English 101 Blog # 4

There are vast differences in the ending of Double Indemnity when it comes to the book and the movie. In the movie, Walter meets Phyllis at her home with the intent to kill her, but Phyllis had plans of her own to end Walters life. She shoots Walter in the house, and he seems unscathed by the shot. He walked over to Phyllis asking her why she wouldn't shoot him again. She then proffessed her love for him, Walter then took the gun and killed her. While he was recording what had taken place in Keyes office, he realized that Keyes was standing in the door way and had overheard his confession. Keyes called for an ambualance as Walter tried to get away, but he couldn't. Keyes advised the dispatcher that it would be a police job as well and Walter was caught. In the novel Walter is shot by Phyllis in a park while he waits for her to show up so he can kill her. When he wakes up in the hospital he confesses to Keyes all that had taken place. Instead of Keyes calling the police he decides to send Walter away, to protect the face of the insurane company. So he sends Walter on a boat to get away and while on the boat he see's Phyllis. Phyllis tries to make things work with Walter, who shuts her down. She decides to kill her self and Walter choses to join her. With the final passage being a memoire that Walter is writning. The biggest difference to me is that the novel is left more open ended. We dont exactly know the fate of Phyllis and Walter but essentially know that they commit sucide together. Keyes doesn't notify the police, to save the company, and Walter is more amicably depicted in the novel. I enjoyed the ending of the novel more than the book. In the film Double Indemnity various aspects of film noir were aparent. In the film when something bad was happening the sceane would be in a darker setting. When Walter meet with Mr. Dietreckson to discuss insurance the setting had Phyllis above all the others, as to show if she was the one with all the power. In the end of the film when Walter shot Phyllis, he was standing above her to show how he had taken the power back. I enjoyed the film also, but did perfer reading the novel.