Average Rating: 8.8/10
Reviews Counted: 44
Fresh: 43 | 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.
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 4 | 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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Average Rating: 4.2/5
User Ratings: 31,954
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
All Critics (46) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (47) | Rotten (1) | 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.
Such 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.
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.
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.
A well-executed noir smash concerning a gullible insurance salesman (Fred MacMurray) who gets suckered into a scheme to murder the much older husband (Tom Powers) of a sultry woman (Barbara Stanwyck) in order to get his money through his newly signed policy. With crackling dialogue and riveting performances, Billy
January 21, 2012Super Reviewer
A benchmark in the film noir genre, Double Idemnity is a gritty, cinematic masterpiece.
November 14, 2011Super Reviewer
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