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Directed by Billy Wilder 1944 Budget $980,000

Directed by Billy Wilder 1944 Budget $980,000. Plot Outline:.

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Directed by Billy Wilder 1944 Budget $980,000

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  1. Directed by Billy Wilder 1944 Budget $980,000

  2. Plot Outline: • In 1938, Walter Neff, an experienced salesman of the Pacific All Risk Insurance Co., meets the seductive wife of one of his clients, Phyllis Dietrichson, and they have an affair. 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. When Mr.Dietrichsonis found dead on a train-track, the police accept the determination of accidental death. However, the insurance analyst and Walter's best friend Barton Keyes does not buy the story and suspects that Phyllis has murdered her husband with the help of another man.

  3. CLOSE ANALYSIS • As you are watching the film take notes on the following elements of noir we looked at while studying Detour:

  4. EXPRESSIONIST CAMERAWORK/LIGHTING • Walters ‘confessional’ – expressionistic lighting on Walter’s face as he begins/ends his narrative: a visual metaphor for his desperation and tale of inescapable doom. • Dietrichson parlour – contrast lighting through Venetian blinds (like prison bars) and low-key lighting – creates an image of this being Phyllis’s lair: she entraps Walter there. • Low-Angle canted shots of Phyllis as we are first introduced to her in the opening scene. Implies her sexual allure and power over Walter.

  5. FLAWED HERO/ANTIHERO • Although on the surface Walter may seem the victim of Phyllis’s conniving plan he is equally culpable – he did it for the girl, he did for the money and he did it to see if he could ‘crook the house’ (get away with it). • Behind his charm and mild manners he is a ruthless criminal (adultery, murder larceny)

  6. FEMME FATALE • Phyllis Dietrichson – manipulative, double-crossing, seductive, anti-family. Focussed on money – married her husband because he had money. He was his sick wife’s nurse. Uses her sexual appeal to convince Walter to murder her husband. Makes Walter feel sorry for her by telling him her husband is controlling, neglectful, drinks excessively and beats her. She is shot by Walter at the end of the film and is killed for her sins.

  7. Narrative / First Person Subjective Voiceover • Walter’s final confession before he attempts to escape to Mexico is his attempt to ‘put things straight’ for Keyes on the Dietrichson case. • His confessions (more so than the scenes portraying previous events) reveal Walters sinister motivations

  8. THEME • Walter is paranoid that Phyllis is double crossing him and having an affair with Lola’s boyfriend. • Walter also makes references to fate – stating that fate was giving him a sign not to go through with the murder by having Phyllis’ husband break his leg and disrupt their plans.

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