Phyllis Dietrichson (Phyllis Nirdlinger, in the book) is a fictional character in the book and two film adaptations of
James M. Cain's
novella ''
Double Indemnity''. For the 1944 film of the
same name,
Barbara Stanwyck was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Actress
The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year ...
. The character is considered one of the best
femme fatale roles in
film noir history. The character was ranked as the #8 film villain of the first 100 years of American cinema by the
American Film Institute in the
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains.
Character biography
In both the novella and films, she meets her husband's
insurance
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...
agent, Walter Neff (
Fred MacMurray) to help her
murder her husband. They first trick her husband, Mr. Dietrichson, into signing a life insurance policy without his knowledge. The policy has a
double indemnity clause whereby the
company agrees to pay double the face amount in the contract in cases of accidental death. They later murder her husband and try to make it seem like an accident on a train in an attempt to invoke the policy's double indemnity clause. Although they succeed, Phyllis soon runs into problems in trying to invoke the clause and collect the money.
The next day, much to her dismay, Phyllis finds out that the company has refused to pay the double indemnity clause for they did not know about Mr. Dietrichson's broken leg before his death. Their suspicions catch the attention of Neff's boss, Barton Keyes, who encourages them to investigate, making both her and Neff nervous. Phyllis realizes too late that Dietrichson eventually found out about her plan to murder him and changed his will to spite her. He left the inheritance to his daughter (her
stepdaughter), Lola and thus leaving her with nothing. Phyllis knows her stepdaughter is a threat to her because Lola suspects her of murdering her father in a similar manner to her mother, and tries to get Neff to kill Lola (which fails after he befriends Lola and learns more about her family's tragic past). Phyllis must also contend with the inquisitive Keyes, who suspects she was involved in the murder of Mr. Dietrichson; he believes her accomplice was Nino, whom she was secretly meeting. She tries to kill Neff to clean up any loose ends, but can't fire the last shot because she has fallen in love with him. Neff does not believe Phyllis, calling her a rotten, manipulative woman, and kills her in the ensuing struggle. After killing her, Neff meets Nino outside and convinces him not to go inside the house, but to the woman who truly loves him.
After doing so, a wounded Neff returns to his place of work and confesses to his wrongdoing in his office, via
Dictaphone
Dictaphone was an American company founded by Alexander Graham Bell
that produced dictation machines. It is now a division of Nuance Communications, based in Burlington, Massachusetts.
Although the name "Dictaphone" is a trademark, it has ...
. Keyes comes in and overhears his confession that he murdered both Mr. Dietrichson and Phyllis. He informs Neff that the police are coming over to arrest him for the murders. As he tries to escape, planning to live out his life in Mexico rather than face the
death penalty, Neff collapses to the floor near the elevator. Keyes offers him a cigarette, as they wait for the police to arrest Neff for killing the couple.
Casting
Phyllis was so iniquitous that Stanwyck,
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-American filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Hol ...
's first choice for the role in the 1944 film, was reluctant to take it. Wilder was persistent, however, and Stanwyck eventually relented; she said thereafter it was one of the best roles she had ever played.
Novel vs film
In James M. Cain's original novella, the character is named Phyllis Nirdlinger (Wilder changed the name for the film adaptation, as he thought it sounded too comical). In the novella, Phyllis is a former nurse who was suspected of killing several children in her care; the case was dropped for lack of evidence. Also, in the novel's climax, she escapes with Neff (here called Huff) and goes away with him on an ocean liner; there, she kills him, too. It is implied at the end of the novel she will be arrested.
Details
*The character was based upon real-life murderer
Ruth Snyder
Ruth Brown Snyder (March 27, 1895 – January 12, 1928) was an American murderer. Her execution in the electric chair at New York's Sing Sing Prison in 1928 for the murder of her husband, Albert Snyder, was recorded in a highly publicized photogr ...
. The
photo
A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now crea ...
of Snyder's execution in the
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about north of ...
electric chair
An electric chair is a device used to execute an individual by electrocution. When used, the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes fastened on the head and leg. This execution method, ...
, run on the cover of the January 13, 1928 ''
New York Daily News'' with the one-word headline DEAD!, has been called the most famous newsphoto of the 1920s.
Among top-ranked villains on screen
In addition to being ranked in 2005 the #8 film villain of the first 100 years of American cinema by the
American Film Institute, Phyllis can be found on other such lists of evil characters.
Richard Corliss
Richard Nelson Corliss (March 6, 1944 – April 23, 2015) was an American film critic and magazine editor for ''Time''. He focused on movies, with occasional articles on other subjects.
He was the former editor-in-chief of '' Film Commen ...
, the former editor-in-chief of ''
Film Comment
''Film Comment'' is the official publication of Film at Lincoln Center. It features reviews and analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. Founded in 1962 and originally released as a quarterly, ''Film Co ...
'' and a notable film critic for ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine, ranked Stanwyck's portrayal of Phyllis #5 on his 2007 list of the "Top 25 Greatest Villains" in cinema history, placing her just ahead of
Ann Savage's character Vera in the cross-country crime drama ''
Detour
__NOTOC__
A detour or (British English: diversion) is a (normally temporary) route taking traffic around an area of prohibited or reduced access, such as a construction site. Standard operating procedure for many roads departments is to route an ...
'' (1945).
[Corliss, Richard]
"Top 25 Greatest Villains / Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson"
''Time'' (New York, N.Y.), April 25, 2007. Retrieved November 17, 2020. As part of his assessment of Phyllis, Corliss pities poor Walter and marvels at his blindness to pure evil:
In other media
Samantha Eggar
Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar (born 5 March 1939) is a retired British-American actress. After beginning her career in Shakespearean theatre she rose to fame for her performance in William Wyler's thriller '' The Collec ...
portrayed Dietrichson in a 1973 made-for-television remake.
The Double Indemnity murder
accessed 1-4-2016
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dietrichson, Phyllis
Fictional serial killers
Thriller film characters
Characters in American novels of the 20th century
Literary characters introduced in 1943
Female literary villains
Female film villains
Fictional characters based on real people
Fictional murderers of children
Fictional murdered people