Women in "Double Indemnity"

"Double Indemnity," directed by Billy Wilder, was a film noir from the classic era of the noir genre. From the very beginning the audience is told that the main character, Walter, has murdered someone, and that the person he is confessing it to had very nearly figured him out. The story is told this way, with voice overs, scene cuts, and time lapses. The story starts off when Walter goes to a mans house to talk about his car insurance renewal, but little did Walter know, the man of the house wasn't there.

When we first see the woman lead, Phyllis, she is in a towel and appears to have just gotten out of the shower. She has a sexy voice and flaunts it very much when talking to Walter. She goes away to change and when she comes back down she is still buttoning her blouse and then the two get into a well written dialogue showing the attraction between the two. When their love affair grows and she gets Walter to agree to murder her husband for her, he agrees, because what man would pass up such a beautiful, deceitful woman? We finally see her conquered in the last 10 or so minutes as she is shot by Walter.

This movie uses women strictly for sex appeal and to show man's weakness to their deceitful ways. She is used to spice up the dialogue, to get the audience interested in the love affair between the two leads. As explained near the end, Phillis cares only about herself, not about anyone else, not even her husband. This is how Billy Wilder wanted us to view women as either uncaring, as seen in Phillis, or as weak as seen in Phillis' step daughter (she is crying throughout most of the movie). Either way is not particularly good.