Blog Post 8: Double Indemnity

5. How is Barbara Stanwyck’s character portrayed in this film? What type of angles is she shot in? What type of lighting surrounds her? Is she a good, likeable, moral person? How does she interact with and treat Fred MacMurray’s character? What does this tell you about the way that women were viewed in the 1940's?

Barbara Stanwyck's character in the film Double Indemnity allows the audience to see what life was like in the 1940's, especially for women.  In the movie, every time the audience sees Phyllis Dietrichson she is always poised and proper.  Every hair on her head is perfectly groomed and her makeup is rather remarkable.  Her conversations in the movie are both mysterious and seductive, and she speaks very loudly with her body language.  She is manipulative and cunning, showing a lack of moral standards.  She is sometimes perched on a higher area such as the stairs looking down at Neff, foreshadowing how powerful she is by the end of the movie.  Half of her face is often hidden, but when the audience can finally see her full face, it is well lit and we can see every feature on her face.  Anyone from the outside-looking-in perspective would want to be her if they were living in this era, but there are always misconceptions unaccounted for when looking beyond the beauty and lifestyle.
We are introduced to Walter Neff very early on in the movie, and when Neff and Dietrichson meet, even the audience feels like they have been hit by Cupid.  Their desire for each other is so strong it can be felt by the audience, which would be remarked as amazing acting.  Back to the point, they both have a certain desperate desire for each other, yet their love is limited by the gender inequality at the time.  The audience finds that Neff tends to grab Dietrichson and almost throw her on places such as the couch, as if she were a doll.  Neff never calls her by her name, only using terms of endearment.  It is obvious that Neff likes his women helpless otherwise, he begins to feel emasculated when the woman is starting to gain power. Using physical abuse and emotional detachment, however, isn't the way to go.
Keeping in mind that the 1940's wasn't the fairest time to be a woman, the movie really hits on the problems with inequality of gender and status. Double Indemnity ends up fighting the social stigmas by showing the audience how strong, conniving, and clever Phyllis Dietrichson actually is.  One can assume that Dietrichson only has desires to be with men whenever she needs something she alone cannot get, which seems to tarnish the image of a stereotypical prim and proper housewife.