blog 2

Frank Morgan BLOG 2

         I’m not real big on reading books in fact I don’t read books at all. Why read a book when you can go see the movie or at least that how I thought. But I have to say that James M Cain does a good job with Double Indemnity on giving you all the proper visual insight to let your imagination fill in the blanks. The question that we want the answer to is how we can read a book and get the feelings, images and story line that are displayed in film noir without actually seeing the story play out on the big screen.                                      

        Double Indemnity the book takes place in the Los Angeles area around the 1930s time frame. When the city just started its booming period with large brick building and neon lights filling the land scape and the homes had Spanish decor. Keep in mind in these days wise guys and gangsters were coming up in the world. The story is told by one of the main characters Walter Huff who is an insurance salesman who is described as a pretty straight up guy who really knows the ins and outs of the insurance business and he’s the one that can really tell who’s going to try and defraud the insurance company. In the book Walter goes to renew an insurance policy to one of his customers. When arriving at the house the man of the house who is Walters’s customer is gone but his wife (Phyllis Nirdlinger) is home and she agrees to listen to what he has to offer. She is at first is described as having a sweet face and kind of washed out look with blue pajamas on. But on their second encounter she brings on all the hotness and makes sure he notices what kind of body is under those clothes. They end up talking about accident insurance and we all know where this conversation is going? You guessed it they end up talking about how Mr. Nirdlinger may have an accident and what a horrible thing that would be “yeah right.” At first she puts on the act like it really bothers her but this woman is so cold she even had MR. Nirdlinger daughter (Lola) as a witness to the signing of the accident policy. And then ask Walter to drive Lola down to the movies knowing dam well that they are planning to murder her dad that’s one cold woman.

         For months they practice what to do and what not to do and how they might pull this off all while falling in love with each other. They need him to have an accident on a train so that they can collect double indemnity on the insurance claim. And when MR. Nirdlinger plans a trip to his reunion they see their chance to achieve there murder. Then end up pulling the murder off but a funny thing happens after the murder. Phyllis get up tight and angry and Walter gets sick to his stomach and his feeling for Phyllis start to change from love to hate. The story plays out with the head personnel at the insurance company (Walters bosses) having their own opinion that this was a murder and at this point they are trying to figure out how to go about proceeding with this claim. One executive (Keyes) wants to squeeze Phyllis into confessing and the other executive (Norton) wants to make Phyllis sue for the money and see how it plays out in court.

        From the book ESSENTIAL CINEMA by Jon Lewis Film Noir is a style characterized by deep shadows, night scenes, shady characters, and plots involving elaborate schemes and betrayals. There are many aspects to this book that lend to the style of film noir but. Let’s take this statement right here plots involving elaborate schemes and betrayals and apply it to double indemnity the book. We can see clearly how Walter and Phyllis plan and plot an elaborate way to kill MR. Nirdlinger in order to receive full profit from an accident involving a train. And the main contributor of this idea is MR. Nirdlinger own wife showing a deep betrayal of character. This story is a classic build up love, greed, murder and betrayal and of how a good man of sorts has been persuaded to do things he wouldn’t normally do by a very persuasive femme fatale.