Red Room Where the Writers Are

I am submitting an old paper for a film symposium at Rider. Thought I'd post it. 
 
Masculine Impairment in Double Indemnity and The Last Seduction

Film noir began as a movement in the 1940s known for its dark themes and innovative visual style. The film noir movement was rediscovered in the 1970s and then again, in the 1990s. The postmodern noirs of the 1990s differ from the classical period because the later films were not bound to strict production codes. “In film production - and in virtually any popular art form - a successful product is bound up in convention because success inspires repetition” (Schatz, 5). As a result of the freedom from the production codes, many films echo, transform and in some cases, retell the film noir made in the 1940s. “Our popular culture functions as myth for our society: it both expresses and reproduces the ideologies necessary to the existence of the social structure” (Place, 47).
Classical film noir was influenced by several different sources. Some of its influences include ‘hard boiled’ crime fiction, German expressionism, postwar readjustment, existentialism and Psychoanalysis. The characteristics of film noir are distinctive. “Their iconography (repeated visual patterning) consists of images of the dark, night-time city, its streets damp with rain which reflects the flashing neon signs. Its sleazy milieu of claustrophobic alleyways and deserted docklands alternates with gaudy nightclubs and swank apartments. The visual style habitually employs high contrast (chiaroscuro) lighting, where deep, enveloping shadows are fractured by shafts of light from a single source, and dark, claustrophobic interiors have shadowy shapes on the walls” (Spicer, 4). Postmodern noir takes the same qualities as classical noir to excess and exaggeration. “Their production is no longer characterized, as it was in the modernist period, by a sporadic but intense revisionism spurred by a political critique of American myths, but by a more commodified reworking of classical noir whose seductive, instantly recognizable look - known in the trade as ‘noir lite’ - forms a part of knowing, highly allusive postmodern culture” (Spicer, 149). Postmodern noir had no immediate political agenda but it was drawing us back to classical noir themes of crime, corruption and disillusionment. Postmodern noir was, in a sense, tipping its hat to classical noir as well as validating its fears. “The darkness of postmodern noirs is not simply a borrowed style but a continuing exploration of the underside of the American Dream” (Spicer, 149).

The films Double Indemnity (1944) and The Last Seduction (1994) are perfect examples of how one film transformed the other film. The Last Seduction retold Double Indemnity from a modern perspective. As American culture changed and social norms were challenged, filmmakers created more graphic films. They delved deeper into troublesome subject matter than they did during the classical period of film noir. Stories were also told from a different point of view that may have been unpopular or unaccepted during the classical period. As a result, the boundaries of film noir expanded. The theme of masculine impairment is represented metaphorically in Double Indemnity, whereas in The Last Seduction, masculine impairment is represented in mostly literal terms. Both films exploit a common fear amongst men of each era - homosexuality. “Censorship forces such as The Production Code, the National Office for Decent Literature of the Catholic Church and private citizens’ groups created an atmosphere that made a “conspiracy of silence” preferable even to public condemnation of homosexuality” (Noriega, 23).

Although Double Indemnity is not a post World War II film, it does anticipate the new anxieties of Americans, most specifically, the fear of inadequacy and homosexuality that would eventually grab hold of American males. One of these anxieties was the fear of homosexuality. “The war has been linked to a national coming out experience, made possible as the military and civilian sectors organized themselves into sex-segregated, non-familial environments (Noriega, 23). Fueled by the shame of not being able to provide for their families during the Depression and the reversal of gender roles during World War II, men began to feel helpless and feared they would no longer be needed. “After the war, however, American society would reaffirm traditional gender roles and heterosexual relationships, a shift that would involve open persecution of homosexuals” (Noriega, 23). The only comfort they seemed to have was in the delusion of a utopian existence found in suburbia. “Symbolizing the world of new possibilities was the suburban ideal. Earlier in our history, the notion of suburban life was a fantasy fulfilled only for the wealthy, and then only partially attained” (Sussman, 21). Unfortunately for some men, utopia could not be found inside a mundane, suburban existence. Suburbia became both a hiding place and a prison. Men were once again the dominant providers of their households, but the image of Rosie the Riveter was still fresh in their memories.

