I believe that Phyllis was the smartest person in the film. She knew how to work with what she had. Walter Neff quickly falls for Dietrichson. The way she came to him in his apartment and swooned over him in the short amount of time they had known each other should have been a tip-off to Neff that she was a little crazy. He had been working in the insurance business long enough to know how to kill Mr. Dietrichson properly and he should have spotted what Phyllis was trying to do. He was too quick to trust her and her intentions.
Meg: can you spend some time discussing the image you included in your post? This still seems like a great way to support your ideas in your first paragraph.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when you write: "I believe that Phyllis was the smartest person in the film. She knew how to work with what she had." what do you mean by "work with what she had"? Are you talking about her sexuality? About Walter Neff and how she "had" him?
Phyllis is definitely the definition of a femme fatale, however I don't think she was the smartest person in the film. Although she was able to seduce Neff and convince him to kill off her husband, her plans quickly crumbled soon after the crime. For one, she was not able to keep Walter in the dark about her true intentions, and she also ended up dying before successfully claiming the money. Had she been a little more secretive (perhaps waited before trying to kill off Neff and Lola), I think she could have obtained the money and fled the state. I do agree though, that she was capable of hooking Walter's attention in an impressively short amount of time. Her manipulative personality helped her do the crime, but in the end, did not convince Neff to continue to obey her.
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