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.
