Summary
Walter describes his mounting paranoia in voice-over. At the Pacific All Risk offices, Barton notifies Walter that his boss (Mr. Norton) wants to see him about the Dietrichson claim. Barton fills Walter in on the details: the autopsy showed that Dietrichson died of a broken neck, Lola identified the body at the inquest, and train passengers confirmed that Mr. Dietrichson was on board before apparently falling to his death from the observation deck. In Mr. Norton's office, Barton reveals that he has spoken to a man named Jackson in Medford, Oregon—the last person to see Mr. Dietrichson alive. Barton tells Mr. Norton that Mr. Dietrichson's secretary didn't know about the accident insurance policy, and Walter explains he couldn't sell Mr. Dietrichson the policy at the first house call, but "closed" on him later at the oil fields.
To Mr. Norton's surprise, Barton doesn't have any hunches or suspicions about the case. Mr. Norton, however, refuses to believe the case is an accident, and tells the men he has summoned a witness—Phyllis, who enters in a black hat and funeral veil. Mr. Norton questions her about Mr. Dietrichson's accident insurance policy, about which Phyllis feigns ignorance, and then explains that he suspects that the death was not an accident, but a suicide. Mr. Norton asks Phyllis whether Mr. Dietrichson was depressed or facing financial strain, and then lays out his theory: Mr. Dietrichson took out an accident insurance policy in secrecy intending to kill himself, scheduled a trip alone, distracted the train's lone bystander (Jackson), then jumped to his death. He warns Phyllis a suicide would mean the company is not liable for the insurance payout, but offers her a compromise in which they would pay a partial sum. Phyllis, offended at the suggestion, storms out of the office. Barton scolds Mr. Norton for suggesting suicide, citing the fact that no suicide-by-leap on record has ever taken place from the back of a train, which was only moving 15 miles per hour.
In voice-over, Walter remembers wanting to "hug" Barton, given how expertly he dismantled Mr. Norton's suicide theory, which would have prevented Phyllis and Walter from receiving a full payout. At his apartment, Walter receives a phone call from Phyllis, and they share their relief that their plan is working. They agree to meet at the drugstore up the block, but before Walter can leave, the doorbell buzzes. It's Barton, looking pensive and serious. He wonders aloud why Mr. Dietrichson didn't file on his accident insurance claim after breaking his leg, and maintains that there's still something wrong with the Dietrichson case. Barton tells Walter he thinks the case is neither an accident nor a suicide, given the statistical improbability of a man falling from a train and collecting on a double indemnity clause so soon after signing a policy. He says he usually suspects the beneficiary, who in this case would be Phyllis.
As Barton is speaking, Phyllis has exited the elevator out in the hallway and is about to knock on the door. Instead, she presses her ear against the door and listens to the men talk. When Barton leaves Walter's apartment, the front door swings open, concealing Phyllis behind it. She listens to Barton's fiery speech about convicting her, and subtly pulls the door wider from the opposite side, cluing Walter in to her presence. Barton is about to step into the elevator, when he tensely approaches Walter to light his cigar, then finally takes his leave. Walter stresses how careful they must continue to be, but Phyllis expresses her concern that their plan is keeping them apart rather than bringing them together. Walter says, "Shut up, baby," and kisses her.
In the Pacific All Risk offices, Walter finds Lola waiting for him. She tells him she has a feeling that "something is wrong"—a feeling she had once before when her mother was suffering from pneumonia. Lola recalls having found the bedcovers stripped and the windows flung open in her mother's hospital room, with the nurse nowhere to be found. Two days later her mother died, and Lola tearfully tells Walter that nurse was Phyllis, who Lola believes has now schemed similarly against her father. Lola explains to Walter that she saw Phyllis trying on a funeral hat and veil in the mirror with a "glint" in her eye two days before Mr. Dietrichson's death, and is determined not to see Phyllis receive any money from her father's death. After hearing Lola has moved out of the house into her own place in Hollywood, a worried Walter takes Lola to dinner to cheer her up, and drives her to the beach the following day.
