Double Indemnity (1944)

 Double Indemnity (1944)

Double Indemnity is a crime thriller with director Billy Wilder, actor Fred MacMurray, and actress Barbara Stanwyck on the top of their games. This 1944 picture is one of the earlier film-noir films. It has all the elements: a weak man who succumbs to something bad, interesting lighting techniques/camera angles, and strong, villainous female characters. Interestingly enough, Wilder said he did not realize he was making a noir film when it was in production but rather making a film he would want to see. Timing just worked out perfectly. This is a great, tense thriller that is one of the best. Each character is fleshed out and has some dynamic lines of dialogue. The screenplay, written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, contains vivacious dialogue and interesting situations. I note that I love how the writers focus on the relationship between the main character, Walter Neff and his insurance agent buddy, Walter Keyes. They have a surrogate father-son relationship that elicited genuine emotion and made the ending even stronger.

This movie was adapted from a James M. Cain (also wrote The Postman Always Rings Twice) novella. Cain got his book idea from a 1927 murder where a Queens married wife murdered her husband with the help of her boyfriend thanks to an indemnity clause. Yes, this is real stuff. The image of the wife being executed by electric chair is one of the most recognized images of the 1920’s. In the 1930’s, many studios bid hard for the rights. Being the time period it is, films had to go through the Hays Code and Joseph Breen warned studios about “the sordid material” and the bid fell apart. (If only Breen could see what is made in today’s filmmaking LOL). Eight years later, a Paramount executive felt the material was right for Wilder’s talent. They went about securing the rights despite some pushback from the people who work with the Hays Code. Eventually, Wilder won out and made some minor changes to placate the office.

Now with the rights securely in hand, then it became the matter of creating a screenplay. Cain was Wilder’s first choice, but was busy with another project. One of the film’s producers, Joseph Sistrom, recommended Raymond Chandler who is the brilliant mind behind The Big Sleep. With the constant fighting between Chandler and Wilder, I am not sure how a screenplay (and a good one that is) got made. Chandler had not one lick on how to construct a screenplay, would always show up drunk or smoking cigars, and never really had a good attitude. But could the man ever write dialogue! The two men, despite their fighting, were able to work together and make something mundane as insurance and clauses interesting. Just needed to add murder!

In addition to the excellent screenplay, the film has excellent camerawork from John F. Seitz. He experimented with camera angles and the way he lit scenes enhanced the mood of the story. The score is likewise very good. It was composed by Miklos Rosza. The head composer at the studio did not like his score but everyone else thought it was fantastic….myself included a good eighty years later. Rosza would go on to have an excellent career scoring movies.

Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) is an experienced insurance salesman. In one unforgettable scene, he meets Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) who is the seductive wife of one of his clients. He wants to keep seeing her, so she proposes that she murder her husband based on their accident insurance policy and Walter takes it one step further by suggesting a double indemnity clause. After her husband is found dead on the train tracks, the police accepted the death as an accident. Walter’s best friend and insurance agent, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) suspects otherwise. He believes that Phyllis murdered him…with the help of another man.

The performances were excellent all around. Fred MacMurray was known as the good guy in comedies, so he was playing against type. He was reluctant at first to accept the role because he personally thought he was a bad actor, so what a surprise it was to him when he realized he did have acting chops. I thought he was fantastic and his performance succumbing to sin and greed is believable. I thought his character had great chemistry with Edward G. Robinson who was transforming himself into a character actor at this point in his career. I really enjoyed how Robinson is able to piece the case together, clue by clue. Barbara Stanwyck and her fake wig also delivered the goods. She likewise was reluctant to accept the role at first, but she made her contemptible character really fun to watch.

For Billy Wilder’s third film as director, he carried the film with such grace. Only Wilder himself could have gotten away with some of the things he showed on screen. As one of the early film noirs, Double Indemnity is a must watch…even if you do not know anything about insurance. There are scenes that literally made me jump or gasp…like I did in that apartment scene. The use of voiceover is fantastic and was a device that worked so well, Wilder used it in future films. The story itself is engaging, the dialogue was sharp, and the performances were genuine. Cain liked this movie so much and said it is the only film adapted from his novels that he liked. And the ending is unforgettable. For any fan of cinema, this is a must-watch.

My Grade: A