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Double Indemnity is an absolute classic piece of film noir, and, like most classics of film noir, it relies heavily on motifs, both of the aural and the visual variety. Among the various motifs are the venetian blinds, the honeysuckle outside the Dietrichson house, and Walter’s repeated use of the word "baby." However, one of the most interesting motifs in the film is the visual motif of a character striking a match. Director Billy Wilder must have thought the striking of a match was an interesting motif as well. Not only does he include a nice even number of instances where a character strikes a match (a dozen instances, in fact), but each of the instances signifies an important development in the plot. It is arguable that the striking match is the most significant motif in the whole picture.

The film opens with Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) about to dictate into the Dictaphone a confession the he has killed not only Mr. Dietrichson (Tom Powers) but Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck) as well. The confession is what makes up the bulk of Double Indemnity; the film is largely told in an extended flashback. Just before he begins his confession, Walter strikes a match with his bare thumb; this is the way he will strike a match throughout the film. At first glance, it is highly unlikely that a viewer will think anything of this initial instance of Walter striking the match. However, as repeated viewings of the film make clear, it is indeed important. As soon as Walter strikes the match, and lights his cigarette with the match, he begins dictating his confession. As Walter knows, after he makes the confession, there will be no turning back. What Walter does not know, however, is that the point of no return for him actually came several days before.

Walter begins telling the tale of his ultimate downfall by describing his first meeting with Phyllis. He comes to her house to talk to her husband about insurance, but her husband is not at home. Walter and Phyllis have a fairly steamy conversation (co-writers Wilder and Raymond Chandler sprinkle some excellent, intense dialogue throughout the movie), and Walter agrees to come back the following night, in order to meet with her husband. Walter then returns to his place of employment, and it is here where the audience first meets Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), Walter’s co-worker and friend. It is also here that Walter strikes his second match of the film, and the first match of the extended flashback. Of the dozen match strikes during the film, ten of them are seen during Walter’s flashback. Not all of the match strikes during the film are equally important. Indeed, this second match strike is not as important as the one before it, which, as previously mentioned, came just before Walter began his dictation. However, it is still important. In the scene, Walter lights a match for Barton’s cigar. Walter will do this for Barton throughout the film, and each time he does it, it has meaning to it. This time is no different. Just after Walter lights the cigar, he tells Barton, "I love you, too." This comment by Walter, coming as it does just after some nice dialogue between Walter and Barton, signifies the close relationship between the two men. This close relationship will prove to be very significant as the film continues.

The third match strike comes while Walter is at the Dietrichson house. Shortly after he and Phyllis begin talking, Walter takes out a cigarette. He takes out a match too, and lights it as soon as he learns that Mr. Dietrichson will not be joining him and Phyllis. Most of the time when Walter lights a match, he does so while feeling confident about himself. The viewer picks up on this fact fairly quickly, and in this scene it becomes obvious that Walter’s lust for Phyllis is developing into something fierce. Despite the lust, Walter still has his wits about him, and he flatly turns down Phyllis’ attempt to get accident insurance for her husband without him knowing. Walter smells a rat, and quickly leaves. Of course, his lust for Phyllis is so strong that he just cannot get her out of his mind, and when she comes to visit him later that night, he changes his mind, and decides to help Phyllis kill her husband.

The next instance of Walter lighting a match does not happen for a fairly lengthy amount of time. There is a lot of planning between Walter and Phyllis of Mr. Dietrichson’s ultimate demise, including a pivotal scene where Mr. Dietrichson unwittingly signs his accident insurance policy; indeed, he was signing away his own life. Despite the intensity of these scenes, not once is Walter shown lighting his match. Instead, Wilder waits until Walter is back at the office, talking to Barton, before Walter is shown lighting a match again. Again, as in many of his scenes with Barton, Walter is shown lighting a match for Barton’s cigar. It comes just after Walter, over the phone, finalizes plans with Phyllis for killing Mr. Dietrichson later that night. This striking of the match, the fourth of the film, proves to be one of the most significant ones in the movie. Shortly after Walter lights Barton’s cigar, Barton, who had been trying in vain to talk Walter into accepting a job as his assistant, says, "You’re not smarter, Walter; you’re just a little taller." This comment foreshadows Walter’s downfall. Walter seems smarter than all the rest, but he is not. If he were, he would not allow himself to get entangled in Phyllis’ web. He would allow himself to see past his longing for her, which is something that he just will not do. Finally, if Walter really were smarter, he would know that, no matter how well-planned it seems, there is no such thing as a perfect murder, especially when someone like Barton Keyes is working the case. That is why it is so fitting that it was Barton who said the line. It foreshadows perfectly that it will be him who ultimately gets Walter.

