MovieChat Forums > Double Indemnity (1944) Discussion > Walter's Front Door

Walter's Front Door

posted 8 years ago by daryl42
2 replies | jump to latest

I have to say that I've seen this film like 8 times and *every time* I notice how the front door of Walter's apartment swings the wrong way and every time it bugs me. It's just weird and distracting to me and I always wonder why they made the door swing the wrong way. I KNOW that there is a scene where Phyllis stands behind the door but that could have been easily accomplished that scene by having her run around the corner or something else.

You ever watch a movie where some small details grabs you and bugs you?

[–] Doghouse-6 8 years ago

Well, yeah, although none spring immediately to mind. Having long since become accustomed to that seeming architectural anomaly, what now bothers me about it is the way in which Stanwyck grips the doorknob with her downstage hand rather than her upstage one, making for a rather awkward-appearing pose.

Certainly, constructing the set in such a way as to give her a corner around which to duck might have been logically preferable, but would have allowed Phyllis no way to signal her presence to Walter, which she does by pulling gently on the exterior knob as he holds the interior one.

What I like very much about the sequence is the way in which it visually represents the thematic struggle between, in simplest terms, forces of good and evil for a man's soul: a deceptively simple longshot depicting Keyes - the "good' - at screen right and Phyllis - the "evil" - at screen left, with the frame neatly bisected by Walter, the man caught in the middle between those opposing forces both physically and morally.

Poe! You are...avenged!

[–] liscarkat (18373) 5 years ago

There was an episode of the television series "Sea Hunt" where Mike Nelson, the main character, lived in an apartment in which the main entry door opened outward, just like Neff's door in "Double Indemnity".