I’m watching the movie right now on TCM. It’s one of my all-time favorites.
The following exchange takes place near the beginning of the film, when Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck first meet:
Phyllis: Neff is the name, isn’t it? Walter Neff: Yeah. Two "F"s, like in Philadelphia, if you know the story. Phyllis: What story? Walter Neff: The Philadelphia Story.
Am I missing something here? Was there some reason for mentioning The Philadelphia Story?
Was this an allusion or an inside joke of some sort? It seems unlikely, since I see no connection between the two movies. Moreover, while Double Indemnity was filmed in 1944, it’s set in 1938. The play The Philadelphia Story debuted on Broadway in 1939, and the movie adaptation was released in 1940.
Walter tended to be kind of flip a lot of the time, I always assumed it was just a joke. Although now I see it was an anachronistic joke. Still, not what I’d call a big goof.
It’s in the first line of Neff’s dictaphone confession at the start of the film. I have no idea why they chose that year. The book doesn’t use that framing device; it’s just a first person narrative that starts with the visit to his victim and co-conspirator’s house.
The date Neff uses in his confession (16 July) was Barbara Stanwyck’s birthday IRL.
I wonder too about the 1938 dating. The murder on which the book was based was committed in 1927. The book itself was originally presented in the form of a serial in Liberty magazine in 1936, and the property was then shopped around Hollywood. The major studios were interested but couldn’t proceed because of the Hayes Code.
A revised script was submitted eight years later and approved. I would guess the date in the original script remained the same, and no one thought of substituting 1944 for 1938.
The only other thing I can think of is that audiences in 1944 might have wondered why a man so relatively young and obviously healthy wasn’t in uniform. Unless, of course, insurance salesmen were vital to the war effort.
Hell of a performance for a six year-old! And, yeah, I think you’re right about wanting to set the story pre-war. Not just because of the protagonist’s age, but also things like no gas rationing, civilian rail travel and other things that would look out of place in 1944.
I wonder now if the exchange between Neff and Phyllis wasn’t just an ad-lib that slipped past in the dailies. Still, MacMurray should have known it was out of place (or time).
It’s on page 11 of the script. It’s too good a line to throw away just because the years don’t line up. Audiences back then just weren’t as picky as we are now.
Earlier versions of the script may have set the film later and then they changed the date but it didn’t occur to them that the joke was anachronistic. Or they liked the joke so much that they didn’t care.
Other errors…
The bachelor Neff wears MacMurray’s wedding band throughout the film.
Near the end of the film we hear the 1941 song Tangerine playing on Stanwyck’s radio or record player.
Ooh, I was just coming it to mention that, I noticed it yesterday, I think in the grocery store scene near the end.
The music in that scene (if this is the scene where a gun is fired…) was coming from outside, presumably the house next door; that’s why he closes the window (he says) and then gratuitously closes the drapes
Now I have another question: was he dumb enough to walk into that house unarmed? He had a plan for getting out of the situation, was it just the one that he told to her, i.e. to let the young guy go down for the murder and her as an accomplice? Or did he have a backup plan to kill her? I couldn’t quite remember everything he said both in the scene and in the voiceover.
Yes, you’re right. I need to watch this again. The last time I saw it, I was paying more attention to the shadows than the story which is really quite good. Style and substance.
I think he went there intending to kill her. A little earlier, he says something to the effect of, “That’s the first time I thought of her that way. Dead.”
