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Some Like It Cold: Fetishism in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity
- Cinema Journal
- University of Texas Press
- 44, Number 4, Summer 2005
- pp. 18-43
- 10.1353/cj.2005.0033
- Article
- Additional Information
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."