A Showcase of how Phyllis Controlled Neff like a Marionette_Shannon Swingley

Shannon Swingley

Honors Scholar Noir, Film and Novel

Professor Sinowitz

6 October 2017

“‘That’s the way you operate isn’t it, baby?’”: A Showcase of how Phyllis Controlled Neff like a Marionette

            Double Indemnity is a complicated tale that showcases a botched attempt at the perfect crime. Throughout the story, the power dynamics between the hardboiled insurance salesman, Walter Neff, and his femme fatale, Phyllis Dietrichson, are complicated, apparently debatable, and crucial for the end of the film. The debate lies in who has the power in the relationship between Neff and Phyllis. Some of my classmates have argued that because the insurance salesman has all of the functional knowledge about how to pull of the heist, he is the one in control of the situation. However, I believe that the very first meeting between the two characters showcases that Phyllis is in fact wielding all the power in the relationship.

The scene opens with Neff walking through the door and towering over the oddly cynical and possibly alcoholic housemaid. After being rebuffed he forces his way into the parlor and is told Mr. Dietrichson is not in, Phyllis soon appears at the top of the stairs. She is only wearing a towel and is lit beautifully. The camera bounces back and forth between the two during a short conversation. Phyllis retreats to get dressed, and Neff explores the sitting room while his narration reveals that he is still thinking about his want for the beautiful woman. When she returns, they briefly discuss insurance though Neff spends a decent amount of that time ogling her anklet and flirting with her. She asks about an accident policy on her husband without Mr. Deitrichson’s knowledge and Neff’s first response is to shut her down. The two have a quick exchange where Phyllis plays an officer of the law and it results in Neff retreating towards the door into the barred shadow of the venetian blinds. Throughout this scene there are many indications of the relationship and story to come, the camera angles, lighting, and framing all play a role in exemplifying the dynamics in Double Indemnity.

 In film the angle at which the audience is made to view a character gives great insight into how we are supposed to feel about them. At the outset of the scene Neff is made to appear imposing, brutish, and in control of the situation when he bullies the housemaid. The camera is put at eye-level with Walter, but the massive height difference between the two makes has us looking down towards the woman while Neff towers over her. This gives Neff the position of power at the beginning of the scene. However, as soon as Phyllis appears, there is a cut to a wide-angle lens that looks up over Walter’s shoulder towards the femme fatale, giving her the position of power in the scene. In the latter portion of the scene when they discuss the insurance, Neff has his back to the camera and is sat upright on the couch while Phyllis faces out towards the audience in a relaxed position. During on screen conversations, the over the shoulder shot points us towards the most important person in that moment, the one who is speaking. However, in this scene we are focused towards Phyllis the entire time, giving us a sense of her importance being greater than Neff’s. Further, as the scene progresses she stands up and Neff remains seated, the camera pans to follow Phyllis through the room, cutting Neff out entirely. This reinforces the idea that she is the most important and powerful character, along with the fact that he is providing her options that she will make decisions about in the future. In the latter portion of the scene, camera angles shift during their back and forth, making lighting the more telling feature.

Lighting is one of the more subtle ways that the audience is manipulated to think differently about the situation in film. Backlighting and spotlighting are often ethereal and point the audience in the direction that their attention should go. Angles of lighting are important in the same way that camera angles are. Lighting at harsh angles from below, above, or to the sides casts harsh shadows on a characters face making them look less attractive and more sinister. But the correct lighting will soften an individual’s features to make them appear eye catching and important. Throughout the majority of the scene Phyllis is backlit or front lit to make her stand out while Neff remains, in large part, shadowed. During their conversation a the end of the scene, the backlighting that draws our eyes towards Phyllis casts harsh shadows under Neff’s jaw that make him look less appealing. Further, at the very end of the scene, the classic noir tactic of using venetian blinds to create interesting shadows portrays Neff walking into a barred pattern. This is clear foreshadowing for the end of the film where Walter confesses his crimes and is put to death.

This ending shows that Phyllis truly is the embodiment of the noir femme fatale, they are said to be a danger to both themselves and others and are just as likely to love a man as kill him. She is never invested in Neff outside of her interest in power and money, she merely uses her sexuality to manipulate. She even goes so far as to admit this much, “No. I never loved you, Walter. Not you or anybody else. I’m rotten to the heart. I used you just as you said. That’s all you ever meant to me—until a minute ago. I didn’t think anything like that could ever happen to me” (D-20, Double Indemnity). She admits to manipulating him, and continues to manipulate him in the same breath knowing that he is about to kill her. Some might say that in killing Phyllis at the end of the film Walter takes control. However, he also gives up his own life when he confesses, showing that even in death Phyllis has an inexorable pull on the man in her search for power. This pull was primarily generated through sex, and we can see that through the staging of their meeting scene.

Phyllis first emerges dressed in only a towel at the top of the staircase; she is backlit almost angelically, but other factors suggest to us that she will be a primarily sexual object in the eyes of Neff. Phyllis is wearing only a towel, which at this time was about as close to nudity as you can get despite the fact that it covers just about as much as a dress. Later sex scenes harken back to the white towel with white sheets that would cover her nudity. Additionally, the framing when she appears behind the staircase banister shows an obvious and conveniently placed yonic symbol over her body that is clearly denotes her sexuality being front and center in Walter’s eyes. Lastly, throughout the entire scene we are put into Neff’s male gaze as he admires her feet and anklet, particularly when Phyllis descends the staircase and we can only see her feet, this continues when she is sat in the large armchair with her legs and feet lit brightly and placed in the center of the screen. By forcing viewers into Neff’s male gaze it is obvious that he objectifies her sexually. Later Walter remarks, “she was perfect. No nerves, not a tear, not even a blink of the eye,” calling her perfect in this description further shows that he is enamored with the objectified version of herself that Phyllis sold to him.

Throughout the entire construction of this scene we see that Phyllis is placed in a position of power over Neff, which foreshadows the dynamics in the rest of the film. The script even goes so far as to have her explain that she only used Neff to get what she wanted, money and power. Her seduction of Neff as a power play began immediately, and these connections between the two main characters in the film were shown to the audience directly through camera angle, lighting, and framing. These subtleties negate Neff’s power and help explain his ultimate demise at the hands of Phyllis’s actions and Keyes’ justice.