This Has Gone Far E-Neff: Double Indemnity

#3.  Double Indemnity has been called “a film without a single trace of pity or love.” Do you agree with this statement? Think about the motivations that lie behind the actions of Walter Neff and Phyllis Dietrichson when you consider your response.

Double Indemnity is a dark movie both in its lighting and its plot. However, the two most prominent characters in the film, Walter Neff and Phyllis Dietrichson, are motivated to kill Phyllis's husband because of their love for one another. How could anyone claim that this movie doesn't even have a trace  of pity or love in it?

During the movie, we begin to learn that Phyllis is a very dark character. Her step-daughter Lola claims that she killed Lola's mother while working as her nurse. When Walter strangles her husband, Phyllis can be seen making an awfully pleasant facial expression that makes the audience uncomfortable and foreshadows her comfort with killing others. Phyllis's motivation is revealed through the movie to be solely to benefit herself, and her attitude towards others is portrayed as sociopathic. The only hint of pity, and arguably love, shown by Phyllis is when she can't shoot Walter a second time, claiming that it was the only moment at which she loved him. I would argue that this was pity and not love because she had just shot him only moments before, suggesting that she did not have much care for Walter's well-being.

There's something on the wing! The Twilight Zone,
which began in 1959, was influenced by both the film
style and the dark content of film noir, focusing on the
worst aspects of humanity and the natural world.

The definition of love comes into play when considering whether or not it was present in this movie. In its simplest form, love could be thought of as placing the interests and well-being of another person before your own. This can be seen when Walter gives a ride to Lola wen she lied to her parents about where she was going, and he kept that secret for her. He doesn't have to do this for her, and it takes away his valuable time and gasoline, but he chooses to help her anyway. However, this definition comes dangerously close to being a synonym for altruism, and doesn't seem to narrow down to what most people would consider love to be.

Often, people think of love as being irrational and something that cannot be controlled. I would argue that the thinking behind love is nonrational, and reason is not even consulted when actions are driven by love, meaning that the resulting behavior can be either rational or irrational. Walter might fall into this refined definition in his early interactions with Phyllis. He helps her with her predicament and agrees to kill her husband without much persuasion. However, helping Phyllis is not the only reason that he agrees to the plan to commit insurance fraud. Walter was making a rational decision to participate in a money-making opportunity. He could justify to himself his cold instinct to benefit himself by imagining that he was actually acting in the name of love. This allowed him to keep some sort of sanity while committing evil actions.

Overall, I would argue that there is not a trace of love in Double Indemnity, but there are instances of pity. These instances of pity are small and scarce, but they are shimmering lights of hope in a movie that paints humanity in an incredibly grim light.