The last time I saw "Double Indemnity," it struck me that Keyes and Walter are kind of a twisted/dark version of the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin partnership, in Rex Stout's "Nero Wolfe" novels. Have you read those? The relationship is sort of hard to describe -- Holmes/Watson as filtered through 1940s crime fiction. A cranky, jaded undeniable genius boss-man who likes to lecture and a smooth, fast-talking, smart but rough around the edges protégé who's always poking to find out where a person's weak spots are. So yeah, Keyes and Walter...
But there's also something Wolfean about the unspoken emotional dynamic between Keyes and Walter, where even though it's Walter narrating the story he can't quite gloss over the part where (as you said) this story REALLY isn't about Walter being suckered by lust or greed in the form of a femme fatale. A lot of it is about Keyes too, and *just how important* it seems to be to Walter, to be able to beat "the Man" as embodied by Keyes. (A recurring theme in the Wolfe books is whether or not Wolfe and Archie can successfully lie to or manipulate each other-- again, sort of Holmes/Watson-y, if Watson were 90% as good a detective as Holmes and also hella competitive.)
no subject
The last time I saw "Double Indemnity," it struck me that Keyes and Walter are kind of a twisted/dark version of the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin partnership, in Rex Stout's "Nero Wolfe" novels. Have you read those? The relationship is sort of hard to describe -- Holmes/Watson as filtered through 1940s crime fiction. A cranky, jaded undeniable genius boss-man who likes to lecture and a smooth, fast-talking, smart but rough around the edges protégé who's always poking to find out where a person's weak spots are. So yeah, Keyes and Walter...
But there's also something Wolfean about the unspoken emotional dynamic between Keyes and Walter, where even though it's Walter narrating the story he can't quite gloss over the part where (as you said) this story REALLY isn't about Walter being suckered by lust or greed in the form of a femme fatale. A lot of it is about Keyes too, and *just how important* it seems to be to Walter, to be able to beat "the Man" as embodied by Keyes. (A recurring theme in the Wolfe books is whether or not Wolfe and Archie can successfully lie to or manipulate each other-- again, sort of Holmes/Watson-y, if Watson were 90% as good a detective as Holmes and also hella competitive.)