"You're not smarter, Walter. You're just a little taller."
Double Indemnity is a stylish piece of film noir with all of the typical ingredients. We have the femme fatal (Barbara Stanwyck), the imperfect protagonist (Fred MacMurray), dark settings, shady doings. Walter Neff(MacMurray) is an insurance salesman. He goes to the home of one of his clients to renew a policy, but he is not home. His wife (Stanwyck) is, however, and her seductive looks make him intensely anxious to see her again. He arrives at her home soon after only to learn that her husband is absent again, and she has plans to make him go away permanently. Her idea is to get him some accident insurance and then to kill him; she'll split the money with Walter. Knowing he is doomed but wanting to see it through to be near her, he goes along with the plan.

Also appearing is Edward G. Robinson as Walter's sharp boss. He is incredibly likable, a bulldog with a soft heart.

This movie has great pacing thanks to director Billy Wilder's masterful touch. It is an intense thrill ride, even though we know what is going to happen. MacMurray's flashback narrative is excellent, and it is no wonder this movie gave his career a rebirth. The role also inspired other 30s male actors to reinvent themselves in the genre.

a great example of the early days of film noir.......
DOUBLE INDEMNITY, a 1944 film by Billy Wilder, is one of the most definitive and beautiful examples of early film noir (literally, "black film") at its best. For those of you unfamiliar with the genre of film noir, this was a type of film made popular in the 1940s and 1950s, features very dark cinematography (plenty of shadows intermixed with light), as well as equally dark subject matter. Common themes are murders, affairs and grizzly illegal activity. DOUBLE INDEMNITY is a great example of this style at its best.

Fred MacMurray plays wily insurance man Walter Neff, who finds himself drawn to a beautiful, married woman, Phyllis Dietrichsen, played by the lovely Barbara Stanwyck. Together, they cook a plot to murder her husband, so Walter can make off with the policy money. Of course, things don't go quite according to plan. Enter Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), an investigator who gets wind that "something is rotting in Denmark." Keyes knows that there is something decidedly un-kosher about the whole arrangement between Neff and Dietrichsen, and he is determined to find out where that feeling is coming from.

This film is beautifully acted, directed with great zest, and very, very engaging. Even though some of the dialogue is (delightfully) dated, you are still going to have a great time watching DOUBLE INDEMNITY. There is no question that this is an example of filmmaking, at its best.

Lust and Greed Lead to Murder
Late at night a man enters an office building. Mr. Walter Neff is working overtime. Dozens of desks for the clerical workers are void of life. In his office he begins to speak into his Dictaphone about the Diedrickson claim. It all started when Neff went to see about an auto insurance renewal. Mr. Diedrickson wasn't home, but his wife Phyllis was. [The dialogue between them shows Raymond Chandler's skills.] Claims manager Mr. Barton Keyes is skilled in sniffing out false claims. Neff returns to Diedrickson for the auto insurance renewal. Phyllis asks about an accident policy for her husband. Could she get one without her husband's knowledge? Neff explains why she could never get away with it. But Phyllis visits Neff to better explain her wants, and there is a meeting of their minds. [Use your imagination.] Phyllis doesn't like her stepdaughter Lola, and Lola doesn't like her stepmother (there is a reason for this).

Neff explains how insurance companies know all the tricks used to make a murder look like an accident. But Neff impulsively decides to help Phyllis remove an inconvenient husband. [Is this plausible? Like the rain in Los Angeles.] Mr. Diedrickson is concerned about Lola's activities. Neff explains to Phyllis why Mr. Diedrickson must travel by train. Lola also has problems with her boyfriend. Neff plans their surreptitious meeting where they can plot the crime. The film show how they could then check if a doorbell of telephone rang. The murder is cold-blooded and horrible, but off scene. [Did they leave fingerprints on those crutches?]

The actuarial tables are cited to show the encyclopedic knowledge of insurance companies. But Keyes has noticed a discrepancy in this case, and begins to question the apparent facts. Then there is another glitch, something that wasn't foreseen. Daughter Lola meets Neff and tells him some old facts, and some new ones! Keyes surmises how this accident was concocted. There is now great danger for Phyllis and Neff. More surprising complications arise in this story until the shocking ending. [Could a person who murders another be implicitly suicidal?]

One important part of this story is the background of life in 1944 Los Angeles. How much was changed in just twenty years! [There was no mention of war-time rationing or shortages in that grocery supermarket.]

"Just a Little Taller"
From the moment he sees her slinking down the stairs in that spangled ankle bracelet, he's hooked. Walter Neff's already boarded that long, lonely trolley down the one-way track. Yes indeed, sultry Phyllis appears to be just the ticket he's been looking for. Great noir classic. Aces all around, from the acting to the directing to the script, and especially to Rosza's moody dirge-like score. All in all, Neff should have paid attention to that other member of the oddball triangle. Old man Keyes may be a born cynic, but despite himself, he's a father figure, looking for a son to take his place, and warning Neff about the "Margie's" of the world. What he doesn't realize is that this Margie most certainly doesn't "drink out of a bottle". What's more, Neff's already chosen to ride with the flashy crowd, get out of that dumpy apartment, and into Phyllis's vicious little insurance swindle. As Keyes tellingly remarks, "You're not smarter than the rest, Walter, just a little taller". I like to think that Walter at last realizes his folly in that brilliant final scene, even if it is too late. Still, the film's cynical veneer is misleading. Because, underneath all the deceits, betrayals and ironies lies a lighted match and one of the odder and more touching father-son relationships in Hollywood annals.

More than just a movie star, Barbra Stanwyk
is an excellent, professional actress. I like her more with every movie I see & she made a lot. In the hands of director Billy Wilder, this novel by Raymond Chandler is a masterpiece. The moment you see that lovely ankle of Phyllis, (Stanwyk) on the staircase, you know she's trouble. Run Fred run! Save yourself! Fred McMurray is taking a holiday from comedy to play oily insurance salesman, Walter. These are bad people about to plan some bad things. Even Phyllis' husband, the intended victim is a rotten SOB who deserves to die. Of course. It's Noir. They are also very interesting, including Edward G. Robinson as Keyes, the obsessive insurance investigator & colleague of Walter. He never gives up when he feels there is fraud. Walter falls for Phyllis & they plot to kill Phyllis' husband for the insurance. They have to be careful, its a fairly new policy that Walter drew up. It must look like an accident & their plan is a good one though complicated. You are never quite sure if Phyllis loves Walter or is playing him. The plot succeeds, then slowly starts to unravel. It is trite, but if you like Noir you may have already seen this essential. If not, it is still a superior thriller.