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MOVIES / ON DVD / DOUBLE INDEMNITY
Double Indemnity

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Double Indemnity (1944)

97%
80%
97%
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97 %
Reviews Counted: 39 Fresh: 38  Rotten:1 Average Rating: 8.7/10

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins

Synopsis: Billy Wilder's classic noir, a familiar brew of lust, larceny, and lethal intentions, stars Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck as a hot-blooded couple. Framed in flashback, the story is told by the dying Walter Neff (MacMurray), beginning with his first meeting with the seductive Phyllis... Billy Wilder's classic noir, a familiar brew of lust, larceny, and lethal intentions, stars Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck as a hot-blooded couple. Framed in flashback, the story is told by the dying Walter Neff (MacMurray), beginning with his first meeting with the seductive Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck) during a routine renewal of her husband's car insurance. After some flirtation she arranges a meeting without her husband, where she asks about an accident policy to be bought without her husband's knowledge. Although repulsed by the implications of her suggestions, his obsession with Phyllis leads Neff to contemplate the possibility of finding a way to kill her husband while making his death look like an accident. After she comes to his apartment, the insurance salesman finally agrees to become involved in the murder, and the two of them begin methodically working out the details. After they dispose of Dietrichson, Neff learns more than he wanted about Phyllis' unsavory past, but realizes he's now too involved to extricate himself. He's also concerned about his a boss, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), an omniscient insurance investigator who has taken over the case. DOUBLE INDEMNITY is brilliant noir, among the best of the genre, with a byzantine yet utterly plausible plot, stylized hard-boiled dialogue by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, and three terrific performances by Stanwyck, MacMurray, and Robinson. [More]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall, Tom Powers

Director: Billy Wilder
Screenwriter: Raymond Chandler, Billy Wilder
Producer: Joseph Sistrom
Composer: Miklos Rozsa, Cesar Franck

DVD Info

Release:

Aug 22, 2006

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • 2-Disc Set - Snap Case
  • Disc 1: DOUBLE INDEMNITY
  • Full Frame - 1.33

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono - English, Spanish
  • Subtitles - English (SDH), French, Spanish - Optional
  • Disc 2: Bonus Features

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono - English
  • Subtitles - English (SDH), French - Optional

Additional Release Material:

  • Audio Commentary - 1. Richard Schicker - Film Historian
  • 2. Lem Dobbs - Film Historian/Screenwriter; Nick Redman - Film Historian
  • Featurettes - SHADOWS OF SUSPENSE
  • Introduction - Robert Osborne
  • Trailers - Original Theatrical Trailer

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
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Full Review | comment Comment
03/28/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Ratings Image
4/5

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/11/08
Andrew Pulver
Guardian [UK]
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4.5/5

Right up there with Billy Wilder's very best work.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/11/08
Channel 4 Film
Ratings Image
N/A

Wilder trades Cain's sun-rot imagery for conventional film noir stylings, but the atmosphere of sexual entrapment survives.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/11/08
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
N/A

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/14/07
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
5/5

A definitive example of “film noir.”

comment Comment
06/29/07
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
Ratings Image
4/4

One of the true gems of film noir.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/30/06
Forrest Hartman
Reno Gazette-Journal
Ratings Image
4/4

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/08/06
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star
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N/A

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/23/06
Douglas Pratt
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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95/100

Wilder's direction is crisp and the lighting and cinematography (by John F. Seitz) have become iconic touchstones.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/01/06
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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3/4

An accepted classic and archetypal film noir, Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity is visually drab and flabby around the edges.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/23/06
Dan Callahan
Slant Magazine
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A

Three superlative perfromances, by Stanwyck, Fred MacMaurray, and Edward G. Robinson (the best of their careers), along with sharp, witty, macabre, and double-entendre dialogue, makes this quintessential noir one of the best Wilder and studio movies made.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/21/06
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
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N/A

This is the gold standard of ’40s noir, straight down the line.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/26/06
Time Out
Ratings Image
5/5

Representante máximo do noir, conta com uma trama fascinante, atuações impecáveis, fotografia e direção irretocáveis e, é claro, diálogos inesquecíveis.

comment Comment
09/20/05
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena
Ratings Image
5/5

No review available.

comment Comment
07/19/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image
5/5

Film noir at its finest, a template of the genre, etc. Billy Wilder in full swing, Barbara Stanwyck's finest hour, and Fred MacMurray makes a great chump.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/06/05
Rob Fraser
Empire Magazine
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5/5

Stanwyck, MacMurray and Robinson are superb in classic murder for profit story.

comment Comment
06/01/05
Steve Crum
Kansas City Kansan
Ratings Image
4/5

No review available.

comment Comment
10/11/04
S. James Wegg
JWR
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N/A

The ultimate film noir crime picture.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/16/04
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
UK Critic
Ratings Image
5/5

No review available.

comment Comment
02/28/04
Arthur Lazere
culturevulture.net
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