Barton Keyes

Barton Keyes is the tritagonist of James M. Cain's novella *Double Indemnity* and its 1944 and 1973 film adaptations. He's Walter Neff's insurance colleague, and an expert 26-year veteran claims investigator who is capable of quickly spotting dishonest claims. While he mainly portrayed as a typical antagonist inspector, the 1944 film adaptation gives him much more characterization painting him in a more sympathetic light.

In the 1944 production, he was portrayed by the late Edward G. Robinson.

## Why He Rocks

1. Edward G. Robinson (1944 film) is completely at the top of his game as this sympathetic affable inspector, pulling off what's easily one of his best performances. This part is especially noteworthy and special as Robinson's usually known for gangster in crime movies. Here, he's still playing a rough-around-the-edges-type role, but this time he has a good heart, and means well, He carries all the agony and pain of a man caught between duty and friendship, between idealism and cynicism and, arguably, love and disappointment
2. Even though he's an archetype, like the 1944 film's other two central characters -- in his case, he takes the place of the “good girl” typically spotlighted in films of this type. Like Walter, Keyes is a hard-boiled grownup who has been conditioned by his job to expect the worst of people. Yet his detective’s instinct isn’t moralistic; like Sherlock Holmes, he treats evil almost as a value-neutral puzzle, an equation to be solved for "X". -- he seems deeper and more complex than the usual noir protagonist. Aside from the graceful performance, he seems to form a love triangle with Walter and Phyllis.
3. His physicality as he makes a point, how he uses his cheap cigars, which become key to his relationship with Neff, are perfection.  Every line the character delivers is a memorable keeper.
4. Even though he's just a supporting character, he serves as the heart of the movie and pretty much provides the role of the comic relief. Although, he also poses the only threat to the protagonists in the film, which translates to his being the cause for all of the tension as the story unfolds. With his 26 years of experience on the job, he really gets to show off his talents with his insanely talented detective skills and knowing where to reach Walter personally, which makes him more than a match for him and Phyllis.
5. Not only is he a confidant, bitter nonconformist, humorist and prime investigator, he also kind of serves as a father-like figure to Walter especially during the ending scene where Walter confesses his entire role in the aforementioned crime with Phyllis as he's fatally bleeding. His relationship with Neff is almost as integral to the film’s overall emotional and thematic impact as the one between Neff and Phyllis. The doomed friendship between the two men is pure Chandler, all banter and unspoken affection, and in fact Keyes displays more than a passing similarity to Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, particularly in his discussions of the “little man” in his chest who won’t let him sleep until he sets the world right. He shows sympathy to and accepts the humanity of criminal he's caught for possibly one of the only times. He even tries to call a doctor for him, hoping to retrieve him.