Blog #3 Double Indemnity

I was very surprised when I finally finished the book to find out the ending. Because I had already assumed that Phyllis was going to kill Walter, because she had already gotten what she needed out if him, but I didn’t think that he was going to survive after she shot him in the chest. I also wondered what would have happened if Phyllis didn’t kill him that night, and if he got to her first. And if his plan to kill her would have succeeded.  

As I was reading, it also took me by surprised when Walter said that he was in love with Lola. Especially since they have a HUGE age difference. And especially since he helped her stepmother kill her father. Earlier in the novel, Phyllis mentioned that she was a nurse when her husband had broken his leg, and I was wondering how come she wasn’t a nurse anymore, and if we were ever going to find out why she wasn’t a nurse anymore. But when I did find out, it shocked me that she killed Lola’s mom and so many people. I laughed when in the book that’s why they mentioned her house as the “House of death” because Phyllis obviously loved death. She loved the adrenaline rush that it gave her when she killed someone.  

To be honest, when Walter was explaining how he was going to kill Phyllis, I was kind of rooting for him. I was hoping that he could have taken her by surprised, and kill her first. But she does play the role of the femme fatale and has a mysterious mind. Just because of all those people she had killed before she even met Walter, and then she used Walter to help her kill her husband. And after she and Walter killed her husband, Phyllis was going to kill Lola. And Lola felt that coming, so that’s why she had to move out. Because Lola had already suspected that she killed her mother, and now her father too, and she knew that she was probably next.

The ending was pretty interesting, because I thought for sure that Keys would put Phyllis and Walter away, especially after Walter gave him all the details about how they planned the murder of Mr. Nirdlinger. But he didn’t put them away, he let them go. Maybe because he knew Walter was still in bad shape from the bullet wound, and he just wanted him to suffer. At the very end of the book Walter and Phyllis meet up again, and when he and she said “The captain knows us, I could tell by his face when he came out of the radio room a little while ago. It will have to be tonight”.  When I read that I thought that maybe they are planning to do another murder together. Since let’s face it, that’s the only relationship they will ever have.

But maybe they won’t commit a murder together again; maybe they will both realize that both of their lives are going nowhere, and this is what they deserve to be miserable for the rest of their lives.

My English teacher told us the movie has a different ending the novel, and I am very anxious to see the movies ending, and compare them. 

"Double Indemnity" Blog #2

In the article “Towards a definition of Film Noir” by the authors Raymond Bordeble and Etienne Chaumeton talk about “How film noir is crime from within and how it is from the point of view from the criminal. In my opinion, I do think that the comment does relate to the novel Double Indemnity. Because in the novel Double Indemnity we are reading from the criminals point of view which is Walter Huff, and not from the victim’s point of view which is Mr. Nirdlinger.

The novel Double Indemnity does fit the various definitions of film noir, because we have a femme fatale and she is a very manipulative and desperate woman. She is desperate into getting accident policy insurance for her husband. But what we find out is the real reason why she is desperate into getting that accident policy insurance for her husband. She is manipulative because she is seducing Walter Huff into giving her that accident policy insurance for her husband, which he ends up committing a murder for her so they can end up being together. I’m not sure if the femme fatale does qualify for the other definitions because I have only read the book, I haven’t seen the movie yet.

Chapters 1-9. Walter Huff is an insurance salesman, and he went to Mr. Nirdlinger’s house so he could renew his insurance policy. Except he doesn’t see Mr. Nirdlinger, he visits Mrs. Nirdlinger and talks to her about that her husband needs to renew his insurance policy. They got to talking and all of a sudden she asked him “Do you handle accident insurance”

Mrs. Nirdlinger told Walter Huff the reason her husband should get accident insurance because he is the “Los Angeles representative of the Western Pipe and Supply Company”. “She said that’s where is office is, but mostly he is in the oil fields”. But the weird thing about it is, Mrs. Nirdlinger doesn’t want to tell her husband that she thinks he should get accident insurance on himself because of his dangerous job. But she also doesn’t want Walter Huff to talk to her husband about accident insurance either.

Mrs. Nirdlinger starts going to Walter Huff’s place, and they start to play how they are going to kill Mr. Nirdlinger but they need to make it look like an accident. But Walter Huff needs to take out the accident insurance policy first without Mr. Nirdlinger knowing before they could plan committing his murder.

Once Mr. Nirdlinger renewals his insurance policy and signs the accident insurance policy without knowing the plan is back in motion for his murder. But Huff and Mrs. Nirdlinger need a place where he will go by train and not his car. They finally found out when they could do it and that’s when he would go down to his class reunion in At Palto Alto. He wanted to drive, but he ended up breaking his leg so he had to take the train. “Take the train but not really take the train”

Huff and Mrs. Nirdlinger planned that she would forget her pocket book at d home so gthat she and Mr. Nirdlinger would have to go back and get it. While Mr. Nirdlinger was getting it, Huff would climb into the car and lay in the backseat till it was time. Once they got to the spot, Huff broke Mr. Nirdlinger’s neck and tied him up. Huff dressed like Mr. Nirdlinger and got on the train. So it looked that Mr. Nirdlinger actually got on the train. Then he got off the train without anyone knowing, and met up with Mrs. Nirdlinger who was carrying Mr. Nirdlinger and they were going to put him on the train tracks, so it looked like he fell off the train and fell onto the train tracks.

When the police found him and the insurance department they thought it might have been a suicide, but they also thought the wife was the suspect but she also had an accomplice. And they would be watching her very closely and to see where she goes and who she is with. So it looks like the romance Mr. Huff and Mrs. Nirdlinger wanted to create after commiting Mr. Nirdlingers murder might have to be on hold for now.

While reading this book, to be honest I didn’t think that it would be all that interesting, but I actually couldn’t put the book down. I am very anxious to find out if they get caught or if they don’t get caught. And if they actually get to continue the romance that they started.

 

The Neo-Noir 90's Blog#1

When my English teacher assigned this article to us so we could blog about it, I really had to ask myself "What is film noir". Because the first time I read the article that was assigned to us, I really didn't exactly know what film noir was. So I did some reasearch on film noir and what I found really interested me. I found out that film noir had a classical era beginning in the early 1940's. But the classical era of film noir came to an end in the mid 1950's. The article that we had to read told us that film noir re-emerged in the 1970's and the 1980's. Also in the article they described film noir as "crime infested, shadow-draped black and white movies".

I also noticed when I was reading the article, and everywhere else that I researched they spoke about Femme Fatale. I was wondering what it was about, so I looked more into depth about it. There is actually two different types of femme fatale. The first type is basically a woman who is very mysterious and sneaky and seductive and very manipulative that charms gentleman. Then the gentleman usually end up in dangerous situations. The second type of femme fatale is the woman who are trustworthy, and loving women.

 Overall I did find the article very interesting because I learned about something new that I have never heard of before. The article pointed out a few movies that seemed  intersting. I think that I am going to pick one out and watch it, just so that I could get to understand more about film noir. But so far what I did find out about film noir, made me realize that just because they are balck and white movies doesn't mean that they can't be good. Just give them a chance and maybe you will be fasinated on how movies were made back then and what makes them a film noir.

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