Film Noir HoF III

I loved the first hour! Especially the way the director handled the scenes. I noticed on the longer scenes the opening fade-in would be a close-up of an object, something on a table or something small in the foreground. Then the scene would open up to a master shot so we could see the entire scene. The director would then take his time with the camera movements giving us plenty of 'in between time' so that we could soak up the atmosphere and 'be in the scene'. The sets themselves were so realistically dressed with small period piece items that I would pause the film just to get a good look at all the detail that went into those scenes. I'm impressed by this director!

I don't think I've seen many of Mickey Rourke films, but I was blown away by his performance. He covered the range of emotions and did them very believably. He made the perfect film noir detective and embodied the soul of Philip Marlowe.

I can't say the same for Robert DeNiro. IMO he's one of the most overrated actors, at any rate, he made a lousy devil. Even before I knew that's who he was, I could tell he didn't have a handle on his character so his performance felt flat.

Unfortunately the second hour went down the tubes. Charlotte Rampling and Lisa Bonet played intriguing characters and I liked their storylines. I wish they had more screen time as I would've liked the story to unfold in part through scenes with them. As it was their time was all too brief.

The scene in the gumbo house where the older man in a white suit delivers one helluva long monologue explaining the whole movie to the audience, was ridiculous. Though the big reveal with Robert DeNiro confessing to be the devil was even more silly, but not as silly Lisa Bonet's little kid with glowing eyes, OMG what a pathetic ending for a film that started out so damn promising.

WARNING: "Spoilers" spoilers below

WARNING: "Angel Heart Ending" spoilers below

First Act:
Wow, that look in Phyllis' eyes says it all! It tells us why a savvy insurance man like Walter Neff would agree to murder a woman's husband. That screenshot though doesn't capture the raw magnetism of that moment, like the movie does. As soon as the film hit the 24 minute mark and Phyllis locks Walter in her gaze, you just know Walter has been hooked!

But it's easy to think of Fred MacMurray's Walter as a gullible, nice guy who's beguiled by the notorious desires of a femme fatale (Barbara Stanwyck). Some people have thought that...but the script written by two of the great writers (Billy Wilder & Raymond Chandler) has enough backstory juice to justify the criminal action motivation of Walter..and Phyllis too.

Walter is more than just a moth drawn to an iridescent flame. Walter's a player, an insurance salesman who likes to outsmart the customer and talk them into policies they probably don't need. We see this in the scene where Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) offers Walter a desk job as an insurance underwriter. But Walter will have no part of it. He values the art of the sale. His skills are reading people and saying just the right thing at the right time. Skills that would go to waste sitting behind a desk. He's the ultimate salesman, slick, fast and full of self importance. He has so much self importance that he images he can outwit his boss, who's an ace at spotting fraud. Walter images he can come up with the perfect crime and get away with it. That desire to prove he can do it, is just as much motivation as any feminine wiles are.

Phyllis is more than just a noir femme fatale. Sure she's hot...and obvious with her provocative angle bracelet and cheap blonde wig. But she's also has reason for wanting her husband dead. He's a lout, he slaps her around and is never home and he probably can't satisfy her either. But that's not enough motivation for a murder, so the writers let us know that she want's a divorcee, but he'll have no part of it. That puts Phyllis at a dead end, or more to the point it leads to a dead end for her husband.

Second Act:
The second act goes by in a blur, it's the murder of Phyllis' husband. The actual homicide takes place off screen..well sort of, we do see the scene but we don't see Walter actually killing him. If we had seen that heinous act, our sympathy for Walter would've evaporated right then and there. Immediately after the murder we start to see a rapid change in Walter's demeanor. He's no longer confident, but visually nervous. The guilt inside him is mounting. I initially thought Barbara Stanwyck didn't act well here, as she showed no signs of remorse. Of course the clever writing team of Wilder & Chandler had that planned all along.

Third Act:
If one hasn't figured it out yet, Double Indemnity isn't about the actual murder and it's not even about the investigation, it's about the unraveling of Walter (Fred MacMurray). The entire script is set up to put us, the viewer, in his shoes. When we hear his thoughts in a voice over, he's talking to us. It's brilliant how the daughter who we met in the first act, now comes into play. It's her purity of character that makes us feel just how wrong the act commented by Walter was. As Walter tries to make up for his guilt by consoling her, we see just how deep his troubles go.

They go deep alright, straight down the line, when we find out Phyllis is a steely, cold, calculating murder who's killed before. With no place to go, Walter rides the trolley until the end of the line....he has only one pathway to undue some of the damage he's done and he takes it.