Double Indemnity: Second Viewing

I didn't quite have the time before my first class to watch Double Indemnity (1944) two more times, but was lucky enough to be able watch it once in an interactive manner. By which I mean, I took notes while I watched. I sometimes notetake while watching films. My hands are pretty restless and taking a pen to paper has a tendency to calm me. Also, my mind becomes more alert as I'm actively searching for interesting things to write down. It makes for a more in depth movie experience.

My second viewing of the film was quite interesting. I'd been looking for minutae and subtleties that I may have overlooked during the first go. The language, lighting and plethora of staircases all stood out to me. Part of me wonders how much of what I get out of a film is what I am searching for (either consciously or subconsciously) and what the filmmakers put into it for the viewers to find. Here are some things that I discovered in my second viewing.

1. Robert Osborne -Any movie benefits from a Robert Osborne introduction. Always impeccably dressed, he welcomes you into the movie with fun facts and quips. If your lucky, he will tell you a particular scene or image to look out for. And am I the only one that thinks that loft-style studio is beautiful. Could I move in? I think Osborne should introduce every DVD, no matter what the film.


2. Edith Head - I didn't notice this the first time around, but caught her name in the opening credits. No wonder Barbara Stanwyck looks so stunning! The amazingly talented Edith Head dressed her. I wonder if she dressed the men? If so, I've got a few complaints. The main one being that Fred MacMurray's suits seem to hang on him while Edward G. Robinson seems to be bursting out of his.


3. Film Noir Language - "Dame" "Hot Potato" "Outfit" "Dimwitted" "Song and Dance", this movie is chock full of colloquialisms. Yet what I find so intriguing is the wit and banter and the heavy heavy flirting! I wonder how much of the intricately sexy language was a result of passing this film through the codes. Did the language have to be clever to convey all the sex that had to be censored?


4. Linear and Square - It's "straight down the line" until they get to the "end of the line." The plot movement is very linear. The sequence of events pertaining to the crime seem to happen back to back like a line of dominoes and the uncovering of the crime by Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) seems to happen in the same sequence as the crime does, it's just one step behind. Everything falls apart when Fred MacMurray's character breaks that line. The square element is the romantic entanglement which is at the heart of the story. Phyllis - > Walter - > Lola -> Nino. I could call it a circle, but this is film noir! It's all about the harsh angles.


5. Fire - Did anyone notice Fred MacMurray's amazing ability to light a match with his thumb? I found this oddly sexy. As though he was so pumped up with testosterone and adrenaline that he thought nothing of potentially burning his thumb with the match. It was just a faster way to light a cigarette.

Double Indemnity: First Viewing

In preparation for my first Film Noir class next week, I will be watching the classic, Double Indemnity (1944). I have already seen this film but it was some months ago and a refresher seemed necessary. Why watch this film again? Why not, I ask? For any of you who are repeat viewers, you will understand that each viewing of a film is its own unique experience. Minute subtleties overlooked on the first pass, reveal themselves during a new viewing. Sometimes even after 100 viewings of a favorite film, I will be surprised to discover something new and the feeling is equivalent to finding a $5 bill you didn't know you had. Plus repeat viewings are a way for us to intertwine an important movie into our lives. To badly paraphrase deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, single moments cannot be grasped, so to experience something one must repeat it; either the experience itself is repeated in the same form or in a similar form or the memory of it plays in one's mind.

Repeat viewings have always fascinated me. There are certain films that I feel lend themselves to that continued experience. As an experiment, I will document my reactions to each viewing of this film and will finish with a final round up of what I learned from my class. These are my impressions on my first viewing. Elapsed time does not help with my memory so I will only draw on what sticks out in my mind the most.

• Naughty Fred MacMurray - Most of you know him as the detective gone bad in Double Indemnity (1944) or the sleazy, womanizing boss in The Apartment (1960), but my mind's image of Fred MacMurray is quite different. To me, he is the loveable and charismatic actor of so many romantic comedies and dramas from the '30s and '40s. The rich but loving boyfriend of Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams (1935), the morally righteous lawyer married to a pathological liar in True Confession (1937), or the poor lovestruck suitor who has to compete with an even more endearing wheel-chair bound Ralph Bellamy in Hands Across the Table (1935). To see him be a little bit bad in this film was confusing yet very exciting.



• The Wig - It stands out. Even director Billy Wilder thought it was a bit ridiculous. Yet one couldn't envision Barbara Stanwyck in the role of the conniving femme fatale without the curly, blonde wig. It's severe but she's severe. It's over the top, but she's over the top. It just works. And also there is something that happens to a woman when she goes blonde. Like Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity (1953), they go a little bit bad, or in Stanwyck's case a whole lot. However, this is all coming from a brunette who has a serious case of blonde-envy.



• Secondary Romances - They work. Period. I love them and oftentimes I find them more interesting than the primary romance. In this case, the forbidden love between rich daughter Lola and Nino who is poor and rough around the edges. Very intriguing.

Robert Mitchum's Sad Eyes

I just like to look at him!