Double Indemnity

I have just finished reading the first part of the book “Double Indemnity” by James M. Cain, and I can say that for me it is a good book so far. It is about an insurance salesman who falls in love with the wife of a client, and he and the wife conspire together to get rid of her husband. I can see where parts of this book could actually be considered film noir. If you don’t believe me, just read the article “Towards a Definition of Film Noir” by Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton.

In the article it says “film noir is [crime] from within; from the point of view of the criminal.” The criminal in the book is the insurance salesman, and the book is written from his point of view. The first sentence says, “I drove out to Glendale to put three new truck drivers on a brewery company bond, and then I remembered this renewal over in Hollywoodland.” Right away you know he is an insurance salesman. In another part you read, “Phyllis (the wife), you seem, to think that because I can call it on you, you’re not going to do it. You are going to do it, and I’m going to help you.” So the plan is set to commit murder.

As I continued to read the book, I was caught up in an interesting part of the book that seemed to me to illustrate another important point in the article. “It is the presence of crime which gives film noir its most constant characteristic. “The dynamism of violent death” is how Nino Frank evoked it, and the point is well taken.” In the book the couple plots to make it look like the husband fell off a train so the wife can get twice the amount of money on the insurance policy. On page 44, Mr. Huff (the insurance salesman) says, “I raised up, put my hand over his mouth, and pulled his head back. He grabbed my hand in both of his. The cigar was still in his fingers. I took it with my free hand and handed it to her. She took it. I took one of the crutches and hooked it under his chin. I won’t tell you what I did then. But in two seconds he was curled down on a seat with a broken neck and not a mark on him except for a crease right over his nose from the crosspiece of the crutch.”

All good film noir needs a femme-fatal in it. In the article written by Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton, it states that, “Finally, there is ambiguity surrounding the woman: the femme fatale who is fatal to herself. Frustrated and deviant, half predator, half prey, detached yet ensnared, she falls victim to her own traps.” The femme-fatale in this book is Mrs. Nirdlinger also known as Phyllis. On page 5 it says, “She was maybe thirty-one or -two with a sweet face, light blue eyes, and dusty blond hair. She was small and had on a suit of blue house pajamas”. When she first meets Mr. Huff, she is wearing her pajamas. She pretends to be this helpless little creature, and I have a feeling we are going to find out she is anything but helpless. With all of these fascinating details in the book, you can see how it shares some traits with film noir.