Straight down the line for both of us, BABY

Phyllis Dietrichson is the quintessential femme fatale. Not only is she good at what she does but she is fully committed to her job. I say job because for her this is a career. We find out from Lola that this is not the first time she has killed to get what she wants. Now the murder is not the only ingredient in a perfect femme fatale. At the introduction of the film, we have an idea of what is to come but I gave Phyllis the benefit of the doubt. I was fooled. I thought she was truly in love with Walter. The one thing that caused me to think more highly of her was Walter’s initial skepticism towards her line of questioning about the accident insurance. In a few lines of dialogue he predicts correctly the rest of the film. I assumed that when he showed his understanding of the shady situation that meant that he was a smart man. So, I initially trusted the rest of the decisions he made. Therefore, when he decided that he would go along with Phyllis I decided myself that there had to be something that could come out of this. Foolish me, I forgot that this was film noir. I should have realized that the film started at the top and went straight into the ground, literally. However, we must all give Phyllis a great deal of credit for turning such a learned, correctly observing man into a murderer. She took an insurance salesman and lured him into committing murder and insurance fraud. Funny how love works in mysterious ways.