In The Last Seduction, this theme is revisited in the character Mike. He has not been through a national Depression or a war, but he is trapped inside the mundane existence of “cow country” living in upstate New York and feels confined there. He also has an unfulfilling career as an insurance salesman. Walter Neff of Double Indemnity was also an insurance salesman, but his confinement is symbolized by the dark and claustrophobic city rather than the emptiness of rural America. The country has wide, open spaces which trap Mike and he is not confident enough to permanently leave his hometown. His confinement rests within the limitations of his mind and lack of confidence.

Classical film noir symbolize the conflict American males were fighting within themselves. “The most important contribution of a major subgenre of detective and gangster movies in the forties, film noir, similarly served to reduce the optimistic American vision to dust” (Sussman, 29). Double Indemnity epitomizes this destruction of the American dream. As Walter Neff relates his story using a dictaphone, we are shown a glossy, dream like vision of a perfect house. Inside the house, we are given a vision that contrasts with the original one. The inside of the house is dark and devoid of life. Even Phyllis, the femme fatale, looks more like an angel of death rather than a loving step mother and wife. The light illuminates her face in an eerie way, as it is too bright in contrast with the darkness of her surroundings. The camera fixates on Phyllis, turning the audience into voyeurs. The camera focuses in on her legs descending down stairs, then her body and finally, her face. She is immediately sexualized, and we know she will be the cause of Walter’s demise. Her slow descent down the stairs foreshadows her own demise as well. As the story unfolds, we learn that she is an angel of death, as she has not only plotted to kill her husband, but has also murdered her husband’s first wife. This can be compared to Bridget of The Last Seduction. Bridget, who impairs all the males in her life in various ways, is also an angel of death. Like Phyllis, she also plots to have her husband killed. But Bridget is not exactly a classical femme fatale. As the film progresses, we begin to see similarities not only between Bridget and Phyllis of Double Indemnity, but also similarities between Bridget and Walter Neff. There is no voiceover, but the film is told entirely through Bridget’s point of view. At one point, she even refers to herself as “Mrs. Neff” therefore identifying herself more with Walter than with Phyllis. Unlike either Walter or Phyllis, she gets away with murder. The men who have crossed her path are either dead or more impaired than they were at the beginning of the film.

The male lead characters of each film exemplify masculine impairment. When we are first introduced to Walter, he is nothing more than a shadowy figure on crutches. Hobbling slowly towards the screen, he is a physical manifestation of his own internal weaknesses. As he slumps into his office chair, we see he is bleeding from a gunshot wound. As Walter’s story unfolds, the blood stain on his shirt grows larger and larger. Confessing into the dictaphone, Walter details his involvement in the murder of an insurance client in order to collect money and win the love of a woman. This confession is not directed to the police, but instead to another man. This other man is Walter’s boss and symbolic father figure, Barton Keyes. “As symbolic father, Keyes’ unspeakable access to the truth, to knowledge, resides in his phallic attribute, his ‘little man’ which, by a processes necessitated by censoring mechanisms, ‘ties knots in his stomach, enabling him to spot a phony claim instantly” (Johnston, 90). Keyes represents a man Walter aspires to become. As with most fathers and sons, both real and symbolic, the son rebels in order to test the father’s authority. “Keyes also represents the idealized father for Neff: the ideal ego found on narcissistic identifications constitutive of the realm of the Imaginary. As Freud indicated, identifications in the pre-Oedipal phase are associated primarily with one’s sexual like” (Johnston, 91). The sexual tension between them is symbolized by Walter repeatedly lighting Keyes’ cigar. It is also verbalized by Keyes to never trust women, insinuating that the only real bond that exists is between those of the same sex. During this era, homosexuality was likened to deviance. Walter is never shown to be a homosexual, but his unmarried status and his willingness to commit adultery and murder, are all linked with deviance and is therefore punishable by death. When we are first introduced to Mike in The Last Seduction, he is in a bar crowded with “townies” and is discussing his desire to leave his hometown and pursue a more exciting life. When Bridget walks in, he decides to take a chance with her in hopes of demonstrating how fearless and determined he is. There is a close up of his face, and it is apparent he is not as confident as he seems. He stumbles on his words when he tries to speak to Bridget and sheepishly tells her he is “hung like a horse.” She then proceeds to emasculate him by putting her hand down his pants to validate his claims. This scene parallels the Double Indemnity scene where Phyllis and Walter have a veiled discussion about sex using a traffic metaphor. “The Double Indemnity exchange is a consummate example of the male-female verbal tennis of classic noir, with the femme fatale putting the spin on the ball” (Stables, 176). In postmodern noir, the conversation about sex is not veiled, but extremely frank.

