Blog 4: Alternate Endings

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.