Double Indemnity
1944 Directed by Billy Wilder
Synopsis
From the Moment they met it was Murder!
Unsuspecting Mr. Dietrichson becomes increasingly accident prone after his icily calculating wife encourages him to sign a double indemnity policy proposed by a smooth-talking insurance agent. Against a backdrop of distinctly California settings, the partners in crime plan the perfect murder to collect the insurance. Perfect until a claims manager gets a familiar feeling of foul play and pursues the matter relentlessly.
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**Part of the Best Picture Project**
Billy Wilder makes his first directorial debut in the Best Picture Project, and it's a debut that kicks down the door with such a grand entrance.
Double Indemnity represents class film making at its finest. There isn't a single thing wrong with this film, and changing a single thing would drastically alter how this film works.
You can't change the script because it's perfect. All the pieces are perfectly set. Delete something, and suddenly you get a plot hole. Not a line of dialogue is wasted, it's all key to story, and it's tailor made to the characters.
You can't change the actors either. Nobody can say "baby" like Fred MacMurray. Nobody can have…
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There are films that I love that I can totally understand people not liking. By a similar token, there are films I love that I absolutely cannot understand why anyone wouldn't like them.
Double Indemnity is, it's fair to say, well and truly in the latter category. So much so that I almost think it would be rational to genuinely dislike people who don't like it. That's how strongly I feel about it!
The funny thing about it is that I only saw it for the first time relatively recently and yet that one viewing was enough for for me to form such a strong opinion of it. No film is perfect, perhaps, yet there are films like this where…
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Who'd you think I was anyway? The guy that walks into a good looking dame's front parlour and says, "Good afternoon, I sell accident insurance on husbands... you got one that's been around too long? One you'd like to turn into a little hard cash?"
Any film that begins with a man on crutches wearing a trench coat and a fedora slowly hobbling his way towards the camera in the fog while the credits roll has my undivided attention.
Any film that begins by giving away the main plot, especially in a suspense film, has my interest. If they give away the plot, how are they going to create suspense for the rest of the film?
Never underestimate Wilder's talent,…
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If "Double Indemnity" doesn't quite reach the heights of "Sunset Boulevard" - well, what film does? This earlier effort from director Billy Wilder lacks "Boulevard's" rich subtext, but finds its own manner of success in telling a no-frills noir tale befitting co-writer Raymond Chandler. Barbara Stanwyck emerges as a definitive femme fatale - it's not hard to believe she'd have any man wrapped around her finger - while Edward G. Robinson steals every scene he's in, the script blessing him with some fluid dialogue and those wonderful cigars.
As is often the case with films of this era, part of the pleasure of watching it circa 2013 is decoding the antiquated attitudes about gender, race, and other social issues that…
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This has everything you could ask for in a hardboiled story: snappy dialogue, a cunning femme fatale, lots of suspense and the characteristic noir mood of doom, enforced by the superb writing of the narration. In fact, the entire script is perfect; perhaps one of the best ever? Stanwyck is terrific but Robinson steals the film. Arguably Wilder's best film and probably *the* quintessential film noir.
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Possibly one of the films with tightest and most perfect script you'll ever see. The story unfolds seamlessly, brilliant storytelling. Nerve and mystique are built gradually, the pulse rises, the characters' sinister intentions comes to surface, the tension between love, murder and deceit culminates in a majestic second final act.
Finally a film noir I've been madly in love with! (I've for somehow not fully bought into the genre yet, I feel like I don't quite get it). And this is my absolutely favorite of the "the perfect murder" films I've seen so far.
An outstanding film, with some great scenes! Visually stunnig and innovative, the acting and dialogue are top notch (especially Robinson deliver them with greatness!). The voice-over…
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A famous film that I, nevertheless, have to beat people over the head to watch. The screenplay is by director Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler and the dialogue crackles with iconic film noir style.
Fred MacMurray is the insurance salesman who comes up with the perfect murder scheme to rid femme fatale Barbara Stanwyck of her husband's annoying presence. Edward G. Robinson is MacMurray's boss, a wily insurance investigator who feels that things don't quite add up. Told in flash-back, the film still maintains dramatic tension the entire time. Ironically, all three stars did not want to do the film. MacMurray and Stanwyck because they were cast against type as evil. Robinson because he was not the main star ... yet he carries the film at the end as his line sums up the movie perfectly.
The use of light and shadow (and bars cast by venetian blinds) makes this movie a visual work of art as well.
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Double Indemnity is an excellent film noir about a pair of unlikeable -- and perfectly matched -- people who get swept up in a game of murder and greed. It's a fun and deliciously diabolical romp. Billy Wilder would go on to trump this winning formula six years later, with the even-greater Sunset Boulevard.
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One of the archetypical film noirs, and with good reason. This movie breathes the fatality of human existence, and how characters are drawn to their dark sides. Great film.
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Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity is a tense, tightly made film noir featuring a trio of exemplary performances in Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson, slow-burning direction from Wilder, and crackling dialogue. A master work.
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Spine #44 of "Masters Of Cinema".
Movie #381 of "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die". -
Barbara Stanwyck era una diosa. Eso es así.
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A solid film noir.
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Ο σκληρός άντρας, η μαύρη χήρα, η αθώα κορασίδα, ο αλάθητος διώκτης του εγκλήματος -αριστούργημα!
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Edward G was excellent 'see' and some of the dialogue was memorable.
"They know more tricks than a carload of monkeys. And if there's a death ... They'll hang you just as sure as ten dimes will buy a dollar."
It's not a film I'd care to watch again though. Much prefer Wilder's later work Sunset Boulevard, which blew me away. Sadly, Double Indemnity doesn't.
Ya can't love em all....