Released in 1944, Double Reparation is still considered one of the greatest film noirs, ranking 38th on the list of america's top 100 best films. The film mainly tells the story of insurance salesman Walter Neff and Phyllis Blanc conspiring to kill her husband, thus defrauding double insurance compensation.
Just as Hitchcock's Rear Window traps us in voyeuristic sin without realizing it, Billy Wilder's Double Reparations exudes a charming temperament that makes us empathize with the crime of insurance salesman Walter Neff. The film is narrated in the first person by Walter Neff, and it's easy to keep up with his heartbeat and, along with this shrewd and conceited insurance salesman, plot his deception and try to get away with it. The outstanding photography depicts Walter's loneliness, and it has nothing to do with others, we feel the tension, anxiety, and powerlessness in walter's heart. Just as we must cover up our first lie with countless lies, things are far beyond Walter's control and our control. In Phyllis's house, almost by intuition, Walter immediately realizes that the woman is trying to murder her husband to get accident insurance money, and he blurts out the reprimand, while Phyllis denies it. Out of an instinct to stay away from danger, he hurried away from Phyllis's house. But that thought kept him tethered to Phyllis's house. Walter, who returned to his residence, said: "I felt like I never left, that my relationship with her was too strong and that it wasn't over. That's just the beginning. At exactly eight o'clock, the doorbell rang, and I knew without thinking who that person was (Phyllis), as if it were a natural thing. ”
No one knows exactly why Walter conspired with Phyllis to kill her husband. Walter found a good excuse for his behavior: "He married a woman he didn't care about and I cared about...", "I killed him for money and women". But we all know that this is pure nonsense. We always tell others why we did something, but most of the time we don't tell others the real reason why we did it. There's no reason to believe that the magical tacit understanding between Walter and Phyllis is love. When they first met, as if by instinct, Phyllis seduced him, and Walter seemed willing to be seduced by her. Walter said he kept thinking about Phyllis and the way she wore the anklet. He mentions Phyllis's anklet many times, but Billy Wilder doesn't show us the bracelet in close-up. Actually, it doesn't matter what kind of anklet she wears, what matters is what makes them attracted to each other?
Billy Wilder seemed more than happy to let the audience see Phyllis's face, but when we got close enough, the woman no longer deserved sympathy. Like most film noirs, Phyllis marries her husband, Mr. Di, through her beauty and cruelty. According to Mr. Di and his ex-wife's daughter, Laura, Phyllis murdered her long-ill mother while nursing. Mr. Di's oil business was not satisfactory, and Phyllis was not able to fully control him based on his beauty alone. According to Phyllis herself, on one occasion she almost deliberately did not turn off the engine of the car so that she could poison Mr. Di who was drunk in the car with carbon monoxide. We can imagine a beautiful young woman spending her lonely time at home every day thinking about how to kill her husband. For her, the idea of murder was no accident, it had long been ignited in her heart. Walter's presence revived the idea.
Phyllis watched triumphantly as her husband, seduced by Walter, signed his name on the insurance policy
Phyllis's face is close-up, and in the passenger seat next to her, Walter breaks her husband's neck
But why was Walter willing to be seduced by her? He doesn't look like a lustful, dirty villain. In fact, he was resourceful and funny, and was the best salesman in an insurance company. He once said: "I struggled, but I gave in. "He yields to absolutely no beauty or money, so what does he succumb to?" After completing his own elaborate, seemingly perfect murder hoax, he almost immediately alienated Phyllis. Because Phyllis's flawless performance throughout the process is frightening. The most important thing now is how to save yourself from punishment and whether this scam can fool Patton Keith. Patton Keith is an insurance company claims manager with a wealth of experience, and no false claim can escape his "invisible man in the stomach." He can always find other people's flaws, and this time is no exception. Despite all the twists and turns, Keith was finally convinced that Mr. Di had not died by accident or suicide, but by a down-to-earth murder. He also speculates that Phyllis did not complete the murder alone, and locks the conspirators as Laura's boyfriend. Walter knew he could stay out of the way, but he ran to Phyllis and showed off.
