Paranoia and Entrapment in Double Indemnity and Detour

Introduction: Film Noir and the American Psyche

Film noir can be described as "murder with a psychological twist" (Spicer 1). As a genre that flourished during the 1940s, film noir came to reflect the anxiety, pessimism, and paranoia that pervaded post-war America (20). In Anatomy of Film, Bernard Dick writes, "The world of film noir is one of paranoia and entrapment, of forces bearing down on the individuals that are too overwhelming to resist." Entrapment and paranoia are prominent concepts in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity and Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour, and both films use these themes to exploit the dark side of the American Dream.

Entrapment and Paranoia in Double Indemnity

In Double Indemnity, Phyllis Dietrichson, a bored housewife, manipulates Walter Neff, an insurance salesman, into securing accident insurance for her husband and helping her kill him. From the moment Phyllis reveals her plan to Walter, he becomes a co-conspirator — not because he refuses to participate in her scheme, but because he does nothing to stop her. After Walter agrees to participate and becomes further embroiled in Phyllis's plan, he grows more and more trapped. As Walter states, "That was it, Keyes. The machinery had started to move and nothing could stop it" (Double Indemnity; Silver & Ursini 15).

Phyllis and Walter realize that they cannot betray each other without implicating themselves. Moreover, Walter also risks betraying Lola Dietrichson — with whom he has developed a friendship — if she ever discovers the role he played in her father's death. The bond between Phyllis and Walter can only be severed if one or both of them die, and the severance of their relationship would mean an end to their entrapment. Phyllis believes that in order to succeed and be "free," she must destroy all evidence linking her to the death of the first Mrs. Dietrichson and the death of Mr. Dietrichson.

To this end, Phyllis also manipulates Nino Zachetti — Lola Dietrichson's on-and-off boyfriend — into visiting her after Mr. Dietrichson's death, inadvertently entrapping him as a pawn in her scheme. Throughout the film, Phyllis continuously entraps the men she encounters: she seduces Mr. Dietrichson and manipulates him into marriage, seduces Walter and uses him to help commit the murder, and manipulates Nino in an attempt to tie up any loose ends. Through this cyclical entrapment of the men in her life, Phyllis unknowingly entraps herself.

The ultimate form of entrapment would be getting caught by the authorities, and it is this fear that generates paranoia within Walter. Because Walter knows that his boss, Barton Keyes, has the ability to differentiate between legitimate and fraudulent insurance claims, Walter designs what he considers the "perfect" plan. His paranoia dictates how and when he and Phyllis meet to conspire, and determines how, when, and where they will kill Mr. Dietrichson (Double Indemnity). Paranoia similarly shapes Phyllis's approach: she feigns concern for her husband's safety due to his dangerous work in the oil fields, using his occupation as a pretext for taking out an accident insurance policy on him. It is this feigned paranoia that sets their plan in motion.

Entrapment as a Consequence of Paranoia in Detour

As if the $50,000 available if Mr. Dietrichson died by conventional means — such as a car crash — were not enough, Phyllis wants the full $100,000 that the policy could potentially pay out under a specific set of circumstances. In a sense, Double Indemnity is laden with McCarthyist undertones, as Phyllis seeks to undermine "the fabric of American society and values" by pursuing the American Dream through murder, greed, and deception (Spicer 21).

Similarly, in Detour, Al Roberts inadvertently becomes entrapped in a criminal conspiracy while hitchhiking from New York City to Los Angeles to reunite with his love, Sue Harvey. Unlike Double Indemnity, where paranoia is a consequence of entrapment, in Detour entrapment is a consequence of paranoia. It is Roberts's paranoia about how he will be perceived that leads him to assume the identity of Charles Haskell, Jr. after Haskell succumbs to a heart condition in his sleep while Roberts takes a turn at the wheel en route to Los Angeles.

In A Panorama of American Film Noir: 1941–1953, Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton contend that good and evil are intrinsically intertwined and often merge into each other (12). This concept is vividly illustrated through Roberts as he transitions from an innocent man into a murderer. Roberts is "convinced that his vagrant status will prejudice the law against him" and therefore feels compelled to assume the identity of someone who is not a vagrant (Silver & Ursini 28). Consequently, Roberts "makes the accident appear to be a crime and takes Haskell's identity, thus guaranteeing a murder charge if he is caught" (28). It is through this first action that Roberts becomes entrapped — an entrapment of his own making that could have been prevented had he told the truth, since it is likely he would not have been implicated once the police determined that Haskell died from a pre-existing heart condition, an allegation supported by the heart pills Haskell kept in the glove compartment (Detour).

Roberts becomes further entrapped when he picks up Vera, who knew Haskell personally and therefore knows Roberts has assumed his identity. Vera uses this knowledge to blackmail Roberts into complying with her demands. She also secures his criminal status by forcing him to maintain Haskell's identity, even though Roberts had planned to abandon Haskell's car and reassume his real identity upon reaching San Bernardino or another large city. Vera's blackmailing deepens the entrapment: Roberts cannot escape her without revealing his true identity and implicating himself in Haskell's death. Nor can he turn Vera in without implicating himself in the conspiracy to swindle Charles Haskell, Sr. out of money — a conspiracy originally devised between Haskell Sr.'s legitimate son and Vera, though Haskell Jr. had also plotted to pose as a Bible salesman to extort money from his father.

Tragically, Roberts ends up killing Vera in a paranoid attempt to prevent her from calling the police. Ironically, by assuming Haskell's identity, Roberts became exactly the man he never wanted to be: a vagrant and a criminal. Even though Roberts escapes Vera's clutches, his guilt over her death and all the events that transpired forever prevent him from reaching Sue, and he thus becomes entrapped by his own conscience. As he continues on his way, he is eventually picked up by the police, and the cycle of entrapment is completed.

Conclusion: The Dark Side of the American Dream

Double Indemnity and Detour demonstrate how paranoia and entrapment shape the behavior of characters caught up in criminal conspiracies. Furthermore, the actions taken by these characters illuminate the seedy underbelly of the American Dream and the extreme lengths to which people will go in order to obtain what they desire.