Visual and Performing Arts

Some like it cold: Fetishism in Billy Wilder's double indemnity

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This essay employs psychoanalytic theory to identify a fetishistic imperative in the perfect crime that Walter Neff endeavors to commit in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity. By favoring ongoing manipulation over goal, attainment and satisfaction, Walter Neff engages in a virtuoso cover-up that represents a paradigmatic noir deception, inviting viewers to fantasize that there may always he "more than meets the eye." © 2005 by the University of Texas Press.

Publication Title

Cinema Journal

Publication Date

2005

Volume

44

Issue

4

First Page

18

Last Page

43

ISSN

0009-7101

DOI

10.1353/cj.2005.0033

Keywords

Billy Wilder, Double Indemnity, film noir

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