The cinematography was quite good in this film. It was mostly shot on location.
Why they had a couple of outdoor scenes using rear projection (what they used instead of green screen in those days) I dont know. They looked horrible, particularly the one with Kirk and the lady in front of the gas pumps.
I wonder if some film got damaged and they had to do a reshoot or if they felt the need for some added dialogue and shot additonal scenes.
Noir movies often rely on this trick. It saves a ton of money. The filmed outdoors/onsite establishing shot does most of the work of placing viewers in the milieu. Shooting close-ups and two shots on site is difficult and expensive.
Movies of this period also use Day-for-night shooting to a distracting extent; a convention audiences agreed to then, which is utterly confusing/distracting to modern audiences. Daytime looks nothing like night just because you put a dimming filter over the lens. Day-for-night is all over noir films. (Out of the Past is a good example)
Alfred Hitchcock is known for his tireless use of rear screen in his early B&W films, where it's less noticable. But he brought it to his color work where it looks indescribably phony (Vertigo, Marnie)
Rear Projection:
Also used horribly when Martin Balsam "falls" down the stairs in Psycho.
I know (assume) Hitchcock was going for a "killer's eye view" here, but it's so phony it's laughable. People think we are so much more sophisticated than an average 1960's viewer, but I can't imagine that scene fooling anyone in any era.
I get that a shot of a stuntman flipping over backwards loses the "seeing the fear of death in the victim's eyes" aspect of the shot, but stairs are bumpy, diagonal things, and Balsam's falling straight down as the projection flys smoothly down the angle of the stairs.
Even a small bumpy shake of either camera, or Balsam, backwards on a sliding board, might have added some sort of jiggle/perspective realism to the shot. Then again, I'm certainly no Hitchcock, maybe it was surrealism that he was looking for.
I'm just really hoping he didn't say "OK well, that's close enough, were running out of time/money. Let's get to the part where Janet's naked."
(I have to admit, though, I like it in the really cheap movies when they're driving and the rear projection is on a Flintstone Background loop, and the same cars keep driving by over and over. That's always good for a smile.)
You Fill Me with Inertia
It was probably due to weather or something Wilder couldn't control on location. He preferred to shoot in the studio.
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