with Walter. After Walter and Phyllis have carried out the murder, Walter finds out from Phyllis' husband's daughter that she believes that Phyllis killed her mother. Walter also becomes suspicious that Phyllis was cheating on him with a younger man. This causes him to murder Phyllis.

So there is more to what I wrote about the film...but that's the jist of it. I thought the dialogue between Phyllis and Walter was very interesting. I thought it was funny how Walter was directly flirting with Phyllis and how she would come back at him with sharp responses. Such as the conversation about the police scenario where Phyllis feels that Walter was getting a little "fresh" by asking if he was breaking the speed limit by flirting with her as much as he was.

I also found it interesting how they did not show Walter and Phyllis having sex in the movie. The most they showed was them kissing…which was not too disturbing to watch like it can sometimes get nowadays. Back in the day, viewers had to...put two and two together. For example, in Double Idemnity, viewers could tell a sexual act just occurred when Phyllis was reapplying her lipstick and Walter was relaxing on the chair, smoking a cigar.

I think the film was very good. The dialogue was interesting; the murder story was inviting and made me want to see how Walter and Phyllis’ plan evolved throughout the movie. I did not know about this gem before this film criticism class and am glad I had to watch it. I'm interested to see what else I have missed out on from the era this movie came out of.