Double Indemnity (1944)

Double Indemnity
Directed by Billy Wilder
USA/1944
Paramount Pictures
Repeat viewing
#172 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die

[box] Phyllis: We’re both rotten.

Walter Neff: Only you’re a little more rotten.[/box]

You have to hand it to Billy Wilder.  He was a true original and yet his films established many new genres.  Some critics believe this movie was the first “true” film noir.  Wilder claimed it was intended to be a “documentary”.  Whatever it is, it is a masterpiece.

Insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) spots Phyllis Deitrichson’s (Barbara Stanwyck) anklet and it is lust at first sight.  Neff is trying to renew an auto policy but Phyllis convinces him that what she needs is an accident policy on her husband … and a fatal accident.  But can the pair collect when Walter’s friend, claims adjuster Barton Keyes (Edward J. Robinson), smells a fraud?

[box] Walter Neff: Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money – and a woman – and I didn’t get the money and I didn’t get the woman. Pretty, isn’t it?[/box]

This film is just loaded with everything it takes to make a movie great.  The direction, acting, cinematography, screenplay, and music are all brilliant.  The care with which the first few minutes are handled, with MacMurray taking his time to settle in with the dictaphone are masterful and this is before the plot starts rolling.  Barbara Stanwyck is the perfect amoral femme fatal, but it strikes me that the fatal flaw here is within Walter.  Once again the sin of pride rears its ugly head and Phyllis merely gives Walter the opportunity to prove he his smarter than Barton Keyes, which has been his motive all along.  But Walter isn’t smarter; he is only taller.

The special edition DVD was loaded with two commentaries and a documentary.  One of the folks on the documentary said that “I did it for the money and the woman…and I didn’t get the money or the woman” is film noir in a nutshell.

Double Indemnity was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.  It failed to win any, largely because Paramount was promoting its other 1944 classic Going My Way.  The story goes that Wilder was so miffed when Leo McCarey got up to claim his Best Director prize, he put his foot in the aisle to trip him.

This is truly not to be missed.

Trailer