The scene near the end was strange. Walter arrives at Phyllis's house and tells her that Barton Keith has sent someone to spy on her, that she and Laura's boyfriend will be taken to court, that Laura will come forward to testify against her, and that she will be able to get away with it. If that could be the case, Walter really shouldn't have told Phyllis about it. As he spoke, he deliberately or unconsciously closed the window of Phyllis's house, as if he were going to kill her here. They all seemed to have a premonition of this, and Phyllis had already hidden a pistol under the couch. Phyllis fired one shot at Walter, but could not take a second shot. So Walter killed her with two gunshots. The internecine killing of the two men seems to have been motivated by a misunderstanding. Because they all know that what keeps them together is not bullshit money and love, but murder itself. Once the murder is committed, they lose the basis of trust on which they depend, and begin to become anxious and suspicious, and they are both afraid of being abandoned and calculated by the other. Their revelations about each other's hearts were shocking, and they came to the conclusion that we were all mean. After taking a shot at Walter, Phyllis tells him that she never thought she would fall in love with someone before... Maybe she hadn't fallen in love with Walter until now, but who would believe her?
The two are also very tacit about killing each other
Wounded, Walter stumbled back to his office and told Patton Keith all about it over the telephone. This is the scene at the beginning of the film. The film tells us in the form of flashbacks, unfolding the story through Walter's message. In his message, he said something like this: "... It has something to do with my thoughts for years, long before I knew Phyllis. You should understand, Keith, that in this industry, you are always trying to see through the tricks of others, and you are like someone standing behind a Russian roulette wheel, monitoring whether guests are fraudulent insurance. Then you'll think that you can scam insurance and do it shrewdly, because you already control the roulette wheel, you have a number in mind, you just need a plan, a decoy, the doorbell suddenly rings, the layout is right in front of you..."
This passage, or many of them, reveals to us the true motives buried deep within Walter's heart behind this accidental murder. In Walter's view, Phyllis's appearance is nothing more than a decoy, a finger that pulls the trigger of the pistol, and his subconscious has already buried such a motive, so he is willingly seduced by it. But this motive is so simple that he thinks he can escape it after mastering all the rules of the insurance industry. Just like a child is told not to break the vase at home, but he still intentionally or unintentionally breaks the vase while playing, he has a lot of fun, but immediately realizes that his behavior will be severely punished by his parents, so he tries his best to hide his fault from his parents. In an interview, director Billy Wilder told us that the film tries to reflect the dark side of the American middle class and tell us how an ordinary person has become a murderer. Directors are always reluctant to explain too much about their films, and the situation may not be just what he says. Making mistakes seems to be buried in each of our subconscious, until one day we feel that we have the ability to break through all kinds of shackles and feel that we can control everything, it sneaks out of our consciousness and controls our behavior. But we will always think too highly of ourselves, and we must be punished for making mistakes. Each of us is prone to "depravity."<
If in film noir, everyone is depraved, then in Double Reparations, at least that claims manager, Barton Keith, seems unlikely to be depraved. But the insurance industry itself is a sinful industry, and you scare people with some bad luck that you don't know when it will happen, and make people willingly pay their own money. But when it really happens, you're thinking about how you can not lose money or lose the least. Who wants to give away the money they have? If a person is consciously intelligent, he may be able to glimpse the loopholes and defraud insurance. But insurance companies will eventually make a lot of money and become the biggest winners. Like Barton Keith, who specializes in reviewing possible scams for insurance companies, he has invisibly become an accomplice in the evil industry of defending the insurance industry.
The relationship between Walter and Keith is delicate. In the original novel, Keith also plays the hidden role of father in the relationship between the two. Walter also has a psychological sense of dependence on him. From the way Walter always lit a cigarette for Keith, we can see the intimacy of their relationship. This may explain why Walter ran to his office and told Keith to the message machine after his scam had failed completely. Walter conceived the scheme entirely from Keith's point of view. Keith has always admired Walter, and he wants to transfer Walter to work with him. After being refused, he inadvertently said to Walter: "I guessed wrong, you are not smart, just tall." It was after he said this that Walter actually carried out his own murder hoax. In a phone message, Walter said to Keith, "You want to know who killed Mr. Dick?" Hold the cigar in your hand, Keith, I killed Mr. Di. When he said this, he actually showed a hint of pride. He seemed to enjoy it, completely intoxicated by his own narrative, not caring that his blood had gradually soaked his suit. He was like a blamed child, desperately trying to prove to his father that he was not incompetent.
