A Study of Lighting in Double Indemnity

As the shadow of a man on crutches hobbles toward the camera, the credits roll over his dark body. Fade to a seemingly deserted Los Angeles street at night. Cut to a speeding car running a red light and almost colliding with an oncoming newspaper truck. After the car comes to a halt, a man steps out and limps to the door of a large building. The interior of this building is almost completely dark, except for a stream of light pouring out of an office doorway. As Neff enters the office area, the janitors are cleaning the lower level, with the aid of lamp light. While Neff makes his way around the balcony to the office his enormous shadow overpowers his large body, and once he enters the office, his shadow in the doorway is the only visible evidence that he is present in the room. Once the desk lamp is turned on, the audience gets their first glimpse at Walter Neff's façade: a middle-aged man with sharp features, glistening with sweat in the lamp-light. Neff slowly rolls his chair to the recorder and sets it up; he then begins to record his "office memorandum" to Martin Keyes. He begins this message with a confession of murder, explaining his dual reasons for the killing: "I killed him for money, and for a woman. I didn't get the money, and I didn't get the woman."

Double Indemnity (Wilder, 1944) is centered on one man and his struggle against evil. Throughout the film, Walter Neff tells the story of his ultimate demise due to a sinful love affair with a married woman. Since the presentation of story information is completely restricted, the audience is forced to hear the entire account from Walter's perspective. It is only through Walter's flashbacks that the viewer receives information outside the walls of the story. Through the intertwining of the restricted narrative information and the lighting techniques, the spectator can watch the character of Walter Neff slowly embrace his evil counterpart.

The use of low-key lighting in film noir places qualities of the film's characters into the mise-en-scene. Since this type of lighting technique creates chiaroscuro, extremely dark shadows tend to dominate the frames. These dark shadows often hide the characters, covering them in darkness, but the shadows created by the lighting in Double Indemnity do just the opposite. Instead of hiding the main characters, these shadows reveal the hidden evils within them. Like most films during the time period of Classical Hollywood Cinema, the motivating force behind the narrative action in Double Indemnity is desire. Walter's love for Phyllis impels him to remove Phyllis's husband, his negative counterforce. Although his counterforce changes from Phyllis's husband to Phyllis herself, the story follows this logic throughout the entire film. Walter lets nothing stop him from achieving his goals, even when his evil counterpart is right in front of his face. The use of lighting as a narrative function puts these aspects of the story into visual form, helping the audience to see qualities of the character, even when dialogue is not present.

The shadows in the film reveal the characters' wickedness when dialogue is present as well, especially when the dialogue is centered around murder, as in the first three examples. The first appearance of a character's evil counterpoint in a scene containing dialogue is shown in the following scene. During this scene, Keyes approaches Walter in the office and tells him that the boss wants to speak with them. Walter's shadow is hidden on the wall in the lower right corner of the frame, and it follows him all the way to his employer's office. Since this scene occurs right after the murder of Phyllis's husband, Walter must keep his guilt (i.e. shadow) hidden from Keyes. Later Keyes appears at Walter's door when Phyllis is expected to arrive. As Phyllis hides behind the door, Keyes tells Walter he thinks Phyllis helped kill her husband. When the couple enters Walter's apartment, the shadows of each character follows them inside and rests against the wall behind them. The use of low-key lighting to reveal evil is very apparent when the evil of each character overpowers the good, and darkness overpowers the frame. In this shot, both characters are completely covered in shadows, and they remain this way until Phyllis is killed; after her death, a small amount of light falls upon her body, but Walter remains in darkness for the rest of the scene.
Since shadows of the characters appear in scenes when murder is discussed, it is obvious that the evil in the characters would appear in some form, but when dialogue is not present, it becomes certain that shadows are used to display the evil inside each character when Phyllis is pacing back and forth in front of her fireplace. As she walks, a very prominent shadow accompanies her. Although she is not speaking at all during this short time, this shadow by her side reveals her evil thoughts. While she is pacing Walter is comparing his insurance to that of the automobile club. In mid step she turns to Walter and, for the first time, asks him if he sells accident insurance. This question may seem innocent to the viewer, but because her dark shadow is following her throughout the previous shot, the audience may notice the darkness in her questioning. Not only is this the first time Phyllis introduces the idea of accident insurance, but it is also the first time in the chronology of the story that a character's evil counterpart is presented. While shadows are apparent before this scene, this is the first time a character's shadow appears so obvious to the viewer's eye. It is as if Phyllis is introducing the idea of an evil counterpoint within the shadow, and Walter takes on this concept for the rest of the film.

The shot that occurs after Walter tells Phyllis he will help her murder her husband, is the first shot to reveal Walter's alter ego by showing him standing face to face with his shadow. As he continues to approach his evil counterpart and throws open the curtains, Walter replaces the apparition with his own body; at that moment it is apparent that he has become one with his evil half, but no dialogue is present to inform the audience of this occurrence. Another shot, which occurs at the end of the story, but the beginning of the film, reveals Walter walking side by side with his enormous silhouette. After killing Phyllis, Walter advances toward Keyes's office to confess his evil accomplishments. As the darkness of the hallway surrounds Walter it becomes very difficult to distinguish between him from his shadow, as if he and his shadow have become equals.
The darkness of both the lighting, as well as the narrative, shows the consequences of an evil embrace. The embrace of Phyllis led to murder, and the embrace of his evil counterpart led Walter to conviction and possibly death. Since it is assumed that Walter will be punished for his crimes after the last shot, Double Indemnity shows the audience that evil never wins. As the film progresses, Walter's change from a content insurance salesman to a tormented murderer is displayed through the combination of restricted narration and low-key lighting. The evil shadows (introduced by Phyllis) that follow Walter throughout the majority of the film represent Walter's digression in a way that the restricted narration can not. These shadows introduce a hint of omniscience without diving too deep into the minds of the main characters, casting a bit of darkness on the knowledge that the audience is receiving and keeping the progression of the story a mystery to the viewer.