One of the early film noir classics was ‘Double Indemnity’ produced in 1944 and directed by Billy Wilder. Many of the stereotypical noir characteristics are evident in this film with the main protagonist being an insurance salesman named Walter Neff and a beautiful but evil femme fatale named Phyllis Dietrichson.
The majority of the story is told as a flashback in first person narration by Neff who is confessing the murder of Phyllis over a Dictaphone in his empty office gravely wounded from a bullet. The confession book-ends the film giving it a dark non-linear storyline before he collapses and dies at the end. The story centres around Walter Neff who first meets Phyllis Dietrichson during a routine call to renew her husband’s car insurance. Neff is quickly attracted to this woman because of her beauty and flirty nature. It becomes apparent that Dietrichson wants her husband dead and asks to take out a policy on his life insurance. After originally being cautious Neff soon agrees to take part thus highlighting the Femme Fatale’s huge manipulative powers. Neff uses his knowledge of his business to come up with a plan for him to die by ‘accidently’ falling out of a moving train with a clause in the insurance policy meaning Mrs Dietrichson would be paid twice the normal amount for his death. After the plan is carried out the investigator Mr Keyes is suspicious of Phyllis but not so of Neff as he knows him. It also soon becomes apparent that Phyllis has been seeing the victims daughter, Lola’s boyfriend behind both his and Neff’s back showing another twist in the storyline and highlighting the Femme Fatale’s typically unfaithful and slutty nature. Lola is also suspicious that her step mother, Phyllis was behind her fathers death and maybe also her biological mother’s death. When Neff learns of Phyllis’ unfaithfulness he realises with horror what he has got himself involved in tries to remove himself. When Phyllis tells her side of the story which is that she is seeing Lola’s boyfriend because she wants him to kill Lola out of jealousy he is so disgusted he tries to shoot her only to be shot first. She is about to shoot again when Neff takes the gun from her, shoots her twice and kills her. Neff then drives to his office to confess over the Dictaphone when inspector Keyes arrives and hears the confession as it is being made. Neff tries to flee to avoid a death sentence but collapses and dies seconds later giving a typically depressing noir ending in which the two main protagonists are both killed by the same gun ending the film where it started giving an example of a classic non-linear storyline.
The majority of the story is told as a flashback in first person narration by Neff who is confessing the murder of Phyllis over a Dictaphone in his empty office gravely wounded from a bullet. The confession book-ends the film giving it a dark non-linear storyline before he collapses and dies at the end. The story centres around Walter Neff who first meets Phyllis Dietrichson during a routine call to renew her husband’s car insurance. Neff is quickly attracted to this woman because of her beauty and flirty nature. It becomes apparent that Dietrichson wants her husband dead and asks to take out a policy on his life insurance. After originally being cautious Neff soon agrees to take part thus highlighting the Femme Fatale’s huge manipulative powers. Neff uses his knowledge of his business to come up with a plan for him to die by ‘accidently’ falling out of a moving train with a clause in the insurance policy meaning Mrs Dietrichson would be paid twice the normal amount for his death. After the plan is carried out the investigator Mr Keyes is suspicious of Phyllis but not so of Neff as he knows him. It also soon becomes apparent that Phyllis has been seeing the victims daughter, Lola’s boyfriend behind both his and Neff’s back showing another twist in the storyline and highlighting the Femme Fatale’s typically unfaithful and slutty nature. Lola is also suspicious that her step mother, Phyllis was behind her fathers death and maybe also her biological mother’s death. When Neff learns of Phyllis’ unfaithfulness he realises with horror what he has got himself involved in tries to remove himself. When Phyllis tells her side of the story which is that she is seeing Lola’s boyfriend because she wants him to kill Lola out of jealousy he is so disgusted he tries to shoot her only to be shot first. She is about to shoot again when Neff takes the gun from her, shoots her twice and kills her. Neff then drives to his office to confess over the Dictaphone when inspector Keyes arrives and hears the confession as it is being made. Neff tries to flee to avoid a death sentence but collapses and dies seconds later giving a typically depressing noir ending in which the two main protagonists are both killed by the same gun ending the film where it started giving an example of a classic non-linear storyline. As well as the narrative the visual and aural stylistics are also very recognisable with the majority of the films most important scenes being shot at night and often in poorly lit rooms. Venetian blinds are used regularly throughout in scenes such as the one in Phyllis Dietrichson's house where she tells Neff she wants him to kill her husband and the scene in the inquest room. Close-ups of Dietrichson and Neff are shown as the policy is signed but one of the most striking and threatening close-ups is of Phyllis Dietrichson's face as her husband is killed. What is notable in this scene is that the audience only gets to hear her husband being killed by Neff and all they can see is Phyllis' face appearing to show very little emotion and remorse. Dramatic but negative music is used in many of the scenes especially when important events happen. There is no music however in the scenes with Neff in his office recording the confession. He breathes heavily as he talks and this can clearly be heard because of the silent background, this helps give it a sinister atmosphere.
Another recognised classic film noir was ‘Kiss me Deadly’ produced in 1955 and directed by Robert Aldrich. The main protagonist in this film is a character named Mike Hammer played by Ralph Meeker.
The story begins when hammer picks up a hitchhiker named Christina. The opening scene takes place on a rural road in near pitch darkness until the car and headlights appear giving it a very recognisable film noir visual style with bright lights on a dark background, as they are driving very little other than their faces are visible. On their journey they are intercepted by thugs who torture Christina to death and push the car off a cliff. Hammer immediately becomes suspicious that Christina must be connected with something and decides to pursue the case. This leads him to the apartment of the films Femme Fatale Lily Carver (played by Gaby Rogers) posing as Christina’s ex room-mate. It becomes apparent that she is in hiding and is after a mysterious box that she believes contains a fortune and wants Hammer to protect her. The ending takes place in a beach house with Lily and her boss Dr.Soberin both fighting for the contents of the box, Lily then shoots Soberin believing she can keep the contents of the box. What she is unaware of however is that the box contains stolen radioactive material which when opened results in an extraordinarily violent ending when the material explodes killing everybody in the house including Hammer and his lover, Velda. The final scene relied heavily on the use of bright and at times flashing light aswell as fast paced music to accompany the explosion, of course this was filmed at night to allow for the film noir lighting techniques. Although this was less stereotypical of film noirs in terms of characteristics it did contain many familiar elements such as a private eye as one of the main characters, guns and a typically explosive ending with all of the main protagonists dead. The inclusion of nuclear material in this film also captured the fear that was felt across America
Another recognised classic film noir was ‘Kiss me Deadly’ produced in 1955 and directed by Robert Aldrich. The main protagonist in this film is a character named Mike Hammer played by Ralph Meeker.
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