Some Like It Cold: Fetishism in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity

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 be "more than meets the eye."