Walter Neff

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Walter Neff is the cynical insurance salesman and antihero of Billy Wilder’s classic film noir "Double Indemnity," whose affair with a femme fatale draws him into a calculated murder and insurance fraud scheme.

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Statements (44)

Predicate Object
instanceOf antihero
fictional character
film character
accompliceOf Phyllis Dietrichson NERFINISHED
appearsIn Double Indemnity NERFINISHED
associatedWithGenreTropes crime of passion
fatalism
femme fatale entanglement
basedOn character in James M. Cain's novella Double Indemnity
characterTrait cynical
morally ambiguous
world-weary
confessesTo Barton Keyes (via dictaphone message) NERFINISHED
confidant Barton Keyes NERFINISHED
countryOfOriginOfWork United States of America
surface form: United States
createdBy Billy Wilder NERFINISHED
Raymond Chandler NERFINISHED
employer Pacific All Risk Insurance Company NERFINISHED
filmProductionCompanyOfWork Paramount Pictures NERFINISHED
firstAppearance Double Indemnity (1944 film) NERFINISHED
genreOfWork film noir
involvedIn insurance fraud scheme
murder plot
languageOfWork English
loveInterest Phyllis Dietrichson NERFINISHED
medium cinema
methodOfCrime double indemnity insurance policy scam
moralArc descent from opportunistic salesman to doomed criminal
motive desire for Phyllis Dietrichson
greed
narrates events of Double Indemnity into a dictaphone confession
narrativeRole protagonist
unreliable narrator
notableQuote I killed him for money and for a woman. I didn’t get the money and I didn’t get the woman.
notableRelationship mentor-mentee bond with Barton Keyes
occupation insurance salesman
outcome mortally wounded at the end of the film
portrayedBy Fred MacMurray NERFINISHED
screenTimeContext central character throughout Double Indemnity
screenWriterOfWork Billy Wilder NERFINISHED
Raymond Chandler NERFINISHED
settingOfActivities Los Angeles NERFINISHED
storyToldAs flashback confession
timePeriodOfStory early 1940s

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Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Double Indemnity mainCharacter Walter Neff