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When the literary source for a film is of roughly the same length, narrative density, and psychological depth as could be approximated in the film version, then a study of the significant omissions, additions, and changes made in constructing the film version from the literary source can be a particularly useful basis for analyzing the film. Such is the case for the film that Billy Wilder as co-scenarist (with Raymond Chandler) and director made from James M. Cain's "hard-boiled" novella, Double Indemnity.
The plot of both the novella and the film revolves around the fatal encounter of Walter (Fred MacMurray), a lecherous, cynical insurance agent, and Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck), a heartless, scheming housewife. Together they devise an intricate plot to murder her husband and collect $100,000 in insurance money.1 The film version, though, is marked by two substantive changes: omitted was Phyllis's compulsively murderous streak and pathological devotion to "Death"; added was a third major character (elevated from the status of a minor character in the novella), Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), the tough, shrewd insurance investigator who uncovers the details of the well-disguised murder plot. These two changes, in large measure, restructured the narrative thematically. What was essentially a murderous story with strong sexual overtones became a sexual story with strong murderous overtones.
Except for its brief opening and closing sequences, Double Indemnity is a film in the form of a confession. After a series of establishing shots a car veers erratically along a dark Los Angeles street, runs through a stoplight, and pulls abruptly in to the curb we follow Walter as he stumbles into the empty building housing his insurance company, rides up in the elevator, and staggers to his office. Nursing a bloodly gunshot wound in his left shoulder, he slowly and painfully lights a cigarette, sweat running down his face, and arranges himself before a dictaphone into which he begins to speak his lengthy confession: "Office memorandum. Walter Neff to Barton Keyes, Claims Manager. Los Angeles, July 16th, 1938. Dear Keyes: I suppose you'll call this a confession when you hear it. . . ."
Most of the rest of the film consists of Walter relating the story of how he and Phyllis came to murder her husband, giving Keyes...