The endings of James M. Cain's novel, Double Indemnity, and Billy Wilder's
adaptation of said novel, are quite different and for good reason. Cain's
ending is strange and quick; whereas Wilder's ending is more drawn out and
dramatic, each working towards their given their mediums' styles.
Cain's novel is the first person
narrative account of Walter Huff, as a confession from a hospital bed and more. His account takes the reader from his first
interaction with Phyllis Nirdlinger, through their plotting and eventual murder
of her husband, and ultimately to their mutual betrayals and suicide.
Throughout much of the novel the reader is unaware of the passage of time as it
builds towards the present, and in the end, when the narrative timeline melds
with the narrator's life the novel suddenly ends. Cain's novel concludes with
an injured Walter, penning his final accounts, as he and a strangely garbed Phyllis
prepare to leap from an aft deck of a cruise ship, into shark infested waters. His
decision to die was the result of his intense reflection, via his confession,
at the ruination of his life, for which Phyllis had aided so thoroughly,
supported by a still bleeding wound. He
had helped plot and kill her husband, then had planned to kill her in order
cover up the first. She too had decided her accomplice must die, but was
quicker at the draw and had shot Walter in the chest. She had agreed to take
the plunge because she realized that the wake of death she had left throughout
her life had finally caught up with her, and that she would have to pay for her
crimes.
Wilder's film is a similar story, with
an alternate ending. The film opens with an injured Walter Neff as he struggles
to recount the tragic events following his meeting with the beautifully
dangerous Phyllis Dietrichson. The plot develops through a series of flashbacks
which depict the lovers scheming, and carrying out the elaborate murder of
Phyllis's husband for a large insurance payout. The lover's lives then disintegrate
as they attempt to cope with the ramifications of their actions. All of this
being narrated by Neff, into his bosses Dictaphone, and carried over the flashbacks.
The audience is aware that the story being told is of recent past events, and of
the passage of time by the occasional reappearance of the narrator, looking
more haggard and frail as his tale and the night progress, and the bloodstain
on his jacket widens. Wilder's film glosses over much of Phyllis's depraved and
wretched past, and paints her in a much softer light. In fact, the idea to kill
her is ultimately put into Walters' head by his boss, Barton Keyes, and not as
the result of discovering her duplicitous and manipulative past. Walter then arranges
a meeting where he murders Phyllis after she shoots him in the chest. After
realizing the wound is serious, he rushes into Keyes office to give his
statement. The film ends as Neff dies in Keyes' arms after his confession is interrupted
and he begs to be let free.
Cain's ending is more in line with the conventions
of film noir, because of its strangeness and darkness. Wilder's ending was too
drawn out, and dramatic. A good noir ending should leave the audience a little
stunned and questioning the conventions that they had drawn within their minds.
It should be dark, with a glimmer of light brightening it ever so slightly; like
a white faced, scarlet clad Phyllis leaping to her death under the soft glow of
moonlight. The film's ending was strange, but in a different, unsatisfying way.
Walter dies, cradled in his mentor's arms after attempting to escape. Phyllis
is killed, but not the depraved, psychotic, and manipulative paperbound
version, her softer less crazy film version. In the novel you root for her
demise, but in the film it seems a bit excessive. Cain's ending was more
appropriate.
