“Like errant children, films noirs have changed, subsumed by their history and turning into self-referential creatures not always beholden to their parents.” (Dickos 235) The “errant children” that Dickos is referencing in this quote are neo noir films. Much like the classical noir films that these are inspired by these films have themselves seen great success in recent years and have further expanded the idea of what noir actually is. By looking at classical films noir and comparing and contrasting it with neo noir films of the 90’s and 2000’s one can seek to answer the question of how were these neo noir films influenced by traditional noir and how did this affect their production and reception?

            One may ask themselves, what exactly is noir? This question is one that is most definitely easier asked than answered. However, starting with a definition may be helpful. According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary the word “noir” is defined as “crime fiction featuring hard-boiled cynical characters and bleak sleazy settings.” This definition certainly does a great job of covering the basics of noir in one sentence, however there are other sources that one must look to in order to discover the true nature of what films noir actually is. Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton do an excellent job of trying to find the true definition of noir in “Towards a Definition of Film Noir.” They write, “The noir film is black for us…It exists in response to a certain mood at large in this particular time and place.” (Borde Chaumeton 19) This is in reference to the sentiment of the United States at the time that noir films were being created. This was due to the fact that these films were being released as America was in World War II or just coming home from the war. During this time American morale was down as many Americans had just gone through the Great Depression, lost love ones overseas in the war, the political and corporate corruption throughout the United States was rampant, and the fear of Communism coming to America was very real. In order to address and reflect these real-world occurrences, noir film directors and writers chose to make their films extremely dark and edgy for the time. “Blackmail, accusation, theft, or drug trafficking set the stage for a narrative where life and death are at stake.” (B/C 19) These are all subjects that had yet to be touched on in films yet, and noir film creators chose to tackle them at full force. At this same time there were normal police procedural movies that showed how the great cops always caught the terrible perpetrators and punished them for their crimes through the arms of the law. However, noir films chose to go a completely different route in showing crime. “If police are featured, they are rotten… The private detective is mid-way between lawful society and the underworld… and the actual law breakers are more or less sympathetic figures.” (B/C 21) Although this is most certainly not all that noir did in order to change Hollywood for good, it is certainly a start in terms of new forms of narrative to come along and for writers to develop and modify throughout the years. 

            One such dark theme that was touched on in classical films noir was the idea of despair and hopelessness. These films chose to show a certain form of nihilism in the fact that no matter what the characters did to change the situations of their lives that it was all hopeless and futile in the end and nothing truly matters, because things would always turn out negatively. Robert Porfirio writes in “No Way Out: Existential Motifs in the Film Noir” “What keeps the film noir alive for us today is something more than a spurious nostalgia. It is the underlying mood of pessimism which undercuts any attempted happy endings and prevents the films from being the typical Hollywood escapists fare many were originally intended to be.” (Porfirio 80) Noir sought to take the harsh reality of things that were occurring in the real world and show a different kind of harsh reality on screen. One example of this theme can be seen in the character model of the “non-heroic hero” or the anti-hero. This type of noir protagonist is certainly not the typically night in shining armor that you see on the big screen, in fact he is far from it. The noir hero is usually a deeply damaged person of which the film may allude to a dark or tragic past that the character had to go through to get where they are now. They all seem to be partially depressed and existentialist in nature, however they continue to do their jobs which are often rather dangerous. This attitude is partially what makes them good at being a detective or a private investigator in the fact that they do not fear death at all and therefore, make many bold decisions that typically people would not. This type of character can be seen in the character of Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon. 

            Not only were classical noir films different at the time for their use of narrative and theme, but also for their use of unique visual motifs. “Nearly every attempt to define film bnoir has agreed that visual style is the consistent thread that unites the very diverse films that together comprise this phenomenon.” (PP 65) Almost all traditional films at the time utilized a three-way lighting setup using a key light, fill light, and back light in order to frame a character. At the time the style of lighting used was known as “high-key lighting” and served to make the characters faces more attractive to the audience. However, noir chose to challenge this idea and instead flip the script and use low-key lighting which creates high contract and dark black shadows, serving to hide features and make characters more obscure rather than being attractive. Another key feature of the noir visual set up were that scenes were shot “night-for-night” meaning that if the scene was supposed to be set at nigh time then the directors would actually should the scene at night. This really seems like a silly and obvious concept in the present day, but it was something that had not been done before this. Before this, scenes were shot “day-for-night” meaning they were shot during the day and filters were placed over the scenes to make them appear to take place at night. “Another requirement of noir photography was greater ‘depth of field.’ It was essential in many close or medium shots that focus be carried into the background so that all objects and characters in the frame be in sharp focus.” (67)  The use of the wide angle lenses not only helped show these objects in short to medium shots, but in certain instances distorted faces or figures in order to make the scene appear more mysterious and intriguing as well as bringing the viewer into the screen and making them feel entrenched in the film. Some more factors to consider in traditional film noir visual motifs are the jarring camera angles, “claustrophobic framing devices”, and the fact that “objects seem to push their way into the foreground of the frame.” Given the fact that traditional noir films were shot on a budget as they were often the “B” films of the time, it is quite incredible to observe all of the innovations that directors were able to come up with when creating these movies. 

