DOUBLE INDEMNITY

The double entendre comes out of the gate swiftly in the film noir classic Double Indemnity (1944)!  Fred MacMurray plays slick insurance salesman Walter Neff. Mere minutes after meeting sultry Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck), the wife of one of his clients, Walter is letting it be known that he’s enjoying his time with her a little more than just professionally.

Phyllis: “There’s a speed limit in this state Mr. Neff, 45 miles an hour”
Walter: “How fast was I going officer?”
Phyllis: “I’d say around 90.”

Phyllis may play the part of a lady, but in reality, she is a true broad in every aspect. She’s well aware of her wiles and more than comfortable using them to her full advantage. Walter imagines himself a very clever chap, but he’s soon caught in the web of deceit that Phyllis spins.

When the film begins, Walter shows up extremely early at his workplace. He’s injured and immediately begins recording a confession into a dictation machine. His confession becomes the narration upon which the rest of the film is revealed through flashbacks. His tale begins with his first time meeting the aforementioned Phyllis Dietrichson. He’s immediately smitten with her and becomes empathetic as she spins her tale of being trapped in a loveless and abusive marriage. Before long, he’s assisting her with secretly obtaining a life insurance policy for her husband. As his affair with Phyllis intensifies, Walter soon finds himself helping her in plotting her husband’s death. Once the “accidental” death of Mr. Dietrichson occurs, however, Walter’s boss, Mr. Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), soon begins to have suspicions about it and about the large payout that his firm will be forced to pay to the widow Phyllis. Walter’s cat-and-mouse tale quickly begins to unravel as he tries to maintain his affair with Phyllis and his employment with Mr. Keyes. As a keen salesman, Walter had imagined himself the ultimate player, but he’s now found himself as the one who may have been played.

The dialogue is rapid and sharp, capturing the sort of gumshoe zeitgeist of the period. Nearly every single sentence Walter utters to Phyllis ends with “baby”! All three lead actors are at the top of their game, with Stanwyck receiving an Oscar nod (one of 7 Oscar nominations the film received in total). Her portrayal of Phyllis is superb as the layers of her character are peeled back slowly and deliberately. The pacing is outstanding, and even though we know Walter ends up injured, we still don’t know how everything will play out until the very end. Adding to Double Indemnity's brilliance is the incredible score by Miklos Rozsa accompanied by the cinematography of John F. Seitz. Seitz’s use of light and shadows are a visual treat and director Billy Wilder perfectly incorporates the actors into that morsel.