Double Indemnity (1944)

An insurance salesman (Fred MacMurray) is seduced into murder and fraud in Billy Wilder’s classic dark thriller, adapted from the novel by James M. Cain.

Double Indemnity was one of the original handful of cynical American thrillers which, when released en masse in France after the war, gave rise to the term film noir. This shady cycle often featured treacherous women (femmes fatales) duping guileless men. Few of these were more alluring than Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), who ensnares policy salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) in her scheme to do away with her husband and claim the insurance payout.

Adapted from a James M. Cain story by émigré Billy Wilder and novelist Raymond Chandler, and told within a clever flashback structure as Neff leaves a taped confession for his wily colleague Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), the film is a wellspring of the noir style, with John F. Seitz’s cinematography a textbook in angles and shadow.

Cain’s work was the basis for two subsequent classics of 1940s noir: Mildred Pierce (1945) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).

1944 USA
Directed by
Billy Wilder
Produced by
Joseph Sistrom
Written by
Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler
Featuring
Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
Running time
106 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Double Indemnity

Critics

Abbey Bender
USA
Mike D'Angelo
USA
Laura Dos Santos
UK
Sonia Genaitay
UK
James Harrison
UK
Gábor Köves
Hungary
Whitney Monaghan
Australia
Dana Polan
USA
Eloise Ross
Australia
Catherine Russell
Canada
James Schamus
USA
AJ Schnack
USA
Matthew Turner
UK
Chloe Walker
UK
Sam Wasson
USA

Directors

Mong-Hong Chung
Taiwan
José Luis Garci
Spain
Annemarie Jacir
Palestine

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