             So, after examining the ideas behind traditional noir films from the 40’s and 50’s, one may ask what neo-noir is or as B. Ruby Rich asked, “Neo noir, qu’est que c’est?” Beginning in the 1960’ s Hollywood’s production code began to become more relaxed than it had previously been paving the way for a new evolution of the noir cycle that has continued until the present day. The term itself neo noir is essentially just saying “new film noir” or basically any noir style film that came after the time period of traditional noir. So even if a filmmaker were to make a film in 2020 that perfectly encapsulates classical noir it would still be considered neo noir due to its date of production. However, typically the date is not all that plays a factor in making a film a neo noir film. Neo noir does not come in one specific size or shape, unlike classical noir of which the wide range of films is vastly the same. Directors of these new kinds of noir films had the opportunity to watch and learn from the decisions of previous traditional noir films, and thus learned to adapt neo noir into their own take on the style. 

            Andrew Dickos describes in A Street with No Name that neo noir films typically have 4 main characteristics that set them apart from traditional films and classical films noir. For one, the neo-noir film shows more on screen violence than other films of its time, however he states that, “such violence is almost always more stylized and often less disturbing.” One note that he makes however, is that this violence is not always shown in a seen of great distress or heightened emotion, on the other hand it is often paired with a comedic element which is hard to utilize, but when utilized properly it works out tremendously. Take Quentin Tarantino’s pulp fiction for example. One of the most shocking and hilarious scenes in the film occur when John Travolta’s character, Vincent, “accidentally” shoots Marvin while his partner drives over a bump. The scene cuts from inside the car to behind it where viewers can see blood splatter all over the back window of the car. During one’s first watch of this film what happens is completely unexpected and over the top gory. However, it is also hilarious due to the characters’ nonchalant attitudes following the event. Vincent states, “Oh man, I shot Marvin in the face.” Jules exclaims, “Why the fuck’d you do that!?” And Vincent retorts, “Well I didn’t mean to do it; it was an accident.” Tarantino made a bold decision to include this scene without knowing how viewers would accept it. Nevertheless, he did it anyways and this has become one of the most famous scenes in all of his films.  

            Another characteristic of neo noir is that “The period accoutrements of classic noir cinema are almost always contemporary.” 

            Neo noir has also made progress as far as the use of racially and sexually diversified characters goes. In traditional noir films the casts are dominated traditionally by all white men, with the exception of the femme fatale character that would be shown. In neo noir characters such as the aforementioned “Jules” are much more diversified in their races and seven their sexual orientations. It is not uncommon at all for a black character to be the central role in a neo noir film, which is a broad jump from the lack of diversity shown in traditional noir. 

Borde And Chaumeton Panorama Of American Film Noir 1941 1953 : Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming. (2002, November 01). Retrieved November 11, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/BordeAndChaumetonPanoramaOfAmericanFilmNoir19411953/Borde and Chaumeton – Panorama of American Film Noir 1941-1953

Conard, M. T. (2009). The philosophy of neo-noir. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky.

Christopher, N. (2006). Somewhere in the night: Film noir and the American city. Emeryville, CA: Shoemaker & Hoard.

Dickos, Andrew. Street with No Name: A History of the Classic American Film Noir. University Press of Kentucky, 2002. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jcttk. Accessed 10 Nov. 2020.

Neo-noir : Bould, Mark : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming. (1970, January 01). Retrieved November 11, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/neonoir00mark/page/44/mode/2up

Pettey, Homer B., and R. Barton Palmer, editors. International Noir. Edinburgh University Press, 2014. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt14brz6d. Accessed 10 Nov. 2020.

Porfirio, Robert. The Philosophy of Film Noir. Edited by Mark T. Conard, University Press of Kentucky, 2006. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jchn4. Accessed 10 Nov. 2020.

