Blog entry # 3 (Detective Keyes)

One of the characteristic of film noir is that there is usually crimes involve, and when there’s a crime, it only takes couple characters to write an effective story, the killer, victim a witness and the detective. We already know that the killers in the story Double Indemnity are Walter and Phyllis, and the victims are Mr. Nirdlinger, Lola, Lola’s mother, Sachetti and the three kids murdered by our femme fatal. Murder is a problem, often times a mystery and when there’s a problem, we look for solutions or find answers.

In this story, Mr. Keyes assumes the role of a hard-boiled detective. He works at the company for a long period of time and he knows everything about it, he is someone who is hard to fool when it comes to the business because he handled million of them and he’s aware that people are willing to kill for money, not only that he is knowledgeable about the company but what makes him a good detective is his personality “He’s big and fat and peevish, and on top of that he’s a theorist, and it makes your head ache to be around him, but he’s the best claim man on the coast, and he was the one I was afraid of” (56) He is suitable on this role because he’s  a very curious guy like how Walter described him he is a theorist. He assumes everything and wants to know everything, I don’t think it’s about the money or the company anymore but he just want to uncover the truth behind Mr. Nirdlinger’s death. He study and analyze every possible things that happened in the accident and surprisingly got most of them right, He is certain that it is a murder and not suicide; he knows how a criminal like Walter thinks. He looks beyond the situation or facts that are presented. He even figured out that Mr. Nirdlinger was never on the train, that he has to get rid of that guy Jackson, Keyes know that no one would really recognize the Nirdlinger because it’s dark and he’s wearing an eye glass, just like how Walter thought about it. Another quality of Keyes that made him a detective type is that he is persistent ,the argument he had with Mr. Norton whether it’s a suicide or not shows how hard headed he is “…All right he wants to wait her out, make her sue-that suits me. He’s going to cover the dead man, find out what he can about why he may be committed suicide. That suits me; I am going to cover her” (67). Keyes truly play the detective role well because he scared Walter and that’s the reason why he thought of killing Phyllis, he knows Phyllis can turn him in, at that time Walter knows Keyes got him.

            Keyes character is pretty obvious, we already know he is the major detective in this story but I also thought Sachetti made his little share of curiosity. Unlike Keyes, Sachetti did everything secretly, I think he did a pretty good job; he played it safe by sleeping with his enemy. He’s investigating about the death of his father and the murder of the 3 kids. He pretends that he likes Phyllis so he can be closer to her but he didn’t expect that he will fall in love with Lola, I actually like that idea, I think he is the only person who played Phyllis and manipulated her in some way.