The importance of casting in Double Indemnity [10]

 Explain why casting is an important element of film production. Give two examples from one film from 1930–1960 that you have studied. [10]

- Double Indemnity

Integral to communicate the ideology of film noir and contribute to its aesthetics as a cynical perspective of post-war America, Billy Wilder's 1944 film noir 'Double Indemnity' uses the casting of Barbara Stanwyck as femme fatale Phyllis to encode responses from spectators, her subtlety of a stylised performance and star power as a popular actress during the 1940s important in ensuring the film's success. Tiptoeing on the fringes of the Hays Code, Wilder encodes a subtext of sexuality through Stanwyck's appeal as an attractive symbol of 1940s beauty standards concocted in her first shot. She stands behind a barrier, framed from a low-angle, in a towel, performing a sultry stare down at Neff whose attraction is coded through his flustered and flirtatious demeanour, removing his hat, and gazing up and down her body. Frequently in this first scene, she moves with a purpose, directing Neff's - and thus the spectator's - attention to her sexuality such as pushing her anklet forward, buttoning her blouse, and performing acts of 'maidenliness' in gazing up at Neff who leans over her figure; under the Hays code, Stanwyck performs non-verbal forms of communication most prominently through her eyes and softened expression, but behind this persona lies a coldness. Her eyes seem to scream warnings of ulterior motives which construct her archetypal femme fatale role in the film, ultimately a cynical noirish outlook on female sexuality. Spectators are urged to interpret her performance as encoded sexuality because of Stanwyck's attraction. 

In contrast, Fred MacMurray performs as the insurance salesman Walter Neff seduced unaware by the femme fatale and led to commit murder. Most prominently, MacMurray's performance is stylised to contribute to the noirish aesthetic with quick, hard-boiled dialogue delivered with a typically unaffected facial expression. There is no large difference between his performance style before and after committing murder, with a naturalistic direct tone of voice and expression as he first flirts with Phyllis through a back and forth sexual metaphor - an unbroken gaze on her -, and when he directs Phyllis after the murder to form an alibi, though contrastingly facing away now he seeks anonymity as a 'dead man'. 

Though initially hesitant to take the role in the possibility of tarnishing his reputation as a comic actor, this dramatic role cemented Double Indemnity as a revolutionary film noir whereby audiences were shown how a middle-class everyman is capable of cold-blooded murder as a cynical outlook on the Suburban American, his stylised performance, unaffected and subtle, consistent throughout to emphasise this subverted banality.