Double Indemnity (Pre 'Body Heat' Post Coital)

Hit Me With Your Best Shot Episode 4.8

Double bourbon is fine, Walter."

As a baby cinephile in the 1980s I grew up with Body Heat (1981) as my noir of choice. Before I had any biblical knowledge of my own, I was utterly enthralled by Kathleen Turner's come-hither challenge and roaming hands, William Hurt's 'not-too-smart' insatiable lust and that broken window in a sticky Florida summer. For reasons that seem immature/absurd now, I avoided Double Indemnity for many years afterwards feeling 'I'd already seen it'. Never mind that Body Heat was less a remake than an "inspired by" or that Body Heat's reign as the Best of the Neo Noirs does nothing to diminish the bewitching "rotten to the core" vortex of Double Indemnity's scheming plot and sexual shenanigans.

Different noirs for different eras. But the long shadow that Body Heat cast on my early views of this entire genre is probably why my choice for this week's "Best Shot" is this seemingly minor one from Billy Wilder's 1944 classic. 

Seemingly.

This shot occurs at the end of a long "love scene" early in the picture between Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck --  the collected Best Shot articles have many insightful comments about this unimproveable star turn) and Walter (Fred MacMurray) as they dance around their sexual and murderous desires. The scene is filled with talking in the shadows -- I could watch Stanwyck plot silently and minimistically for another two hours on loop --  and three bits of physical intimacy, an arm grab, a kiss and a 'comforting' embrace. The scene is then interrupted by a narrative flashforward. When we return to the scheming duo, they're presented to us like so. Phyllis side-eyes her willing rube, gazes at her hands (a repetitive gesture... just how much blood is on them?) and stands up to leave with this bit of disingenuously banal needinees...

will you phone me?

Double Indemnity has many gorgeous shot compositions involving diagonal shadows and I love all of them. But its visual prowess and ideas extends beyond venetian blinds. This is an atypical shot in the film's visual composition because, despite the square frame, it's very horizontal... as befits a post-coital tableau.

Yes, they've 100% just had sex even if they're still in the same clothes as before the flash-forward. We've never seen Walter with his guard this down though Phyllis, inscrutable Phyllis is still the exact same woman. Sealing the deal of this scene's brilliance for me is the costuming and cinematography: Phyllis has never before been clothed in such a tactile way (fuzzy sweaters must have equalled instant boners back in the 40s and 50s); and the lighting choice is provocatively counterintuitive since it's Phyllis, the not so innocent and virginal, who is bathed in soft light while Walter in shadow.

P.S. A runner up...

This shot, from the final confrontation between Phyllis and her conquest, could inspire novels out of context it's such rich and decadent. In context, which is what we should be talking about, it's a triump of both Art Direction and Cinematography; that same living room, which we've returned to multiple times, never feels as sinister in any other shot. The composition also allows Walter's shadow to enter the frame before him, which is telling, and then has both the regretful man and his dark shadow in frame, both separated. It's also my favorite example of Double Indemnity's great use of venetian blind shadows -- usually involving Walter -- and the diagonal tension they bring to each of his scenes withough the film having to resort to anything as crude as canted camera angles.

Straight Down The Link...
Aliston Tooey on Phyllis' spidery web
Amiresque "drive thru beer!"
Antagony & Ecstasy on Stanwyck's unparalleled femme fatale triumph
Cinesnatch this week's film coincides with some Best Picture Oscar revisionism here
Entertainment Junkie loves Stanwyck's satisfaction
Film Actually 'the stillness speaks volumes'
The Film's The Thing 'a messy bit of business in Aisle 3"
I Am Derreck on Walter's double secret life
Pussy Goes Grrr the scorpion and the frog
Victim of the Time considers the 'ugliness' of Double Indemnity
We Recycle Movies talks LA Architecture and venetian blinds

.... or see all the stills in chronological order

Next Week, Wednesday May 8th:
David Lean's Summertime (1955) with Katharine Hepburn in Venice. Join us by selecting your own choice for "best shot"

Visual Index ~ Double Indemnity's Best Shot(s)

From the moment they met it was murder."

