He is shrouded in darkness with shadows created by the closed Venetian blinds cutting across his face giving him a tortured look possibly echoing his personal life. As Phyllis walks down the stairs the camera focuses on a chain that she has on her ankle this is implying that she is a wild woman. Instead of the camera coming to the foot of the stairs to capture Phyllis walking down them it is positioned from Walter's point of view in the lounge, this means that the camera captures her behind the banister of the stairs. The banister is constructed of vertical posts giving rise to thoughts that Phyllis is behind bars; her home is like a prison.
The way in which noir cinematographers positioned their lights is also .
important. Traditionally lights were placed in what is called a "three-quarter lighting" set-up. This means that the key light was positioned about forty-five degrees in front and above the actor and the fill light was close to the camera and placed near to the ground. This lighting arrangement was used as it accentuated the actors" features producing the most charming and beautiful image. To the noir cinematographers this was unacceptable as it would be totally contradictory to the mood that they were trying to create of paranoia, intimidation and danger. Therefore, they positioned their lights in every imaginable way to create the most conspicuous and unusual shadows and outstanding use of light and dark. Sometimes they would totally remove the fill light thus creating areas of total black and they would add lighting to create bizarre highlights often on the face of insane or menacing characters making them look even more threatening. This can be seen in the film "In a Lonely Place" (Nicholas Ray, 1950) where Humphrey Bogart's character is lit on the left of his face, flooding the right in darkness thus creating an ominous and deranged feel to his character. Sometimes a "kick light" would be introduced.