One Toke Over the Line

In the handout "Notes on film noir", Borde and Chaumeton, mentions that; “It is the presence of crime which gives film noir its most constant characteristic.  “The dynamism of violent death” is how Nino Frank evoked it, and the point is well taken.  Blackmail, accusation, theft, or drug trafficking set the stage for a narrative where life and death are at stake.  Few cycles in the entire history of film have put together in seven or eight years such a mix of foul play and murder.  Sordidly or bizarrely, death always comes at the end of a tortured journey.  In every sense of the word, a noir film is a film of death.”  In Double Indemnity, Walter agrees to help our female Phyllis kill her husband (18). You see Walter has worked for the insurance company for so long and he feels that he has the knowledge to go about committing the perfect murder. He describes the best way to go about it in order to have the least amount of questions and for the quickest payoff (20)  Walter tells her that the easiest and most efficient way to do so is a railroad accident (22, 22). This way they get paid double indemnity because the insurance companies figure the least amount of accidents occur on the railroad tracks (clever way to introduce the title of the book). They go on to talk about what they are going to need to pull it off successfully. Walter goes on to dupe Mr. Nirdlinger into buying the kind of insurance that he doesn't need, but Walter and Phyllis do to get the money. Mr. Nirdlinger is none the wiser about the double-cross that is just starting to turn.