Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Screenplay by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler from the novel by James M. Cain
Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson

The entire movie is narrated by insurance salesman, Walter Neff, as he confesses into a dictaphone the terrible crime he has been led to commit. His partner in murder is Phyllis Dietrichson, a blonde bombshell who’s unhappily married to a grouchy and jealous oil executive, Mr. Dietrichson (we never learn his first name). Neff and Phyllis deserve each other, but Phyllis comes across as the more ruthless and cruel of the two. (According to IMDB, Barbara Stanwyck was the first choice to play Phyllis, but she was unnerved when seeing the role was of a ruthless killer. When she expressed her concern to Billy Wilder, he asked her, “Are you a mouse or an actress?” ) It was bit disconcerting at first watching the father of My Three Sons play a cad and a murderer, but Fred MacMurray was quite convincing in the role.

This is one of the few 1940’s movies I’ve seen that could give Hitchcock a run for his money. It’s well-plotted, the dialog is snappy and not too hokey, and the ending is good. I highly recommend this one to fans of Hitchcock and of film noir in general. Wilder plays with the lighting and camera angles with a finesse that made me a believer in his directorial skills. Barbara Stanwyck, by the way, is absolutely beautiful, a lot prettier than most of the other actresses of her day.

My urchins learned from this movie the meaning of the term “double indemnity” and the lesson that crime never pays. At least, I think that’s what they learned.

Walter Neff: 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?”

Ummm, yeah, that’s who she thought you were, sucker.

The novella by James Cain was based on a “1927 crime in which a married Queens woman, Ruth Brown Snyder, persuaded her lover to kill her husband Albert after Albert had just recently taken out a large insurance policy with a double indemnity clause.” Ms. Snyder was executed at Sing-Sing on January 12, 1928 for the murder of Albert Snyder. Her accomplice, a corset salesman, also received the death sentence.

Has any one here read the Cain novel? Better or worse than the movie? Or just different?

IMDB link to Double Indemnity.
Buy Double Indemnity at Amazon.