"Double Indemnity" (1944)

Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson
in one of the many famous scenes.

This was my second Billy Wilder film that i saw after "Some Like it Hot" from 1959. I expected something incredible and chilling. that's exactly what i got. just from it's opening sequence and i'm not talking about the car scene, but the scene with a silhouette image of Fred MacMurray on crutches, i knew we were all in for a bumpy night. i love film-noir and Welles, Lang and yes Wilder are all masters of that. we can see how this film influenced our filmmaking today. this is what we call neo-noir, a modern version which, of course is not as good as the original. the film is incredibly chilling. it is so well written, it's hard not to be. the film was based off of a novel that was a bit different including a competly altered, but perfect ending. the performances are wildly haunting. especially that of Stanwyck who earned an Oscar nomination. i loved it's style and it's movement. it was sleak, cool and smart. like a Bond film with a larger brain size.

The first scene is inserted to hook the audience in. it was very similar to a later film of Wilder's "Some Like it Hot". we see a man furriously trying to get somewhere in his car. he finally gets to an office building that we can assume is his workplace. he gets to a recording machine in his office and says, "Dear Keyes, I suppose you'll call this a confession when you hear it... Well, I don't like the word confession, I just want to set you right about something you couldn't see because it was smack up against your nose...you said it wasn't an accident, check. You said it wasn't suicide, check. You said it was murder... check." we have been hooked. the film is told in flashback and then to a circular ending. we have an insurance rep, MacMurray, who comes up to a clients house to find the husband gone, but the seductive wife. this is Stanwyck's part. she incessently asks about accident insurace but her stirring glare blinds MacMurray completly. then he gets the picture: she wants to take out an accident policy to kill her husband, make it look like an accident and get money out of it. he is offended but he keeps thinking of it, and her. after several meetings, they strike up an affair and finally, MacMurray is in. they devise a highly structured plan. it seems good because they have a knowledgable insurance rep on the inside and a seductive woman on the outside. both have very little hunches and the plan begins. they are going to kill him on a train (not exactly but i dont want to give spoilers) and get double pay because he died on the train: thu the title, Double Indemnity. this is such an incredible plan and i dont want to give and plot details; just watch the damn thing.

What i love most about the film is its daring subject. a woman cheats on her husband and knocks him off all in the same period of time of Hitler in power and WWII. that's the point of film-noir. those raunchy violent films in times of depression and war. but it was still a hit with 7 Academy Award nominations. MacMurray's performance was not nominated becuase it was not that good. he was a bit too composed for the events taking place. he talked about being incredibly nervous and not "being able to feel his footsteps" but he really did not show it. Stanwyck was ingenious. she was so malicious but could play oppossum when she needed to. that devilish side of her is what got people's attention-a woman, acting like this. that's why it would have been so shocking which was the effect Wilder wanted. the way it was shot was the conventional shadowy, eerie and dark tone that is attributed to film-noir. if you look at Wilder's other masterpeice and a personal favorite of mine "Sunset Blvd.", it is shot almost identically (the same cinematogrpher, John F. Seitz for both films). the thrilling music was done by Oscar winner Miklós Rózsa which i have posted a video of the main theme. in Woody Allen's hilarious film "Manhattan Murder Mystery" there is a scene where the characters attend the film. this is so perfect becuse the Allen's film is somewhat of a spoof of Indemnity. below i have done another shot comparison to Roman Polanski's film-noir masterpeice "Chinatown" from 1974. I suggest this to any noir fan but if you are a noir fan, it goes without saying that you've seen this film.

                                      "Chinatown"


                                  "Double Indemnity"

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1945	Nominated	Oscar	Best Actress in a Leading Role Barbara Stanwyck
			Best Cinematography, Black-and-White John F. Seitz
			Best Director Billy Wilder
			Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture Miklós Rózsa
			Best Picture (Paramount).
			Best Sound, Recording Loren L. Ryder (Paramount SSD)
			Best Writing, Screenplay Raymond Chandler Billy Wilder