According to James M. Kane, the author of the original novel, "The Postman Always Rings the Doorbell Twice," Double Reparations is inspired by the story of a newspaper typeslewriter who has worked hard for years and one day finally can't resist being allowed to make a lewd mistake in the headline. Kane's original intention may help us rethink the deeper social implications of Double Reparations. If the film reflects the dark side of the American middle class, then we are only unconsciously kidnapped by social authority and become its loyal supporters, which is why we come to this conclusion. Why should we see our natural humanity as a sin for modern society? If we change our positions, it is not difficult to see that the significance of the film itself is precisely to expose for us the ruthless suppression and control of human nature by modern organizations in the industrial social environment, in which no one is doing what they are willing to do. The image of Keith has become an outstanding representative of industrial society and has absolute moral authority, walter's rebellion against Keith is also a rebellion of human nature against industrial society, and the final destination of this rebellion is a tragic death, and Keith's handing over Walter to the police is only to once again maintain his moral authority.
In the film, we can feel everywhere the mechanical oppression attached to Walter.com. This is where the film's most fascinating thing is. Once the trigger is pulled, you can no longer control the direction of the bullet. If Walter is weak, his weakness is reflected in his powerlessness to control behavior. "The doorbell rings, the layout is in front of you...", "The machine is working, no one can stop it", "Now everything is available, it is about to explode, and the time for people to think has slipped away". Keith, who used his wits to solve the mystery of the murder, told Walter, "It's not about taking the train, you can get off at different stations." They will be trapped together until the end, which is a one-way train, and the final stop is the grave. It was Keith's relentless pursuit of the case that made walter and walter feel great anxiety and fear together.
We don't know if Barton Keith ever had doubts about Walter Neff
Interestingly, such meanings are presented in a seemingly cruel, unforgiving way. At the beginning of the film, no Hollywood actor even wanted to play the role of Walter Neff, and everyone thought that this person was too ruthless to deserve sympathy. However, the truth is just the opposite, and the character of Walter makes us feel a strong sense of substitution. Presumably for this reason, Hollywood's production code banned the filming of the novel Double Reparations for more than a decade. Until one day, the always cynical Billy Wilder decided to bring it to the screen. Billy Wilder's cynicism, however, is reserved, as in the official release of the film, he cuts out one of the ending scenes: the death chamber. Although he explained that the previous scene was already a perfect ending, we really shouldn't easily believe what the director said. For example, about the heroine Phyllis's wig, he said to others: "Did you notice? That's what I designed on purpose. I need the fake, vulgar taste, fake hood in this woman. But he was the first to find out that Phyllis's wig was inappropriate.
Billy Wilder later said that the scene at the original double reparations ending was one of the two best he'd ever made. It's a play we're unlikely to see now. At the end of the play, the script reads:
(After Walter's execution) Keith is preparing to leave, slowly walking into the narrow dark corridor. He had a hat on his head, and his coat was loosely draped over his body. He walked like an old man. He took eight or nine steps, then mechanically took a cigar from his underwear pocket and put it in his mouth. His hands began to pat his pockets as before in search of matches. Suddenly, he stopped with a frightened expression on his face. He stood stiffly, his hand pressed against his heart. He took the cigar from his mouth and walked slowly toward the door. The camera swayed with him. When he was about to reach the door, the guards standing there opened the gate, and strong sunlight shot in from the undefended prison playground outside. Keith walked slowly into the sun, he was an abandoned loner.
(The screenplay is quoted from the book Film Noir)
In this ending, Keith, the defender of modern industrial organization, also sends himself to the torture rack of his soul when he gives his rebel Walter to death. We may be able to feel that modern industrial organizations will one day fall. At that time, there was no organization or anyone who could force us, and everyone could do what they really liked to do and live well. This is bound to be a profound social change, and we can only hope that it will come soon.
Recommended Reading: The Great Movie, p181-186, by Roger Ebert, Guangxi Normal University Press Film Noir: History, Criticism and Style, p87-99, by James Narramore, Guangxi Normal University Press In the book, both men make brilliant interpretations of the film "Double Compensation" in their respective fields.
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