Double Indemnity

"We're both rotten."

"Only you're a little more rotten."

Walter Neff (MacMurray) is an insurance salesman, one of the best at his firm.  One day he goes to the Dietrichson home to renew an automobile insurance policy.  He is instantly smitten with Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck) and they flirt.  She invites him to return the following evening to talk with her husband and then asks about getting a secret life insurance policy for her husband (Powers).  Neff guesses her intentions and leaves.

He can't get Phyllis off his mind.  A few days later she comes to his apartment to confess her love.  He agrees to help her kill her husband so they can be together.  He crafts a meticulous plan to fool the claims adjuster Barton Keyes (Robinson), who he works with and considers a close friend.  Can they fool the police, insurance agent, and Dietrichson's inquisitive daughter Lola (Heather)?


This film is considered a classic, and is often written about and talked about cinematic circles, and considered one of Roger Ebert's great movies.  I knew the basic plot, but wanted to officially watch the film, and I was not disappointed.

The story is based on the 1943 novel Double Indemnity by James M. Cain, and apparently he based the story on a 1927 murder by Ruth Snyder.  The screenplay was written by famed novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler and directed by Billy Wilder.  It is an incredible film, worth all of the hype it has received over the years.  The dialogue is sharp and dark, and the film is an early example of Wilder's talent and the noir genre as a whole.

The film is told as a flashback, with the end of the story happening at the beginning.  The story unfolds through voiceover narration by Fred MacMurray.  Before this I only knew MacMurray for his Disney roles, but I like him in this role as well... since it is so unexpected.  Barbara Stanwyck is the perfect femme fatale with questionable motives.  And Edward Robinson is the moral center of the film.  He is an intriguing character.

This feels like a film that gets better and better with each viewing, and I look forward to watching it again to find new things.

Double Indemnity (1944) 107 minutes
Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Fred MacMurray as Walter Neff
Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson
Edward G. Robinson as Barton Keyes
Porter Hall as Mr. Jackson
Jean Heather as Lola Dietrichson
Tom Powers as Mr. Dietrichson
Byron Barr as Nino Zachetti