Double Indemnity (1944)
Average Rating: 8.8/10
Reviews Counted: 46
Fresh: 44 | Rotten: 2
A dark, tautly constructed adaptation of James M. Cain's novel -- penned by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler -- Double Indemnity continues to set the standard for the best in Hollywood film noir.
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 1
A dark, tautly constructed adaptation of James M. Cain's novel -- penned by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler -- Double Indemnity continues to set the standard for the best in Hollywood film noir.
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Movie Info
Directed by Billy Wilder and adapted from a James M. Cain novel by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, Double Indemnity represents the high-water mark of 1940s film noir urban crime dramas in which a greedy, weak man is seduced and trapped by a cold, evil woman amidst the dark shadows and Expressionist lighting of modern cities. Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces insurance agent Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) into murdering her husband to collect his accident policy. The murder goes as
Sep 6, 1944 Wide
Oct 10, 2000
Paramount Pictures
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Cast
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Fred MacMurray
Walter Neff -
Barbara Stanwyck
Phyllis Dietrichson -
Edward G. Robinson
Barton Keyes -
Porter Hall
Mr. Jackson -
Jean Heather
Lola Dietrichson -
Tom Powers
Mr. Dietrichson -
Byron Barr
Nino Zachette -
Richard Gaines
Mr. Norton -
Fortunio Bonanova
Sam Gorlopis -
John Philliber
Joe Pete -
Al Bridge
Execution Chamber Guard -
Edmund Cobb
Train Conductor -
Kernan Cripps
Conductor, Redcap -
Bess Flowers
Norton's Secretary -
Miriam Franklin
Keyes' Secretary -
Judith Gibson
Pacific All-Risk Teleph... -
Sam Gorlopis
Fortunio Bonanova -
Edward Hearn
Warden's Secretary -
Boyd Irwin
First Doctor -
Teala Loring
Pacific All-Risk Teleph... -
George Magrill
Man -
Sam McDaniel
Garage Attendant Charli... -
Clarence Muse
Black Man -
Constance Purdy
Woman -
Dick Rush
Pullman Conductor -
Floyd Shackelford
Pullman Porter -
Lee Shumway
Door Guard -
Oscar Smith
Pullman Porter -
Douglas Spencer
Lou Schwartz -
George Melford
Second Doctor -
James Adamson
Pullman Porter -
Betty Farrington
Nettie the Maid
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All Critics (46) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (2) | DVD (23)
Wilder trades Cain's sun-rot imagery for conventional film noir stylings, but the atmosphere of sexual entrapment survives.
MacMurray has seldom given a better performance. It is somewhat different from his usually light roles, but is always plausible and played with considerable restraint.
The film is a brilliant collision of evil and the mundane, and one of the reasons viewers respond to it so well is that it makes the mundane seem a little sexier in the resulting debris.
This is the gold standard of '40s noir, straight down the line.
Top CriticSuch folks as delight in murder stories for their academic elegance alone should find this one steadily diverting, despite its monotonous pace and length.
Few other directors have made so many films that were so taut, savvy, cynical and, in many different ways and tones, funny.
The picture never fully takes hold of its opportunities, such as they are, perhaps because those opportunities are appreciated chiefly as surfaces and atmospheres and as very tellable trash.
Dark, dialogue-heavy classic of grim suspense.
The perfect material for Wilder to remake himself as Hollywood's dark jester for decades.
Edward G. Robinson stars as MacMurray's associate, but it's Barbara Stanwyck that rules the roost as one of cinema's most diabolical femme fatals.
Writer/director Billy Wilder cements all the hallmarks of a style that comes into its own with this wicked and suspenseful portrait of capitalist greed and post-war anxiety.
Notable for its perfect cast, great performances, deft direction and of course that sparkling dialogue.
Sizzling and sassy, this thriller still cuts it amongst today's effects-laden offerings.
Small gestures, inflections and body language all accumulate to deliver a fascinating scenario that we can't help but watch as it winds relentlessly towards its majestically shadowy conclusion and terrific ending.
If you like your dialogue hardboiled, your lighting shadowy, and your femmes fatales preposterously evil, then look no further: Billy Wilder's 1944 adaptation of James M Cain's insurance-scam novella.
Right up there with Billy Wilder's very best work.
One of the true gems of film noir.
Thanks to DVD, Phyllis will always be there waiting for you. Same chair, same perfume, same anklet, ready to make you wonder what she wonders.
Wilder's direction is crisp and the lighting and cinematography (by John F. Seitz) have become iconic touchstones.
Audience Reviews for Double Indemnity
Super Reviewer
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- Phyllis Dietrichson: Walter, I don't want to kill him. I never did. Not even when he gets drunk and slaps my face.
- Walter Neff: Only sometimes you wish he was dead.
- Phyllis Dietrichson: Perhaps I do.
- Walter Neff: And you wish it was an accident and you had that policy for $50,000 dollars. Is that it?
- Phyllis Dietrichson: Perhaps that too.
-
- Walter Neff: They (the insurance company) know more tricks than a carload of monkeys. And if there's a death mixed up in it, you haven't got a prayer. They'll hang you just as sure as ten dimes will buy a dollar.
-
- Barton Keyes: You're not smarter Walter, you're just a little taller.
-
- Phyllis Dietrichson: It's straight down the line for both of us, remember?
-
- Phyllis Dietrichson: And you don't really care if we see each other or not.
- Walter Neff: Shut up, baby.
-
- Phyllis Dietrichson: I think you're rotten.
- Walter Neff: I think you're swell - so long as I'm not your husband.
- Phyllis Dietrichson: Get out of here.
- Walter Neff: You bet I'll get out of here, baby. I'll get out of here but quick.
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Foreign Titles
- Frau ohne Gewissen (DE)
- Assurance sur la mort (FR)
There is nothing wrong in Fred MacMurray's or Edward Robinson's performances here, actually they are quite good all the way. Barbara Stanwyck is the highlight as a typically cold blooded femme fatale. The main problem here is that the dialogue is typical machine gun Wilder; all technique and no real emotion. Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder wrote this film together, but it is clear that Wilder's touch can be heard on every spoken line that comes out of the actors. This effect makes Double Indemnity feel too artificial, too calculated and too cold for its own sake.
With characters this rotten there is no true tension at any point and we all know how these kind of morality tales does end up, or often used to back in the 40's. On the surface there is nothing that much to complaint but i just did not find this film that interesting at all. It has style and it has some interesting elements going on but in the end it all feels awfully flat and lifeless. Double Indemnity never comes alive as a film.