Who is Against of Whom

Film noir's female protagonists are described by "Primary Characteristics and Conventions of Film Noir" Themes and Styles" by loving women or femme fatales. The article of "The Neo-Noir '90s" illustrates the women role as "The women ambiguous, sexi and treacherous" (68), femme fatales. As well as Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumenton described femme fatale as "Frustrated and deviant, half predator, half prey, detached yet ensnared, she falls victim of her tramp...This new type of women, manipulative and hard bitten, has her environment, ready to trade shots with anyone...We are a long way from the chaste heroines of the traditional western or historical drama."

 

The character of Phyllis Nirdlinger suits with those type of descriptions. The way which she explained to Mr. Huff  how risky is the place where her husband works "He's in the Petroleum Building, isn't he?...but most of the time he's in the oils fields. Plenty dangerous knocking around there" (Cain 12) Predatory and Manipulative
Mr. Nirdlinger has her own opinion how miserable her husband's life is "He's not happy. He'll be better off-dead" (Cain 18)
Her hunger to satisfy her evil emotions "Maybe I'm crazy. But there's something in me that loves Death. I think myself as Death...I'm so beautiful, then. And sad.. Walter, this is the awful part. I know this is terrible. I tell myself it's terrible. But to me, it doesn't seem terrible." (Cain 18)



A simple drop off of a renewal auto insurance took Mr. Huff to a relationship with the Death. She was not  just gorgeous, she was predatory and knew how to use her beauty to involve him in her planes to kill her husband. Even though Mr. Huff took a second thought regarding the attraction that he felt for her " I looked into the fire a while then. I ought to quit, while the quitting was good, I knew that. But that thing was in me, pushing me still closer to the edge" (Cain 15). He did not do nothing about planning with her the way they would murder him.  As the article of "Primary Characteristics and Conventions of Film Noir: Themes and Styles" describes film noir "The primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia." Where the characteristics of desperation and paranoia stand in that scene. After they left Mr. Nirdlinger's body on the train tracks, their anxiety of what they have done started to show. She was trying to drive and he was telling her the next steps to follow, but her emotions did not allow him to get along with her "Then you'll have to stop at the drugstore. To get a pint of ice cream or something...You got to say something to fix the time and the date.You--" "Get out! Get Out! I'll go insane!" (Cain 53). Moreover, that same article mentions that pessimism and anxiety are part of film noir setting. Although he had told her that she needed to take him where his car was, she continued with the same paranoia "When she got to my car ... We didn't kiss. We didn't even say god-bye.I got out of her car, got in mine, started, and drove home" (Cain 53). After the night, Mr. Huff's feelings changed "That's all it takes, one drop of fear, to curdle love into hate" (Cain 54).
Their own fears began to betray them. They were emotionally apart but at the same time tide as Mr. Nirdlinger's corpse was.



In the Double Indemnity tale is as clear as the water who takes the role as detective is Mr. Keyes, head of the Claim Department. Mr. Huff describes Keyes as a wolf when a false claim is knocking at the company's door. The authors Borde and Chaumeton say "The private detective is midway between lawful society and the underworld, walking on the brink, sometimes unscrupulous, but only putting himself at risk, fulfilling the requirements of his own code and the genre as well." When Mr. Norton told  Keyes that this case was a suicide, Keyes almost jumped on him to say "Mr. Norton, here's what the actuaries have  to say about suicide. You study them, you might find out something about the insurance business." (Cain 59). Norton's defense a such act was to say that he has  grew up around  this type of business and Keyes replied to him " You were raised in a private school...While you were learning how to bow oars there, I was studying these tables" (Cain 59). He also told him how to press on  Phyllis to the edge of this case so she can confess. Moreover, Keyes suggested to Norton to arrest her for 48 hours so she could not have communication with her accomplice. Although he was against of that type of practice, he knew that it was the only way to fight for that false claim. His character lead him probably be risky but worth it. His years of experience working as head of the claim department allowed him to coincide that Mr. Nirdlinger never was in the train, as he was not. Even though he was not hundred percent right about  her and his co-conspirator did the night of the crime, he was more likely to be close to what happened. Therefore, it is not a doubt that Mr. Keyes plays the detective's role as Mr. Nirdlinger was murdered at the age of 44 years.
Borden and Chaumenton portray film noir qualities as "nightmarish, weird, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel" and such descriptions fit pretty well in Double Indemnity tale.