Back at the Pacific All Risk office, Walter sees Jackson (the man from the train) sitting outside of Barton's office. Inside, Barton tells Walter that the Dietrichson case was in fact murder—"smart, tricky, almost perfect." Barton tells Walter that Mr. Dietrichson was never on the train, which was moving too slowly for a leap to dependably kill somebody. He intuits the exact details of the plot—that Phyllis and an accomplice killed Mr. Dietrichson beforehand, impersonated him on the train, and left his body on the tracks—without realizing Walter, himself, is the accomplice. Barton has Jackson look at photographs of Mr. Dietrichson, and Jackson confirms that he saw a different man. As Barton makes a phone call, Jackson curiously eyes Walter and asks whether they've met before, but concludes that his name must merely sound familiar. Jackson leaves, and Barton tells Walter that he intends to reject Phyllis's policy claim.
Pretending to be a soap salesman, Walter calls Phyllis to arrange a meeting at the drugstore. There, he explains to Phyllis that Barton has deduced the plot and is planning to reject the policy claim. He fears that in court, Lola will testify about Phyllis's recent strange behavior and the mysterious circumstances of Mr. Dietrichson's first wife's death. Walter wants to jettison the plan and the money, but Phyllis remains steadfast, openly resenting the fact that Walter has been listening to Lola. She coldly reminds him that she only wanted Mr. Dietrichson dead, but that Walter actually committed the act, suggesting that she will turn Walter in or worse if he tries abandoning the plan now.
Analysis
A common dictum of film noir genre is that it elevates tension over action. For instance, Double Indemnity notably elides the actual event of Mr. Dietrichson's murder, instead tracking Barbara Stanwyck's icy gaze as the evil, conniving Phyllis. Mining tensions between light and shadow, surface and meaning, and secrecy and disclosure are three common strategies that film noir style uses in order to create an atmosphere of suspense and foreboding. Often these tensions derive from dramatic irony, such as the scene in which Walter must field a phone call from Phyllis (who he calls "Margie") in front of Barton, or later when Mr. Norton calls Phyllis to the Pacific All Risk offices as a character witness in the investigation of Mr. Dietrichson's supposedly accidental death.
The scene in Mr. Norton's office is particularly fraught with tension because the viewer knows what Mr. Norton and Barton Keyes do not: that Phyllis's funeral getup is merely a performance, and that Walter and Phyllis are criminal collaborators. Wilder continues to develop the film's theme of the "double" by emphasizing the fact that the murder has essentially created a rift in Phyllis and Walter's identities-- Phyllis must play the part of the grieving widow, Walter must play the part of the diligent insurance salesman, and together they must pretend to be mere acquaintances, all for the benefit of the people around them. This dramatic irony also influences how one interprets Phyllis's reactions. Although she seems morally outraged by Mr. Norton's suggestion that Mr. Dietrichson committed suicide, the viewer knows she is actually outraged by the prospect of being cheated out of her double indemnity payout.
The film is also rife with compositional tension, featuring shots that spatially frame the characters to emphasize their separation and concealment from one another. The scene in which Phyllis must hide herself from Barton behind Walter's front door epitomizes this kind of compositional tension: first, Wilder shows Phyllis on the other side of the front door, listening in on the men's conversation. Then, when the door swings open, Phyllis hides herself behind it in the foreground, while the men continue to talk in the middle- and background of the shot. At one point, Barton tensely approaches the foreground, then retreats again. The open door vertically bisects the frame, creating two different spatial fields of action, reflecting the fact that Walter and Phyllis are struggling desperately to conceal their scheme from Barton's purview.
Like other films noir, Double Indemnity uses low-key lighting to create compositions that make vivid, expressionistic use of shadows. The film is especially famous for filtering light through venetian blinds to create striped patterns of light and shadow across the actors and surfaces in the frame. For example, in the scene in which Barton finally tells Walter that he has deduced that the Dietrichson case was murder, Barton's face is lit with soft-focus bars of light and shadow. This zebra-stripe pattern resembles the bars of a jail cell, as well as a prisoner's uniform, and clearly evokes the film's preoccupation with criminal psychology, as well as the fact that Walter has become "imprisoned" within Phyllis's plot.
Recognition is another theme that crucial to the film's second half, particularly in relation to the previous themes of secrecy and concealment. Lola recognizes Phyllis for who she truly is—a black widow who arranged Lola's mother's death and then targeted her father. Barton, though initially oblivious, gradually recognizes the fact that the Dietrichson case was neither an accident nor a suicide. Jackson does not recognize Mr. Dietrichson's photograph as the man he saw on the train, but vaguely recognizes Walter. Finally, when Phyllis begins to make veiled threats to Walter at the Los Feliz drugstore, Walter recognizes that she never cared about him, but only wanted to be enriched by the payout and be free of her husband's oversight.
