Double Indemnity

Released: September 6, 1944

Studio: Paramount

Genre: film noir/crime drama

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: 5.72 Worldwide: ?

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: 159.6 Worldwide: ?

Directing: Billy Wilder

Screenwriting: Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler

Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson

Review:

This “classic, brooding film noir” ^FS is “considered one of the best pictures ever made.” ^VD This “suspense-filled masterpiece” ^MSN is “a thriller in every sense of the word.” ^VD “So oft-imitated it should be old hat by now, but no – mix together the ruthlessness of the script, the director, and the film’s femme fatale star, and what you get is a poisonous cocktail that still has real kick to it.” ^ML

“Before he settled down to being an ultra-cynical connoisseur of vulgarity, Wilder helped (as much as any of his fellow Austro-German emigres in Hollywood) to define the mood of brooding pessimism that laced so many American movies in the ‘40s.” ^T95

The “electric, snappy, hard-boiled script written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler” ^FS is a “searing adaptation of James M. Cain’s novel of duplicity and murder.” ^A07 Chandler, who also wrote The Big Sleep was a detective fiction writer brought in to co-write with Wilder. He gave the “dialogue a sprinkling of characteristic wit, without mitigating any of the overall sense of oppression.” ^T95 However, “the two detested each other so much that Chandler walked out and wouldn't return until his list of demands were met.” ^MSN

“Nice guy” MacMurray is “a calculating insurance salesman” ^FS and Stanwyck is “a scheming, irresistible, long-legged blonde femme fatale.” ^FS This “adulterous, duplicitous couple…commit the murder of her wealthy husband in a larcenous, fraudulent attempt to collect on an insurance policy.” ^FS “The policy states that if he dies accidentally from a moving train, the payout is doubled. They kill him and place the body on the tracks, thinking they’ve committed the perfect crime. They’re wrong.” ^VD “The double-crossing, cold-hearted protagonists are doggedly and persistently pursued by a suspicious, formidable insurance investigator (Robinson).” ^FS

Sources:

^A07 American Film Institute (2007). “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition”
^FS Filmsite.org “100 Greatest Films”
^ML Movieline (Dec. 1995). “100 Best Movies Ever Made” by Virginia Campbell and Edward Margulies
^MSN MSN Entertainment (7/19/2018). “100 Best Movies” by Shahnaz Mahmud
^T95 Time Out (1995). “Centenary Top One Hundred Films”
^VD Video Detective (1997). “Top 100 Films of All Time”