Similar Conflicts, Different Models: In Birth of a Nation and Double Indemnity

   
The films The Birth of a Nation and Double Indemnity only seem to treat femininity in very different ways.  In Birth of a Nation women were depicted as weak flighty girls that needed to be taken care of, while in Double Indemnity women, in the example of Phyllis, were cunning and strong-willed.  The use of narration as well as cinematic codes such as lighting and color, impart the notion that women need men to be in control.  This traditional role of femininity is upheld in Birth of a Nation, while in Double Indemnity it is purposely challenged because of the changing ideologies due to the Second World War.  Although women are depicted so differently in the two films, the message concerning male fear of women gaining too much power is actually very similar.  

Before comparing the roles each woman plays in her respective films, one must first look at the context in which each of these films were made.  Birth of a Nation was filmed in 1915 during a time in which America was just beginning to become a world power.  Women, even mild-mannered housewives, became suffragettes.  While these women weren’t trying to leave behind their traditional roles of a domestic wife and mother, they were attempting to let it be known that they deserved a voice.  Even this push for a small voice threatened male sovereignty.  Rogin speaks of this “New Woman” in his commentary on Birth of a Nation.  He remarks that women “represented the modern city” and they were “imagined as monstrous and chameleon-like” even when described in the avenue of reproduction and fertility (Rogin 9).  We can see a reaction to the power of the “New Woman” in the way that racial tensions concerning black men and white women are addressed in Birth of a Nation.  Many of the interactions between black men and white women in Birth, concentrate on control over women’s sexuality and their reproduction.  The Little Pet Sister would rather jump off a cliff and die than be raped by Gus.  It took the entire KKK to save Elsie from a forced marriage to Lynch.  Images of the struggle for power over reproduction through the white woman shows what an important role woman had at this time.  The fight over women’s fertility put white females on a pedestal and in a place of prestige but only gave them limited power.  They did not really have any say over whether a white or black man controlled them.  While white women were obviously important to the culture, they were only beginning to struggle for more personal power by fighting for women’s suffrage and getting involved in social causes.  These new endeavors and the search for power within them was what threatened the “traditional patriarchal forms” (Rogin 9) of American culture in 1915, and what prompted Griffith to idealize the traditional model of femininity. 
 
Double Indemnity was filmed in the 1940s in the midst of WWII.  The status quo was being challenged, in the sense that women began working in traditionally male factory jobs, while the men were overseas fighting in the war.  As pointed out in “Film Noir: Somewhere in the Night” with more and more women working outside the home in masculine jobs many men felt threatened by women’s new found independence.  Traditionalist feared that the family and marriage would fall by the wayside and time-honored American values would follow.  The femme fatale, in the form of Mrs. Dietrichson, was meant to be an example to all of what would happen if women gained too much power and independence when they left the home to work (Belton 91-93).  The women of Birth of a Nation would never have had a job.  Their main purpose was to be married and reproduce, and we see that in the emphasis put on the marriages that happen at the end of the movie.  All is right when the two couples are wed and the women, along with the African Americans, are put in their traditional roles of subservience.  Even though Phyllis is only a housewife when she meets Walter, it’s important to remember that she did once work as a nurse.  This brings up the question: Can women who have worked outside the home ever really return to their roles as wives and mothers, or will they be corrupted?  This was a question on the minds of many Americans during the filming of Double Indemnity as well as other Film Noir productions.  The ending of Double Indemnity answers the question in a drastically harsh manner.  The only way that Phyllis can be controlled is if Walter kills her.  She has proven to be too deceitful and coldhearted.  Her expression of love for Walter at the very end as he is pointing a gun at her is a little too convenient, especially considering her previous actions. The lesson supposedly learned from this film is that women who have too much power must be eliminated in order to control them.  On the other hand women who do not overtly try to take power, like Elsie, are allowed to be married, even though this is really just another form of control. 

The different ways that women are portrayed in the two films, demonstrates the level of control needed to contain each woman.  Birth of Nation depicts women such as Elsie Stoneman as generally flighty, weak, driven by emotion, and incapable of taking care of themselves.  In contrast Phyllis Dietrichson from Double Indemnity is a calculating coldhearted woman who knows how to use men to get what she wants.  She doesn’t need men or love to survive or make her happy.  There is one important similarity between Elsie and Phyllis.  Both women do have opinions of their own.  Even though Elsie was, in general, very flighty she did have a political opinion as seen in her disagreement with the Little Colonel’s involvement with the Klan.  Perhaps it is because she has these opinions that Elsie’s marriage, and subsequent containment, is such an important element in the plot throughout the movie. Unlike Phyllis, Elsie seems to always be under some sort of male control.  When her father, Mr. Stoneman, leaves and there is no apparent male protector, Lynch sees that he is free to make a move on Elsie since she couldn’t possibly say no to him with no one there to tell her what to do.   He tries to force her into marriage with him and the only way Elsie could possibly be saved is for the “valiant” men of the Klan to sweep her away from danger.  In contrast, Phyllis cleverly scams Walter Neff the second he walks into her home.  She flirts with him, using her beauty to lure him into her web of lies and murder.  She convinces Walter to actually kill her husband without ever directly asking him.  It takes masterful cunning to get her way but, as a classic femme fatale, Phyllis is an expert.  Double Indemnity uses an ultra powerful woman as a warning to society about women’s growing influence.  In Birth of a Nation, the audience is constantly reminded that women need male control in order to survive.  This is done as a result of the increasing fear of “the New Woman” and her growing power. Griffith uses fragile female characters to try and idealize and uphold the traditional concept of women while Film Noir uses the femme fatale as a warning to society. 

