Movie Notes: Double Indemnity

August 23rd, 2010

= = 5 stars

Starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
Directed by Billy Wilder

Synopsis

Insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) tries to renew a car insurance policy for the husband of Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), and soon gets in over his head with a murder plot.

The Good

• Instead of cops, crooks, and drugs, Walter is the relatively mundane insurance-claim salesman, sniffing out fraudulent insurance claims.
• The movie unexpectedly begins with a confession, and audaciously  answers “who dunit,” so the film’s mystery becomes why the perpetrator confesses to the crime.
• Fred’s entry point to nefarious dealings is a malicious dame, played with expert, calculating cool — balanced between seduction and iciness — by Barbara Stanwyck.
• The expected dark, shadowy film-noir style is overlaid over sunny Los Angeles, a similar incongruity as Sunset Boulevard and Chinatown.
• The musical score has a relentless theme that repeats constantly.
• As the murder plot gets underway, I thought of Dial M For Murder and the investigator’s claim that perpetrators of a crime usually slip up. Walter’s partner Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) suspects something fishy about the murder, due to a gut feeling (he refers to it as a “little man”) that ties his stomach in knots.
• A steely minimalism: through the first half hour all we have is Fred and Phyllis. The doomed husband first shown half an hour in. The twisty script and changing motivations manages to create compelling suspense with few characters.

The Bad

• N/A

Conclusion

Beyond the moody cinematography, deft performances, and plot twists, what I loved most about Double Indemnity is its steely minimalism. No guns, explosions, or huge set pieces — just a couple of characters up to no good and the question of how they’ll be found out. I’ll take the suspense of two men and a woman hiding behind a door to a CGI robot any day.

IMDB: Double Indemnity
Wikipedia: Double Indemnity
Rotten Tomatoes: Double Indemnity 98%