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.
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