Double Idemnity (1944) - research

The story involves experienced salesman of the Pacific All Risk Insurance Co. Walter Neff meets the seductive wife of one of his client, Phyllis Dietrichson, and they have an affair. Phyllis proposes to kill her husband Dietrichson to receive the prize of an accident insurance policy and Walter plots a scheme to receive twice the amount based on a double indemnity clause. When Mr. Dietrichson is found dead on the trails of a train, the police accepts the evidence of accidental death. However, the insurance analyst and Walter's best friend Barton Keyes does not buy the version and suspects that Phyllis has murdered her husband with the help of another man.


Key features of Double Idemnity (1944): 

• The movie starts with a confession of the main character, an insurance rep, who, as we find out later in the movie, has been talked into a murder/insurance scheme.
• The first person narration keeps going throughout the movie;
• the main character describes events happening and his own thoughts, giving the viewers a chance to analyze him and his thinking pattern, making us get to know him better.
• Deep shadows are caused by point lighting of streetlights. It also makes the characters appear on the screen only as silhouettes.
• Mysterious mood has been created in a couple of scenes by making the light coming through blinds the only source of light. It causes most of the screen being black, with quite sharp, but not very strong light with an interesting pattern.
• Male characters are dressed in suits, long coats and hats, while women wear pretty dresses that make them look seductive.
• A key element of the movie are cigarettes smoked by most of the characters.
• Soundtrack used in the movie includes deep, grim orchestral tunes, emphasizing the dark and mysterious mood of the film.