Double Indemnity and Women in the 1940s

A number of the shots of Stanwyck's character are done from over Neff's shoulder, though some are also done facing Neff with her speaking to him over his shoulder from behind. This last angle especially promotes to view that she is guiding him and pushing him into doing what she wants, and because she is so much shorter and has to look up at Neff, she maintains this manipulative position while simultaneously appearing helpless and small. If the shots aren't head on, they're done from a lower position looking up at her, giving her the appearance of power and looming over her surroundings, but only when Neff isn't in the picture. She's shot predominantly in close ups, though she wears dark glasses most places to cover her appearance, adding to the shifty need to hide who she is and what she's doing. She's also most frequently shot in dark areas, hiding in shadow though entirely at ease, as though she belongs there. This darkness and play with shadows also speaks to the intended image of her being one of deceit, manipulation, and hidden purpose.

In the film noir movie Double Indemnity Barbara Stanwyck plays a character named Phyllis Dietrichson, a woman who plans to murder her husband and claim the insurance money using the insurance salesman to do it. Fred MacMurray plays the salesman Walter Neff, who is pulled into Phyllis's murderous plot by promises of love and tricky, manipulative plays by the seemingly innocent and desperate woman. She serves as the femme fatale that was so widely portrayed in films of this sort during the 1940s, and the visual representation and personality of her character greatly support the intended image of both the character as well as women in general at the time of the movie's release.

The character Phyllis Dietrichson is not in any way a good, likable, or moral person. The audience, if not Walter Neff, can see through the flimsy veil of helplessness and see that she actually is trying to get close to Neff in order to use him for something. The movie reveals that not only had she plotted and helped in the execution of her husband so that she could make- off with the insurance money, but that she was totally at ease with the sin and had done it before in order to marry into the money she has by killing her husbands late wife. She's frequently spiteful and her manipulative tendencies make it difficult to see her as anything but an antagonist in the story.

During Phyllis's interactions with Walter Neff she uses a variety of tactics to get Neff to agree with her and do things for her. Initially she shows interest in him and in order to gain his trust she "confides" in him about the abuse she receives at the hands of her husband. She uses this pathos, the promise of love and helplessness of her situation, in order to convince Neff to help her get rid of him as well as set up accident insurance so she can claim the money. After they are involved in the plot she uses her own sense of logic to keep him in the deal, telling him that they've gone too far and they can't turn back. She continues this false affection and desperation and, therefore, continues to control Neff. When Neff thinks of backing out or turning on her she fluctuates between being helpless and needing him and being spiteful and snotty towards him, trying to simultaneously bully and coax him into submission and continuing to be useful to her.

A lot can be told about how women were viewed in the 1940s from this film and others like it. The femme fatale idea as well as how and why Stanwyck's character achieved her goals shows that they saw women as materialistic and manipulative people, willing to do anything and feign love in order to get what they want, swindling people out of their money and minds. Those poor innocent men.... This is obviously quite negative, and if I might say, possibly evidence of the insecurity of this male dominated area and others on the part of the men when women had been proving far more capable than many wanted to believe. Oh my gosh! This whole half of our species we've been putting down is actually capable of the same sort of work we are! Better demonize them as quickly as possible. Not as though they stepped up to help out while we we've been fighting wars and junk....