Porfirio, R. (n.d.). No Way Out: Existential Motifs in the Film Noir. In Film Noir Reader (pp. 77-93).

Silver, A. (n.d.). Son of Noir: Neo Film Noir and the Neo B Picture. Retrieved November 11, 2020, from http://www.intelligentagent.com/noir/Silver.pdf

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fpOG56OIiLZzSSRY6-qhcB3WhiR13WGv/view?usp=sharing

For my final project I would like to do something along the lines of my video essay, however instead of just analyzing heist films I would like to compare neo noir films to noir films as a whole. I would love to focus on Quentin Tarantino films such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction for my main neo noir films, while comparing them with films such as The Killing and The Asphalt Jungle. Some materials that I would access for this project are Dickos Neo Noir as well as Telotte, Porfirio, and Christopher. This project would be in the style of a traditional term paper and would work to further analyze how neo noir films are influenced by classical noir. 

You have seen the setup numerous times. Four men in dapper Burberry suits topped off with pantyhose around their faces enter a bank brandishing their shotguns and large machine guns. One screams for everyone to get down on the ground and another runs over to stop the teller from pressing the silent alarm. They are not there to make a deposit, they are there to rob the place. You watch this unfold as you sit back and sip on your coke and eat your popcorn. You are in no real danger, but nevertheless you heart pounds in anticipation of what will happen next. You feel like you have seen this same exact setup 100 times before, but no this one is just slightly different from the last one. You are enjoying the classic subgenre of the heist film. So, where did this fascination with heist films develop, why is it then when watching we often root for the criminals’ success, and how did this popular subgenre develop into what it is today? 

Well it all started back in 1950, with the release of The Asphalt Jungle, which was directed by John Huston. This noir film is widely known as being the first heist film and still holds its own to this day as one of the better films in the subgenre. The mastermind behind the plot, “Doc” Riedenschneider, plans an elaborate heist to steal more than half a million dollars’ worth of jewelry from a jewelry store. He gets funding for the caper, assembles his team, and draws out the plan for one of the biggest heists ever. The men then execute the heist and although the heist itself is a success, in that the criminals get the money. Things soon go horribly wrong when one of the men gets shot in the stomach by a security guard.  As the film progresses, things slowly get worse and worse and end with all of the main characters either dead or in jail. This entire film sets the standard for how the majority of heist movies take place throughout their evolution. The process normally goes as follows: the group of criminals meets up, they develop and extremely elaborate plan to pull of the heist of the century that will net them a large sum of money, they execute the heist, some drama ensues, and one of two endings occur, either they complete their mission successfully or they all wind up dead or in jail. As Alice Rooney writes in her article, The Heist Film: A History, “The archetypal structure of the heist film – the plan, the execution, and the reveal – presents a very satisfying story arc. This is a testament to the genre’s successes, delivered with such spectacle it almost borders on the unbelievable.” This description of the structure behind a heist film is almost perfect. The structure of the film is overall very basic, but the way it is delivered leaves the audience on the edge of their seats every time. 

Another great noir film that encapsulates the subgenre of the heist film is Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing which was released 6 years after The Asphalt Jungle in 1956. This film centers around Johnny Clay, a career criminal planning his final caper. He assembles a rag tag group of men who conspire together to steal $2 million from a horse track. This film strays further into the darker side of heist films as it has a lot more death and violence than the aforementioned Huston film. Once again however, this film follows the basic narrative structure of a heist film in that there is the planning and execution of the heist followed by the ending where all of the characters end up dead or being captured for their crimes. From this film one can fast forward from films noir to the 90’s neo noir film Reservoir Dogs, directed by Quentin Tarantino in 1992. This film was undoubtedly influenced by The Killing and can be observed through the overt violence that is portrayed in the film. However, it is unique in its storytelling perspective as it is shown in a nonlinear storyline. So, although this film has a lot of the same aspects of a traditional noir film from the 50’s it certainly takes it up a notch in terms of 0on-screen violence shown. This is due to the increased portrayal of on-screen violence throughout the years though. For example, the violence of The Killing was most certainly as shocking for audiences in 1956 as the violence shown in Reservoir Dogs in 92. 

