Blog Entry #5

In Roger Ebert’s review of Double Indemnity on his website, rogerebert.com, he writes about the confusion of how and why Walter and Phyllis even bother killing Mr. Dietrichson, “they never seem to really like each other all that much, and they don't seem that crazy about the money, either. What are they after?”  He goes on to say how shallow Walter and Phyllis are, and how their motives all feel like pretenses when they just seem to want to kill someone together.  He continues by saying that the real emotion of the movie lies elsewhere, in Walter’s fear of discovery and his feelings for Keyes.  He concludes by lauding Billy Wilder and his exceptional ability to direct classic noir movies.

This review, overall, is favorable to the movie, however, it is written rather scathingly and acidly when discussing Phyllis and Walter, as though Ebert was physically disgusted with their characters.  While I cannot share his contemptible view of Phyllis and Walter, I can say I felt the confusion.  They were well portrayed, and Fred MacMurry and Barbara Stanwyck do a great job making their characters believable insofar as they were written.  It is true that it was difficult to actually feel their lust for each other, and the money, yet the movie seems to have much less of a focus on that in favor of the relationship of Walter and Keyes.  It just seems that they went from love/lust to hate in about 90 seconds flat.  I blame that more on the writing than on the acting.  Perhaps Raymond Chandler was more adept in witty dialogue and less versed in the back-and-forth of a believable romantic dialogue.  I haven’t read any of Chandler’s other works, so I am unsure if this is the case.  It really is hard to truly see why they even bothered to kill Mr. Dietrichson in the first place, other than what they stated.  It just doesn’t come across as believable.

In contrast, Walter and Keyes’ relationship is deep and full of mutual respect, in not love.  It is difficult to say if this love between them is more father-son, brotherly, or even slightly homosexual in nature.  Films in the 1940’s were rather ambiguous about such things as they were considered taboo topics, and had to be inserted through innuendo.  Throughout the movie we can see Walter being pulled between two polar points, Phyllis and Keyes, from Phyllis pulling Walter in to the murder to Keyes trying to get Walter to be his assistant.  In classic noir style, Walter goes down for what he has done, but not before Keyes shows his love and respect for Walter, despite what he had done.