The fact that Barbara Stanwyck never won a competitive Oscar could drive anyone to the deadly deed!

For this week's edition of Hit Me With Your Best Shot we asked fellow denizens of the web to look at Double Indemnity with us. If you click on any of the still's selected as "Best Shot" after the jump it'll take you to the corresponding article, eleven of them in total.  This movie is a stone cold fox. 

Click to read more ...

"just the way you want it..."

...straight down the line."

Don't cross Barbara Stanwyck. Get all up in your noir this week with the classic Double Indemnity (1944), available on Netflix Instant Watch., Amazon Instant Video, or for purchase on iTunes.  We'll see you back here Wednesday night (5/1) for the next "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" episode. Join us!

Other Big Dates in Early May...
5/2: Summer Movie Madness kicks off with Iron Man 3 and big buckets of popcorn will be consumed right here.
5/7: Team Experience, which recently picked the best new millenial directors, returns with a list of the Best... nah, we won't spoil it ahead of time but trust - you won't want to miss it!
5/8: A mini 'Katharine Hepburn Fest' kicks off with a "best shot" for Summertime. We'll look at a few other movies, too.
5/10: The Great Gatsby. I'm worried but you know we'll be discussin'

Love Scenes: Light me Up.

Jose here. With Valentine's Day just around the corner, Nathaniel asked us to share our favorite love scenes. I'm not really big on V-Day itself. I just don't get it. So I tried to think of the feeling in a "bigger" way, something a bit out of the box if you may call it that, so without further ado, here's one of my favorite love scenes of all time.

Be warned...spoilers ahead! 

Double Indemnity is highly regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made. When it premiered a lot was made about the fact that it dealt with sex in such a blunt way, how Walter Neff's (Fred McMurray) passion for married femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson (the fantastic Barbara Stanwyck) leads them to crime and mutual destruction.

The love affair between Phyllis and Walter is volatile and incredibly sexy but my favorite 'love scene' in the film takes place with two guys. Throughout the film we see the fascinating relationship between Walter and his boss Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson). They both work for an insurance company. When Walter gets involved with Phyllis, little does Barton suspect that they're double crossing him. In a way then Double Indemnity deals not only with Phyllis' infidelity but also with Walter's.

The entire film, which is told in flashback, contains Walter's confession to the man he, well, loves. In a way this framing device could pair this film quite nicely with Brief Encounter (I'll leave for you to decide which one's more tragic).

In the film's final scene, a gunshot wounded Walter has finished his confession and he plans to escape. given the fact that he's practically dead by then, this escape is more symbolic; an atonement of sorts. A running gag during the film has Walter lighting up Barton's cigars (the man never seems to have a match on him). In one of these moments an angry Barton looks for a match desperately while discussing a case with Walter. He then proceeds to light him up, Barton gives him a wondrous eye and Walter simply tells him "I love you, too".

In the last scene Walter falls, about to die, and of course decides to smoke a cigarette (don't you love how much actors smoked in classic films?) He weakly looks for a match and it's only at this moment that the roles are exchanged. Barton kneels next to him and lights up his cigarette looking at him with a combination of pity, disappointment and honest to god love.

Then, the following exchange:

Walter: Know why you couldn't figure this one, Keyes? I'll tell ya. 'Cause the guy you were looking for was too close. Right across the desk from ya. 

Barton: Closer than that Walter...

Walter: I love you too. 

It makes no difference that Stanwyck's character is long gone by this scene. The finale makes you reevaluate everything you saw. You realize that Double Indemnity is about love just as much as it's about lust.

Hollywood makes such a big deal about romantic love that we often forget fraternal, familial and other kinds of love in the movies. I might be reading too much into the moment but if this scene isn't as romantic and perfect as anything in Casablanca or West Side Story, then I don't know what love is.

Anyone else has any "alternative" fave movie scenes they wanna share? Light us up!