Double Indemnity? Double the Drama

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.

It is understandable where a person would get this idea, that this movie doesn't have a single trace of pity or love, but I disagree with that statement wholeheartedly. Love is seen in many different situations and between many different characters. Pity as well is an important emotion. These are sometimes the driving force for decisions made by different characters.

Let's take Walter Neff for example. More specifically, his relationship with Phyllis Dietrichson. The entire movie is based on a murder and insurance fraud that Walter was adamantly against until Phyllis convinced him to help her. Walter is immediately attracted to Phyllis when he first meets her, but it takes seeing her again for him to decided he cares enough about her that he want to help her out of an awful situation. You could argue that this is just a physical attraction. Phyllis used her beauty and feminine wiles to get what she wants (female privilege??). But isn't attraction what love is based off of? When you like something about a person, whether it be their looks, actions, or other traits, isn't that what makes a person initially fall in love? By the end it is clear that Walter doesn't love her (Spoiler: he kills her). I do believe that at the beginning of the movie Walter is in love, or is on his way to being in love, with Phyllis and that is why he went along with her plan.

Phyllis admits at the end of the movie that she never cared for Walter. She says she never loved him "until a minute ago, when I couldn't fire that second shot." She never says outright that she loves him but it is implied pretty heavily. She has to know that nothing good will happen to her unless Walter is dead, but she still can't bring herself to make the final shot. Phyllis' initial intentions were to manipulate Walter into helping her gain what she wanted, freedom fro her marriage and the money that she could get out of it. These stayed her intentions up until her final meeting with Walter where something changed. I don't know what did it, but in that moment Walter mattered more to her than the money and she couldn't shoot. This is just another plot point that is influenced by love. Whether or not that love was a good or bad thing is up to interpretation, but you can't say it's not there.

“Do not pity the dead Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love.”          -Albus Dumbledore 

Dumbledore said it, and this quote could probably apply to several of the characters in this movie. Someone who has love, but is still pitied, is Lola, Phyllis' step-daughter. After Mr. Dietrichson was killed, Lola goes to Walter Neff because she wants to share her ideas that her step-mother was behind it. Neff Initially spends time with her to keep her from going to the police, but then he continues to see her because he feels bad about what she went through. Neff gets to know Lola because he pities her and he feels some guilt for what has happened. Neff's pity for Lola is very important for building his character and building the plot, so how could pity not exist?

The final example of love that I want to look at is a little bit different. It could be argued that it is one of the strongest types of love out there: Bro-love. I can't say I fully understand how it works, but I can recognize it, and Walter Neff and his partner Barton Keyes have it. It is not apparent at the beginning, but as we learn more about the characters it becomes more apparent. Close to the end of the movie, Neff listens to a recording that Keyes made and in it he stands up for Neff, claiming that they have been good friends for eleven years, and that's what bros do. The last lines of the movie walter is talking about the man who commited the murder (himself) and says that Keyes must have been surprised that the man had been right across the desk the whole time. Keyes responds with "He was closer than that" and Walter says "Love you too." Keyes stays with Walter to wait for the ambulance because even though Walter committed those crimes, Keyes is still his friend in a true bro fashion. This is not a romantic type of love but it is just as important, and very apparent in this story.

Many of the characters show love and pity to each other throughout this story, but those are not the main, overarching themes of the movie. The person who said the original quote may have been talking in reference to the message that the movie is sending or the mood that it creates, not individual character relationships. Although it is not one of our classic tales of romance, Double Indemnity certainly shows hints of love.