Noir and Double Indemnity, Post2

      An insurance agent and a sultry house wife equals murder, the gist of the James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity. Suspenseful writing, a murder plot and the narrative of the story are not only the only reasons that Cain’s Double Indemnity is considered a noir novel. The location, the type of female roles and the certain type of the leading male character are contributing factors to a noir novel and film.

      The opening to the story takes place near Los Angeles, California. Cain clearly drops names of Los Angeles suburbs such as Glendale, Los Feliz, Hollywoodland and Long Beach. The urban setting prepares and gives the feel that the city is nearby and close enough to taste the darker dangers of city life. Cain also helps illustrate what Filmsite describes as exteriors characteristic in film noir “Exteriors are often urban night scenes with deep shadows, wet asphalt, rain-slicked or mean streets, flashing neon lights and low key lighting.” Cain depicts this during the insurance salesman’s manifestation to his commitment to kill by writing “It was raining that night, so I didn’t go out. I lit a fire and sat there, trying to figure out where I was at. I knew where I was at, of course. I was standing right on the deep end, looking over the edge, and I kept telling myself to get out of there, and get quick, and never come back.” (14). The visual description and the emotions described are both in a darkness state with a subdue light that help morph and encourages the film noir vision.

    The seductive, mysterious woman luring a man with her charms into a dangerous and compromising situation is the role of the female fatal. This role is featured in most film noir and is best described by Filmsite “It would be to pursue the goadings of a traitorous, self-destructive femme fatale who would lead the struggling, disillusioned, and doomed hero into committing murder or some other crime of passion coupled with twisted love …”. Cain’s Phyllis Nirdlinger fits the mold for this treacherous black widow of a woman. Phyllis is depicted as a mysterious, gorgeous and manipulative woman. When Phyllis is introduced she is described through the eyes of a man Cain states “Under those blue pajamas was a shape to set a man nuts…”(6) and on her second appearance Cain writes “She had on a white sailor suit, with a blouse that pulled tight over her hips…I wasn’t the only one that knew about that shape. She knew about it herself, plenty.”  (10) The inability of the insurance salesman to walk away from this gorgeous creature and her mysteriousness draws and feeds him to want her more. The black widow is setting up the web and placing her victim where she wants him.

    Walter Huff, insurance salesman, Cain’s ambiguous protagonist has all the characteristics of a film noir leading role. The protagonist in a film noir is expressed by Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton as “He is often enough masochistic…who may throw himself into fear, neither for the sake of justice nor from avarice but simply out of morbid curiosity. At times, he is a passive hero who allows himself to be dragged across the line into the gray area between legal and criminal behavior.”  Cain depicts a glimpse of the criminal side of Huff in the beginning during the first dance with the black widow when Huff narrates “…how good I was going to sound when I started explaining the high ethics of the insurance business I didn’t exactly know.” (6) This of course is one of many hints Cain drops of Huff’s inhumane side. The best example that Cain give of this is when Huff actually commits murder.

   In Double Indemnity the similarities to film noir is that both encompass the male protagonist, female fatal, and location. Along with suspenseful writing that includes crime, film noir and noir novels go hand in hand. Many noir novels are made into film noir. Without these books film noir would not have its distinctive look.

Borde, Raymond, and Etienne Chaumeton. Towards a Definition of Film Noir. n.d.Web. 18 Feb. 2013

Cain , James M. Double Indemnity.New York: First Vintage Crime, 1992. Print.

Primary Characteristics and Conventions of Film Noir: Themes and Styles. Filmsite. n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013