Double
Indemnity (1944)
|
Universal
Cast:
Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson.
Rating:
PG
Run
time: 103 mins..
Genre:
Crime
Verdict:
Brilliant
(see rating
system)
|
|
This
is a beauty - a hard working insurance salesman falls for
a sexy, bored wife who wants her old man to have a little
"accident".
It's
a simple premise, but legendary writer/director Billy Wilder
invested it with a great script, taut direction and magical
casting to make this a gripping story of greed and lust.
Fred
MacMurray is cast against type from his usual nice-guy roles,
playing Walter Neff, a highly regarded insuranceman who learns
just how much evil lurks in a man's heart - mostly his own.
It's all the fault of seductive blond housewife Phyllis Dietrichson
(Barbara Stanwyck), who snares Neff the moment he first lays
eyes on her during a routine housecall.
Soon,
Neff is blabbering nonsense like "I'm crazy 'bout you
baby" as he contemplates offing her dull husband (Tom
Powers) so the two of them can build a life on the proceeds
of a "Double Indemnity" payout - an insurance policy
paying double for rare accidents...liike falling off the back
of a train.
It's
brilliantly done, with Wilder building unbearable tension
as Neff's shrewd boss Barton Keyes (a great turn by Edward
G. Robinson) figures out what's going on.
Universal's
2006 special two-disc edition features a remastered picture
and sound and a great documentary on the making of the film.
There's also the 1973 TV movie colour remake starring Richard
Crenna and Samantha Eggar (which shows how great the original
really was!)