Moving from the 90’s to the 2000’s films such as Inception, Now You See Me, and Baby Driver begin to appear. All of these are heist films in their own sense, but they are a far stretch from the classical noir kind. For example, Now You See Me revolves around a group of illusionists or magicians who pull of a major heist, while Inception is an extremely complex film about stealing intellectual property and literal thoughts from people in their dreams. Baby Driver’s plot is from the perspective of an extremely skilled and unique getaway driver. While all these films are unique in their own way, they do not follow the traditional structures that most heist films use. This being said, the typical setup, execution, and reveal structure has not left the genre altogether. There are still films such as The Town and Den of Thieves, both of which follow this same basic structure and show the overt violence of the heist that was started by The Killing. Overall, the heist film is a subgenre that dates back to films noir of the 50’s and continues to evolve and grow to this day. 

Bibliography

A Left-Handed Form of Human Endeavour: Narrative Comparisons & Contrasts Between the Noir Heist Films The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing. (n.d.). Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://offscreen.com/view/heist_films

David Gordon. (2018, November 05). The Art of the Heist. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://crimereads.com/the-art-of-the-heist/

It’s an Asphalt Jungle Out There! (n.d.). Retrieved October 27, 2020, from http://doriantb.blogspot.com/2013/07/its-asphalt-jungle-out-there.html

Person. (2018, June 08). The Motivational Appeal of Heist Movies. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.shondaland.com/live/a21100071/the-motivational-appeal-of-heist-movies/

Robey, T. (2017, March 23). Why everyone loves a heist movie. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/going-in-style/why-everyone-loves-a-heist-movie/

Rooney, A. (2018, June 18). The Heist Film: A History. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://oneroomwithaview.com/2018/06/19/the-heist-film-a-history/

The Caper. (n.d.). Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheCaper

You have seen the setup numerous times. Four men in dapper Burberry suits topped off with pantyhose around their faces enter a bank brandishing their shotguns and large machine guns. One screams for everyone to get down on the ground and another runs over to stop the teller from pressing the silent alarm. They are not there to make a deposit, they are there to rob the place. You watch this unfold as you sit back and sip on your coke and eat your popcorn. You are in no real danger, but nevertheless you heart pounds in anticipation of what will happen next. You feel like you have seen this same exact setup 100 times before, but no this one is just slightly different from the last one. You are enjoying the classic subgenre of the heist film. So, where did this fascination with heist films develop, why is it then when watching we often root for the criminals’ success, and how did this popular subgenre develop into what it is today? 

Well it all started back in 1950, with the release of The Asphalt Jungle, which was directed by John Huston. This noir film is widely known as being the first heist film and still holds its own to this day as one of the better films in the subgenre. The mastermind behind the plot, “Doc” Riedenschneider, plans an elaborate heist to steal more than half a million dollars’ worth of jewelry from a jewelry store. He gets funding for the caper, assembles his team, and draws out the plan for one of the biggest heists ever. The men then execute the heist and although the heist itself is a success, in that the criminals get the money. Things soon go horribly wrong when one of the men gets shot in the stomach by a security guard.  As the film progresses, things slowly get worse and worse and end with all of the main characters either dead or in jail. This entire film sets the standard for how the majority of heist movies take place throughout their evolution. The process normally goes as follows: the group of criminals meets up, they develop and extremely elaborate plan to pull of the heist of the century that will net them a large sum of money, they execute the heist, some drama ensues, and one of two endings occur, either they complete their mission successfully or they all wind up dead or in jail. As Alice Rooney writes in her article, The Heist Film: A History, “The archetypal structure of the heist film – the plan, the execution, and the reveal – presents a very satisfying story arc. This is a testament to the genre’s successes, delivered with such spectacle it almost borders on the unbelievable.” This description of the structure behind a heist film is almost perfect. The structure of the film is overall very basic, but the way it is delivered leaves the audience on the edge of their seats every time. 

Another great noir film that encapsulates the subgenre of the heist film is Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing which was released 6 years after The Asphalt Jungle in 1956. This film centers around Johnny Clay, a career criminal planning his final caper. He assembles a rag tag group of men who conspire together to steal $2 million from a horse track. This film strays further into the darker side of heist films as it has a lot more death and violence than the aforementioned Huston film. Once again however, this film follows the basic narrative structure of a heist film in that there is the planning and execution of the heist followed by the ending where all of the characters end up dead or being captured for their crimes. From this film one can fast forward from films noir to the 90’s neo noir film Reservoir Dogs, directed by Quentin Tarantino in 1992. This film was undoubtedly influenced by The Killing and can be observed through the overt violence that is portrayed in the film. However, it is unique in its storytelling perspective as it is shown in a nonlinear storyline. So, although this film has a lot of the same aspects of a traditional noir film from the 50’s it certainly takes it up a notch in terms of 0on-screen violence shown. This is due to the increased portrayal of on-screen violence throughout the years though. For example, the violence of The Killing was most certainly as shocking for audiences in 1956 as the violence shown in Reservoir Dogs in 92. 