The narrative and dialogue in both Birth of a Nation and Double Indemnity unlock a key element concerning the conflict in power between male and female characters.  In Birth, a key title page read, “Against the wishes of her brother, The Little Pet Sister went to the well by herself.”  This quote not only foreshadows danger for the Little Sister, it also shows how much control the Little Colonel had over her.  In turn, it demonstrates what Griffith hopes to impart as the proper power model between a man and a woman.  It implies that if the Little Sister would only listen to her male protector she would remain safe.  The fact that the Little Sister does end up in trouble, and actually dies, is supposed to demonstrate how much women really needed men in their lives to control them.  A very different conversation between Walter and Phyllis carries the same message but delivers it in a completely different package.  The dialogue between Phyllis and Mr. Neff when they first meet shows Phyllis manipulating Walter, using her sex appeal and conniving scheme to trick him.  She uses a flirty sexy voice when she asks, “Is there anything I can do?”  The verbal repartee between them, when Phyllis coyly reminds Neff that there is a speed limit and he is going about 55 mph over it, shows how she controls the conversation by alternately accepting and rebuffing his advances.  She also uses flattery to distract Neff while she expertly mentions accident insurance.  The fact that Phyllis has so much power over Walter without ever letting him know it is what makes Mrs. Dietrichson so dangerous.  The control she has over Walter, defies social norms and it is precisely this influence that traditionalists in post war America were so afraid of. Instead of using the women in the movie as an example for other women, like Birth of a Nation, Double Indemnity reacts by using the femme fatale as an example of what might happen to society if women get too much control. 

Another way this message is manifested is through the cinematic codes in film.  Both movies use similar lighting and visual effects concerning the female characters.  Elsie Stoneman is overtly white, with her light hair and clothes as well as an exaggerated amount of actual light that always seems to encircle her face.  Mrs. Dietrchson’s character wears a platinum wig and noticeably puts on a white dress when she comes down to talk with Mr. Neff after their official meeting.  It’s no mistake that Phyllis chose that white dress.  She uses this façade of purity to try and fool Walter into believing that she is just a harmless housewife with a cruel and domineering husband.  All of this light or white imagery is meant to impart purity and innocence.  In Birth of a Nation the women really are pure and this imagery just solidifies their character roles.  In Double Indemnity however it is interesting to note that Phyllis wears a dark coat and hat the night she drives her husband to the train, the same night that she helps Walter carry out the plan to kill him.  She wears noticeably darker clothing during the end of the movie when her real colors show.  Phyllis tries to hide behind the mask of a traditional woman using color and cunning words, but her costume can only hide so much. 
   
The women in these two films are really described in contrast to their male counterparts.  Elsie and the Little Pet are offset by very strong male characters such as the Little Colonel, Lynch, Gus, as well as the whole KKK.  Phyllis Dietrichson totally controls Mr. Neff while making seem as if everything was his idea from the beginning.  It is important not only to look at the women in these two films but also the men involved with them.  Lynch is voted to a position of power even though he is a man of color.  He takes control of the city and has more power than some white men in the town.  By the end of the movie the Little Colonel is strong, resourceful, and intelligent.  He becomes part of a gang of “protectors of the South” and he is in charge of keeping his family together.  It is interesting to note however, that the Little Colonel does not start out as a terribly powerful man.  Alone, he couldn’t save his little sister from Gus and he couldn’t do anything about all the “colored men” in charge of the town and legislature.  It takes his involvement with the Klan to elevate him to a position of power.  It is the Klan as a group that avenges his younger sister’s death, and the Klan who puts the town to rights by crushing the power of the black men and putting them in their “proper” place.   Without the Klan behind him, the Little Colonel doesn’t really have any power.  This fact speaks about the vulnerability that men felt during the time of Reconstruction in the South, but also in 1915 when the film was made.   This feeling of vulnerability is also seen in Double Indemnity in Mr. Neff’s character.  Walter is the classic bachelor with no women to take care of him besides a “colored maid” as Phyllis finds out in their first meeting.  He acts as if he has everything under control and as if he is the brains of the operation while in reality it is Phyllis who tricked him into getting involved in the first place.  It is in Phyllis’ ultimate control, and the fatal consequences that take place, that the fear of women’s power can be identified in this film.  

The changing ideals in the United States from the early 1900s to post war America can be seen in the roles of women and the different constructions of femininity in film.  Women in 1915 were fighting for the vote and women of the 1940s were gaining independence by working outside the home.  In both time periods, men worried that their statues was being threatened by a more liberated woman.  Double Indemnity and Birth of a Nation use a different construction of women to impart a similar message.  The Birth of a Nation idealizes the traditional role of the subservient, weak minded woman, hoping to lead with an example of how proper women should act.  Double Indemnity challenges this idea and instead introduces the femme fatal who is really an embodiment of a 1940s traditionalist’s greatest fear, an independent woman who cares nothing for marriage or family.  Despite the different models of women, both films deal with growing social discontent concerning gender roles and traditional American ideals. 

Page Last Updated 11/19/03
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