The novel Double Indemnity by James M. Cain is a work of pure unadulterated literary noir. Within its deceptively brief yet dense pages, tainted by lust, greed and violence, the reader is consumed by the heart of the essentials that necessitate noir. The lead characters of the novel, Walter Huff and Phyllis Nirdlinger, become the triggers of those essentials and the machinations by which they facilitate their plotting and desire become the pieces of tone and mood that make noir the light of fiction that casts itself on the darker aspects of humanity, revealing a cold hard truth.
The article from the website, Filmsite, entitled "Primary Characteristics and Conventions of Film Noir," elaborates on the essentials of noir by breaking down some of its composition of mood. The article states, “The primary moods of classic film noir are melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt and paranoia.” All of these moods are at the forefront, in mind and in hand within Double Indemnity, as the protagonist, Walter Huff, a deceptively bleak insurance agent, finds himself falling deeper and deeper into a nefarious scheme that results in the murder of a man, who is perhaps not entirely virtuous but is, nonetheless, not deserving of death.
In the beginning of the novel, the reader finds Huff to be a man of established enterprise. He works as an insurance agent, knowledgeable and meticulous. However, under the superficial garb of his monotony, he is a character in search of an exit. As he goes about the activities of his profession, he sees the plots and corruption of seemingly ordinary people who are seeking only financial gain. A person on the side of righteousness would default to the action of bringing such deeds to justice. Huff, however, turns a blind eye to the casual disregard of law and ethics and instead lets his cynicism reign in perpetuity. Nevertheless, as with other noted aspects of noir, he lives within the boarders that divide the worlds of right and wrong, of night and day. “The [protagonist] is midway between lawful society and the underworld, walking the brink, sometimes unscrupulous...,” notes Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton in “Towards a Definition of Film Noir.” Huff’s code of ethics may be more personal than societal, but he lives by them with conviction as seen in his pursuits either in the form of an insurance agent or in the form of an artist of murder, “...hitting it for the limit, that’s what I go for. It’s all I go for,” decrees Huff.
As the story progresses, Huff encounters Phyllis in what some might call a very serendipitous manner. Huff suspects her immediately of duplicity and of not being a woman of much integrity. And yet he is intrigued and attracted to her, riding that line between acceptable and malicious once again. The reader takes note that Phyllis immediately fits the persona of the femme fatale, a key ingredient to any noir narrative. She is mysterious, beautiful, seductive and at the same time willing to commit any act, no mater how unlawful, as long as it fulfills her aims. Huff, being a victim of his own desire, finds himself going along with her. It’s a felicitous pairing but their fate will most likely be anything but joyful.
