Billy Wilder’s cunning masterpiece, adapted from James M. Cain’s then-notorious pulp novel by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, and the very definition of hard boiled.
Double Indemnity helped to spawn Hollywood’s era of dark murder thrillers and is one of the greatest noirs ever made.
Fred MacMurray plays Walter Neff, the sardonic insurance salesman who is willingly seduced by dissatisfied housewife Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) into planning and executing the murder of her newly insured husband.
Edward G. Robinson is Keyes, Neff’s sharp colleague and gruff friend, who smells a rat when Phyllis’ hubby has a fatal train “accident,” qualifying the femme fatale for the lucrative double-indemnity payout.
What follows is a ruthless series of betrayals, mind games and double crosses engineered by one of the screen’s all-time great villainesses, with Wilder’s rampant cynicism deliciously heightened by John Seitz’s knockout black and white cinematography. An unmissible heady brew!
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Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck & Edward G. Robinson
Year: 1944
Language: In English
Country: USA
Running time: 1hr 47mins