Moving from the 90’s to the 2000’s films such as Inception, Now You See Me, and Baby Driver begin to appear. All of these are heist films in their own sense, but they are a far stretch from the classical noir kind. For example, Now You See Me revolves around a group of illusionists or magicians who pull of a major heist, while Inception is an extremely complex film about stealing intellectual property and literal thoughts from people in their dreams. Baby Driver’s plot is from the perspective of an extremely skilled and unique getaway driver. While all these films are unique in their own way, they do not follow the traditional structures that most heist films use. This being said, the typical setup, execution, and reveal structure has not left the genre altogether. There are still films such as The Town and Den of Thieves, both of which follow this same basic structure and show the overt violence of the heist that was started by The Killing. Overall, the heist film is a subgenre that dates back to films noir of the 50’s and continues to evolve and grow to this day. 

How has the heist movie developed over the years, from the noir genre until today?

For my video essay I am going to focus on how the concepts of the heist movie have changed starting with The Asphalt Jungle to films of the modern era. In order to research this, I will analyze classical noir films such as The Asphalt Jungle listed above and The Killing which I watched for my third scene analysis and compare them to how heist films have grown throughout the years, from Reservoir Dogs, to The Usual Suspects, to The Town.  Some readings from the course that I plan to incorporate into my video essay include, but are not limited to Telotte, Christopher, and Porfirio.  

The Killing (1956) is a noir film directed by the amazing Stanley Kubrick that shows many different examples of the key elements of visual motifs in film noir as described in the chapter from Place and Peterson. The most notable scene that shows these key elements comes between the 1:05 and the 1:10 mark of the film. This scene is ultimately the climax of the film in which all of the main characters are working together to orchestrate a well-planned robbery of a horse track. In this scene, the main character, Johnny Clay, dons a creepy rubber clown mask and enters into the office of the racetrack where all the cash is being held. As Place and Peterson write, “among the better-directed films is a mise-en-scene designed to unsettle, jar, and disorient the viewer.” This can be observed around the 1:08-1:09 mark of this scene as this unsettling character is framed not in the center of the frame, but slightly off to the left. As he stands ominously in the corner of the room pointing a shotgun at the workers, one worker is forced to stuff all the cash from the safe in a large duffle bag. As he is forced to do this, the viewer can see the shadow of Johnny with his gun pointed at the worker can be seen due to the lighting coming from the open window of the room. This gives a strangely eerie feeling as even though the robbery is taking place in the middle of the day it shows that in the universe of a noir film that no time or place is truly safe from villainous intent. Although this goes against what Place and Peterson were writing about when they said, “interior sets are always dark, with foreboding shadow patterns facing the walls.” The great director Stanley Kubrick found a way to add these foreboding shadow patterns facing the walls in a scene shot in the middle of the day, making it feel even more ominous in my opinion. This scene also utilizes a key element of noir in its use of “low key” lighting. Between 1:06-1:07 of this scene Johnny is getting dressed in his creepy clown mask in another room. This room is lit only by the dim lights of the room that dangle just above his head. Just as Place and Peterson described, this scene creates, “areas of high contrast and rich, black shadows. Unlike the even illumination of high-key lighting.” This makes the scene feel even more ominous and foreboding as he puts on his suite, loads his weapon and prepares for a robbery. Overall through this scene in The Killing one can see Kubrick’s use of several different key visual elements of noir from his use of unusual mise-en-scene, to his utilization of shadows and low-key lighting. 

The Asphalt Jungle Scene Analysis

The Asphalt Jungle is truly one of the classic noir movies that has stood the test of time and has a great and compelling story that keeps viewers enthralled throughout the entire film. There are several themes of noir that run rampant throughout The Asphalt Jungle. The themes that most notably stood out to me were the themes of corruption and the city and the themes of despair and hopelessness. The scene that most notably stands out to me and encapsulates all of these themes together is one of the last scenes in the entire film and occurs from 1:46 to 1:48. During this scene Police Commissioner Hardy is giving a speech the press who are inquiring about the “caper” that has taken place in the city and that which the entire movie’s plot revolves around. The speech that Commissioner Hardy delivers is a powerful message that essentially wraps up the whole film. He also addresses the themes of corruption and the city as well as the themes of despair and hopelessness.

