there was a brief moment when the main guy (MacMurray) gave me a flash of the ultimate paragon of American lowlife masculinity, the main guy in Detour (Neal). the character of walter is a basic representation of what it means to be american…but the difference is that in Detour, it’s all in the performance and the film’s b-movie atmosphere. the script is incredibly spare. Double Indemnity is all script. the performances are great, but walter’s character is primarily expressed through dialogue. barbara stanwyck as phyllis is expressing a lot more through subtle body language and facial cues than her male counterpart. she needs to, in order to seed her character arc. walter is just the classic noir sucker. anyway, great movie, really well written, incredible performance from the leading lady, the guy is fine; it’s clearly a “prestige” film.