Name:______
Date:______
Sequence-by-Sequence Outline: Double Indemnity (Wilder, 1944)
After each of the movie’s scenes/sequences (the terms are interchangeable), please pause it and write a brief (1-3 sentence) plot summary: What just happened in that scene?
In the left-hand column, I have provided the film-time at which that sequence ends. (The time is indicated in “Hour: Minutes: Seconds.”) I have also provided summaries for the first several sequences, just to show you the kind of thing I’m looking for.
If the film-times in your version of the movie vary substantially from what is indicated in this handout, do the best you can, stopping at what seems to you to be the end of each scene.
There will be a quiz on the movie on Monday, October 30, and you should have watched it with your full attention twice before that. (In order to remember its plot details, yoursecond viewing should be, ideally, just a day or two before the 30th.)
During your first viewing, don’t take notes--just watch. During your second viewing, work on this outline. (Your second viewing will take much longer, because you’ll be watching, pausing, writing, then repeating.) To give you a little breather, though, the finished outline isn’t due until the next day,at the beginning of class on Tuesday, October 31. This exercise is worth 10 points.
End TimeSummary
TitlesMan with crutches walks towards camera.
-1:56Out of control car driving through city streets; parks in front of building.
-3:38Man gets out of car, takes elevator to office.
-7:12Man, clearly injured, talks into recording machine. A memo from “Walter Neff to Barton Keyes, Claims Manager”--a “confession”? Talks about taking a look “at that Dietrichson claim”--it was murder, but “you picked the wrong guy,” b/c “I killed Dietrichson . . . for $, and for a woman.”
-12:33f.b. (flashback): 1st meeting w/ Phyllis: Neff asks about renewing Phyllis’s husband’s car insurance, but she asks about accident insurance. He’s clearly attracted to her, and they arrange for him to come by the next evening.
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