The scene opens up with Commissioner Hardy sitting at his desk surrounded by a swarm of police reporters. One reporter asks, “I don’t like to harp on the same point, but what about Ditrich?” This question is in reference Lieutenant Ditrich who at the end of the film has been outed as being a crooked cop who worked with criminals in his district. In response, Commissioner Hardy gives one of the most compelling speeches that greatly describes the themes of the noir genre. He states, “It’s not anything strange that there are corrupt officers in police departments… Maybe one out of 100. The other 99 are honest men trying to do an honest job.”  This quote alone greatly draws from the idea of corruption and the city. Hardy even know this himself; he knows that the police department is corrupt due to the ways of the city, but in his mind, this is an inevitable fact of the world that they live in. However, the police must continue to operate despite this corruption, because as he states “It’s the same in every city of the modern world. But suppose we had no police force, good or bad. Suppose we had… just silence… The battle’s finished. The jungle wins.” By saying that the jungle wins this is in reference to the title of the movie The Asphalt Jungle the city that they live in has become so corrupt with crime that it is like living in a wild jungle surrounded by viscous animals, and the only thing keeping these dangerous criminals away is the police force whether crooked or not. 

This also ties in greatly to the theme of despair and hopelessness. Throughout his entire speech Commissioner Hardy is playing various police scanners all at the same time. On each of the scanners is a different police code for a different crime being committed all throughout the city. He states, “they’re cries for help. People being cheated, robbed, murdered, raped. And that goes on 24 hours a day, every day in the year.” This statement coupled with the large amount of police calls coming in all at the same time gives off the theme of hopelessness and despair. In a sense there is nothing that can do to keep all of these crimes from happening. No matter how many policemen or how many hours they work the calls will continue to come in regardless. To them this is just a way of life and although life must go on there is no hope of escaping the terrible situation that they are in. 

In the scene from Double Indemnity that begins around the 7-minute mark of the film. Insurance salesman, Walter Neff, meets Mrs. Dietrichson for the first time. From watching this scene in the film one can gather much useful information regarding tropes of the film noir genre. For example, as Mr. Neff first enters the Dietrichson household one can tell that he is sort of a slick insurance salesman. This can be seen at 7:45 when he forces his way into the house himself, even with the maid insisting that Mr. Dietrichson is not home at the time, he simply does not care and subtly pushes his way into the house anyways. This is a characteristic held by many characters of the film noir genre, in that the main character although the plot can be focused around them, may still appear to be a slick and slimy figure that one would not necessarily like in real life. Around this same time Mrs. Dietrichson is introduced to the film coming from upstairs and appearing just being covered by a towel. This brings the element and idea of sex and sexual tension into the film, which is another theme heavily conveyed in many film noir movies. Often times the plot in these films revolves around the idea of sex or hints at the topic, this is something that was not touched on by other films of the time as it was seen as sort of taboo at the time. The scene goes even further to elude to the theme of sex as when Mrs. Dietrichson appears the background music sort of picks up into a higher and louder pitch, symbolizing that she is an attractive woman in the film. Throughout this scene the idea of sex is touched on many other times as Mr. Neff makes several innuendos about Mrs. Dietrichson, such as, “I’d hate to think of you having a smashed fender or something while you’re not ‘fully covered.’” He says this just as Mrs. Dietrichson appears in nothing more than a towel.

Another theme that is seen in this scene is the theme of the “femme fatale” or an attractive woman that seems to have a hint of danger to her. As Borde and Chaumeton state in “Towards a Definition of Film Noir”, the femme fatale is “frustrated and deviant, half predator, half prey, detached yet ensnared.” Her attractiveness and flirtatiousness are shown at 9:40 when she walks down the stairs dressed at this time, but still buttoning up the top button of her blouse, implying that she wanted Mr. Neff to see her do this. The concept of her being a femme fatale character can further be observed at the 11-minute mark when she is questioning Mr. Neff about the type of insurance he sells, and she asks, “Accident insurance?” This alludes to the fact that maybe she is hoping to get accident insurance on her husband in an attempt to get money out of the deal. The way she speaks is in a soft tone, but with a small hint of mystery behind every word she speaks. Overall there are several elements throughout this entirety of one scene in Double Indemnity that the viewer can see and pick out as being tropes behind the film noir genre.