Double Indemnity

The best film adaptation of a James M. Cain novel ever made (neither version of "The Postman Always Rings Twice" even comes close). The script, by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, is flawless. Wilder's direction is masterful. The cast is phenomenal, with Fred McMurray as a smart-talking but naive chump, Edward G. Robinson as a shrewd and relentless insurance investigator, and Barbara Stanwyck (her very best performance ever, IMO) as a scheming wife who wants her inconvenient husband out of the way.

The smartly-written dialogue still snaps and crackles and the suspense has lost none of its edge in the 70-plus years since the film was made. This is as fine a thriller as you'll ever see and a film that truly deserves being called a classic.

Barbara Stanwyck changed the trajectory of her career with her ruthless, icy performance here. Fred MacMurray, however, would never again allow himself to duplicate anything similar to Walter Neff's troubled, doomed portrayal again on screen. Playing against their dark alliance, it is left to Edward G. Robinson to win the audience over as he struggles to shed light on the insurance fraud and murder. This script should be studied by anyone who plans to write for TV or movies. Note the significant changes Wilder and Chandler made from James Cain's original novel - changes Cain admitted were improvements. Especially worthy of mention is the level of artistry displayed in the final minutes when, after an hour and a half of of bitter nastiness, Wilder gives us just the smallest spoonful of sugar that wraps everything up perfectly. There's almost something criminal when evil is such a treat to watch.

Author James M. Cain virtually created a new genre with his extra-tough, sin-blackened, and sex-drenched novels--and they were so successful with the public that not even 1940s Hollywood could resist. The result was three of the most famous films of that decade: MILDRED PIERCE, THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, and DOUBLE INDEMNITY. Although POSTMAN is probably the better film, INDEMNITY is the most famous--possibly due to the story's truly psychotic edge, which is given full life by Barbara Stanwyck in one of her most celebrated performances.

Like POSTMAN, INDEMNITY offers the story of a married woman who plots with her lover to murder her husband. Given MacMurray's typically "good guy" image, I didn't expect to believe him in the role of Walter Neff in the role of skirt-hungry Walter Neff--but MacMurray's performance is exceptionally good here, and all the more effective because it so completely unexpected. But while MacMurray has most of the screen time, it is really Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson who dominate the film. Stanwyck is truly memorable here, and gives us a woman who seems at once sexed-up and completely frigid, at once completely natural and absolutely artificial. It is a remarkable and often disturbing effect. Robinson, who endured decades of type-casting, is equally good as the blustery, slightly comic, and absolutely honest insurance man whose job it is to ferret out suspicious claims; it is largely due to his performance, which gives the film a moral center, that we are able to buy into the otherwise off-beat performances that drive the action.

This was one of director Billy Wilder's first major hits, and he deserves considerable credit for making the weird elements of the story work as a whole, keeping the film smartly paced, and heaping it up with atmosphere. So influential that its impact would be difficult to over-estimate, DOUBLE INDEMNITY is a touchstone for the entire film noir genre. Recommended.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

I've now seen this movie 14 times in 25 years, at all times of the year, in all moods, sober or not etc - but always at night. I recorded my copy off TV in 1987 so I can only imagine what a remaster would do for it. With an atmosphere thick enough to cut with a knife it never fails to engross and enchant me, and although it's been dated for 40 years or more still seems relevant and watchable today. TV, answer phones, recordable CD/DVD, memory sticks and the internet have all come between us and yet I can still watch Fred MacMurray speaking into a Dictaphone without a qualm. Who wears a hat in California nowadays? Who buys beer whilst driving! Lift attendants have gone but I can still believe in Charlie working and laughing away in the garage past 11 at night.

Woman and man agree to murder woman's husband but on the way to the cemetery they face grilling by insurance company. I think everything has been said before on the IMDb - by those who think it's one of the best films ever made! To those who simply think the main problem is that it's dated I wish you could see the TV commercials that dug into DI back in '87 - what a hoot - and compare. I've just noticed the print TCM UK is showing in 2005 is lip-synced out, very wobbly Rosza music track, fading and ageing fast - worse than my 1987 video tape (maybe logically). They're supposed to be encouraging people to enjoy the classics but they won't do that with such inferior screening copies. Dear TCM UK, this is an impressive iconic film - it deserves a billion dollar remaster authorised by the Library of Congress, not repeatedly trotting out unimpressive cheap worn dupes to fill those 2 hour slots.

Everything about DI from the acting, production, direction, and music is superbly dignified and is as "close to perfection" as human beings are probably allowed to get with this form of Art - especially with the more limited technology at their disposal in '44. When most films from now are long forgotten and dated DI will still be getting re-runs on TV and art-house cinemas - God and remasters willing - that is the fact of it.

Fortunia Bonanova certainly was fortunate to have appeared in bit parts in 2 of the best films ever made - Citizen Kane the other.

"I liked the way that anklet bit into her leg. I wanted to see her again, up close, without that silly staircase between us."--Walter Neff, after meeting Phyllis Dietrichson This is Fred MacMurray like you've never seen him before. He's edgy and sharp, and amoral, although he hides it well from his boss. Barbara Stanwyck's astounding performance set the standard for bad girls in Film Noir for years to come. I love this film because it is a perfect example of how the censorship of the time made it so that filmmakers had to get the sexiness across in a subtle way. This movie is undeniably sexy, and there's not a single 'love scene' in it!