The Case of the Disappearing Filipino American Houseboy: Speculations on Double Indemnity and United States Imperialism

Abstract

The creations of a new cultural formation, US imperialism, development, and globalization are traced in this article by the use of James M. Cain’s 1936 pulp novella-turned-film Double Indemnity. Representations of the Fil-Am houseboy, his disappearance and re-appearance in the texts, provide an impetus for discovering the cultural transitions from the colonial to the postcolonial periods.