Another example of Mike’s obvious impairment is shown during his sex scenes with Bridget . During sex, she is always shown on top while he is desperately trying to have a good time. Unfortunately, Mike is more consumed with impressing Bridget than enjoying himself. Bridget is the validation he needed to pursue a more glamorous life. Although the audience does not see the first time Mike and Bridget have sex, we do get a glimpse of what their relationship will be like. Mike wakes up, dazed. He walks towards the kitchen and the light hits him in a way that makes him look angelic. He even looks feminine. Then we are given a view of Bridget, bending over, half inside of Mike’s refrigerator, using Mike’s phone. We see Bridget from behind at first, but even at this angle, in a position that would usually be considered submissive; she looks like the one in control. She dominates the frame, even inside of the refrigerator. Mike just looks confused and vulnerable, stuck inside the small doorway between the kitchen and the hallway.

Both the male leads in Double Indemnity and The Last Seduction are impaired, but only in The Last Seduction is the fear of homosexuality aggressively explored. The one time Mike actually leaves his hometown, he ends up marrying a transsexual. Fueled by alcohol, his naïveté leads him to a brief homosexual tryst. He does not discover the truth until after he sobers up, but it is this incident that epitomizes the male homophobia that could not be directly explored in classical noir. We learn this information mostly by the use of flashbacks, a very common technique in film noir. Unlike The Last Seduction, homoeroticism is only metaphorically outlined with Neff and Keyes in Double Indemnity. It is never explicitly shown in the film. “The camera holds the two men in the frame and follows Neff as he straggles towards the glass doors of his office while Keyes, now out of frame speaks on the telephone: ‘It’s a police job.’ Keyes then walks into the frame as Neff lies slumped against the door and kneels beside him” (Johnston, 97-98). In this scene, Walter is even more impaired than he was in the beginning of the film. He is sweating profusely, can barely walk, the blood stain on his shirt is enormous and Keyes, kneeling beside him is the only man that can offer any kind of redemption. Neff comments that the reason Keyes “couldn’t figure this one” was because the man he was looking for was “too close.” They carry out their symbolic cigarette lighting ritual as Neff lies dying and the police are on their way. “Having handed over his function as symbolic father to the police, Keyes can now acknowledge and return Neff’s love in the signifier of repressed desire. The challenge to the patriarchal order eliminated and the internal contradictions of that order contained, a sublimated homosexuality between the men can now be signified” (Johnston, 98). This elaborate merry-go-round of repressed sexuality adds to the careful construction of the plot. The audience is intrigued by the Neff-Keyes bond but we are never fully let in on what their relationship symbolizes. In The Last Seduction, there is no room for interpretation. Mike was in a same-sex relationship, and his insecurities about that relationship are deliberately explored.

The fear of homosexuality was one way film noir explored the theme of masculine impairment. In classical noir, these fears stemmed from a society uprooted by economic failure, war and the threat of nuclear disaster. They were explored metaphorically because of production codes and used dark visual style and a disjointed narrative. In Double Indemnity, Walter’s fractured identity and mental state were shown metaphorically as jagged shadows cast from blinds which cut through his body. In The Last Seduction, the same visual styles were used, but the scenes are more graphic and literal. Bridget is always on top of Mike; during sex, at their job and in the end, when she frames him for the murder of her husband. Postmodern noir retells and transforms classical noir by exploring sexuality, betrayal and the fragile human condition in a way it could not have done previously.