After Walter leaves the office, he sets up for the murder, and makes sure that all of his tracks are covered, and that he has an alibi. With Phyllis’ assistance, he then committs the murder of Mr. Dietrichson. Although initially Walter feels that the murder was executed perfectly, he soon begins to get worried that everything will go wrong. Sure enough, the next day at the office, Walter and Barton stop by the office of Edward Norton (Richard Gaines), the president of the insurance agency. It is here that there is the fifth instance of Walter striking a match. He does so just after Barton tells Edward that what happened to Mr. Dietrichson had to have been an accident. Edward was getting suspicious that it was something other than an accident, and that made Walter a little uneasy. However, once Barton tells Edward that it had to have been an accident, Walter feels a little better. Once again, he strikes a match in confidence.

The sixth instance of Walter striking a match comes later that night, in his apartment. Walter is waiting for Phyllis to stop by, but instead Barton makes an unexpected visit. While Barton is talking to him, telling him that the "little man" inside him is acting up again, Walter is preparing to smoke a cigarette. He takes out a match to do so, but holds on to it as Barton suggests that perhaps Mr. Dietrichson did not know he signed the accident insurance policy. Barton then thinks for a moment, and decides that Mr. Dietrichson must have signed the policy after all. This lets Walter breathe easier, but only slightly easier. He knows that Barton is beginning to piece together the puzzle. He still lights his match, but this is the first time in the extended flashback that he does not strike a match while in confidence.

As Barton leaves Walter’s apartment, he takes out a cigar, and Walter takes out a match, strikes it, and lights the cigar for Barton. Barton then tells Walter that he is going to act on his instinct after all and follow Phyllis, as he is convinced she is mixed up in the murder. Within days, Barton is talking to Walter, and informs him that he has the whole murder figured out. He does not know that Walter did it, but he has most of the other details figured out. Even though Barton does not yet suspect Walter, Walter is still very uncomfortable with this piece of news. He takes out a match to light Barton’s cigar, but is so uncomfortable that he chews on the match before he strikes it.

The ninth instance of Walter lighting a match comes while he is talking to Lola Dietrichson (Jean Heather). Just after he lights it, she tells him that Phyllis used to be her late mother’s nurse, and that she thinks Phyllis killed her mother. Lola also tells Walter that she thinks her ex-boyfriend, Nino Zachetti (Byron Barr), helped to kill her father. The news about Phyllis’ possible involvement disturbs Walter, but Lola’s feelings that Nino may have helped in the murder also disturbs him. This disturbed feeling of Walter’s only intensifies when, a few days later, Barton tells Walter that he also feels Nino was Phyllis’ accomplice in the murder. Just after Barton tells Walter this, Walter takes out a match, strikes it, and lights Barton’s cigar. Like the last few instances of him striking a match, Walter is uncomfortable when he strikes the match. This also proves to be the last instance where Walter is seen lighting a match.

Shortly after this, Walter determines that if Barton goes after Nino, it will come out that Walter did committ the murder. Therefore, Walter decides he must end the whole thing right away, and so he goes to the Dietrichson house (where Phyllis now lives alone), intent on killing Phyllis. Just as he is pulling up to her house, Phyllis is seen striking a match and lighting a cigarette. This is the first time in the movie that a character other than Walter is shown striking a match. This is significant; it foreshadows the fact that Phyllis has plans of her own for what to do with Walter once he gets there. Indeed, the audience soon discovers that Phyllis has a gun, and plans to use it on Walter. This instance of a match striking is also the last one in the extended flashback that Walter is dictating into the dictaphone. Once Phyllis shoots Walter, and Walter shoots and kills Phyllis, he goes to the office, and starts his dictation.

Shortly after the movie returns to the present, Walter discovers that Barton is behind him and has listened to enough of the confession to know what Walter did. Walter stumbles out of the office, but does not even make it to the elevator. The last scene of the movie contains the last of the dozen instances of a match being struck. This time around, Barton strikes a match and lights Walter’s cigarette for him. In fact, this is the last bit of action in the film. The fact that Wilder decided to close the movie with Barton lighting Walter’s cigarette showed that Wilder, too, recognized the importance of the visual motif of the match striking. Indeed, it is important that the movie should end with Barton striking the match for Walter, when most of the movie it has been the other way around. It shows that Barton has finally found Walter out, which, of course, the audience knew would happen all along. Barton’s words indeed rang true: Walter was not smarter than all the rest. He was just a little taller.