Double Indemnity (1944)

User Rating:

8.6/10   

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

James M. Cain (novel)
Billy Wilder (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

6 September 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Thriller

Tagline:

It's Love And Murder At First Sight !

Plot:

An insurance rep lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions.

Plot Keywords:

Insurance | Murder | Insurance Investigator | Train | Marriage

Awards:

Nominated for 7 Oscars. Another 1 win

US TV Schedule:

Thur. July 16

9:00 AM

TCM

Cast

Fred MacMurray	...	Walter Neff
Barbara Stanwyck	...	Phyllis Dietrichson
Edward G. Robinson	...	Barton Keyes
Porter Hall	...	Mr. Jackson
Jean Heather	...	Lola Dietrichson
Tom Powers	...	Mr. Dietrichson
Byron Barr	...	Nino Zachetti
Richard Gaines	...	Edward S. Norton, Jr.
Fortunio Bonanova	...	Sam Garlopis
John Philliber	...	Joe Peters
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
George Anderson	...	Warden at Execution (scenes deleted)
Al Bridge	...	Execution Chamber Guard (scenes deleted)
Edward Hearn	...	Warden's Secretary (scenes deleted)
Boyd Irwin	...	First Doctor at Execution (scenes deleted)
George Melford	...	Second Doctor at Execution (scenes deleted)
William O'Leary	...	Chaplain at Execution (scenes deleted)
Lee Shumway	...	Door Guard at Execution (scenes deleted)

Runtime:

107 min | Argentina:110 min | Canada:90 min (Ontario)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Germany:16 | Norway:16 | South Korea:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated | USA:Approved | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

1825 N. Kingsley Drive, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #29 Greatest Movie of All Time.

Goofs:

Continuity: After Neff meets with the President of his company, he returns to his apartment and places a folder on the chair to the right of the door. When Keyes comes to the door, after Neff's brief phone conversation, the folder is nowhere to be seen.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Building attendant: Well, hello there, Mr. Neff.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Quantum Leap: One Strobe Over the Line - June 15, 1965 (#3.4)" (1990)

Soundtrack:

Tangerine

A film noir masterpiece that received no less than seven Oscar nominations…

There were some superb thrillers coming out of Hollywood in the forties which did not rely on the private eye conventions – but somehow the best of them were spread throughout by the same cynicism, the same realism, the same ruthless suspense…

Best of all was Wilder's "Double Identity." It was based on a real-life assassination in New York in 1927, when a wife and her lover killed the husband for his insurance money…

In the film, a near-breaking-point tension was reached and sustained in the passion of an insurance salesman and a passionately sensual femme fatale – an intense desire for each other and for money; in the murder of the poor husband; and in their useless attempts to escape the ability of a fast-talking investigator…