Double Indemnity (1944)

Posted : 10 months, 1 week ago at Aug 29 2:02

"You want to know who killed Dietrichson? Hold tight to that cheap cigar of yours, Keyes. I killed Dietrichson - me, Walter Neff, insurance salesman, 35 years old, unmarried, no visible scars...until a while ago, that is. Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money and for a woman. I didn't get the money and I didn't get the woman. Pretty, isn't it?" Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity has always been regarded as the archetypal film noir. If someone was to ask you what the term "film noir" meant, the simplest answer would be to show them Billy Wilder's 1944 masterpiece. If any movie could perfectly define a genre, it would be Double Indemnity. While some consider The Maltese Falcon as the first of the genre in cinematic history, some critics feel that the first real film noir was Wilder's ...Read more

Posted : 11 months, 2 weeks ago at Jul 20 13:09

"Double Indemnity" is yet another Billy Wilder classic and has a strong position in my "Top Ten" films list!! Told mostly in flashback the film holds your attention throughout with its crackling dialogue, impeccable acting from the principals and a plot full of suspense. The screenplay was written by Wilder (and Raymond Chandler) from the book by James M. Cain who also wrote "The Postman Always Rings Twice". It is amazing to realise that it was released as long ago as 1944 but the film still stands up well today and hasn't really dated at all. It was a complete change of pace for Fred MacMurray who had to be persuaded by Wilder to do the film. Both George Raft and Brian Donlevy were considered before MacMurray. Raft was interested but wanted to change his character into an FBI agent so of ...Read more

Posted : 11 months, 3 weeks ago at Jul 19 14:28

I had been waiting to watch this film for a very long time thanks to the reputation I'd read about it being one of the greatest 'noir' films of all time. I must say I wasn't disappointed after finally settling down to see it in all of it's 100 minutes of black and white glory. The story begins with a suspicious figure driving erratically through the streets in the early hours. It turns out this man is Walter Neff, and he's on his way back to his insurance office to confess a story to his long time friend and colleague via Dictaphone. The story then presents us with the flashback sequence of events which led to his current scenario. The character of Walter Neff is simply brilliant. He's pretty much everything I aspire to be in a man. A smooth talking charmer, the epitome of cool, an i...Read more

Rating : 8/10

Posted : 1 year ago at Jun 30 16:23

One of the great-granddaddies of film noir which stars Barbara Stanwyck as the greatest of all femme fatales and Fred MacMurray as one of the sleaziest characters in his otherwise goody-goody filmography. Billy Wilder was truly a visionary for not only building on top of what John Huston's The Maltese Falcon started, but furthering how dark you could make the film, how despicable you could make the characters, and how kinky you could get for the time period. Trust me, MacMurray's obsession with Stanwyck's anklet is highly risqué for the time period, and a possible clue to what kinds of kinky games they play when we don't see them. And we see them play a lot of games. In case you were wondering, MacMurray is an insurance salesman, Stanwyck is a bored housewife who wants to kill her husband...Read more