Double Indemnity 1944

     This film is based on a novel by James M. Cain and the setting is in 1938.  Walter Neff is an experienced salesman for the Pacific All Risk Insurance Co.  He stops by the house of Mr. Dietrichson, he is one of their auto insurance clients.  Mr. Dietrichson is not home but his wife says he will be home that evening and Walter makes an appointment to come back.  The insurance policy for two of their cars has lapsed and they are not currently covered by a policy.  Phyllis Dietrichson is very attractive and Walter begins an affair with her.  Phyllis takes out an insurance policy to receive twice the amount of the policy if her husband has an accident.  This is known in insurance language as double indemnity.  Soon afterwards, Mr. Dietrichson is found dead on a train track.  The police believe it is accidental death.  Insurance analyst and Walter’s best friend Barton Keyes believes that Phyllis has murdered her husband with the help of another man?

     Walter didn’t have his head on straight the minute after he met femme fatale Phyllis.  He believes any plan will work as long as he and Phyllis get money and get rid of her husband.  He also believes Phyllis fell madly in love with him the minute she saw Walter!!  Barton Keyes has been in the insurance business for a long time and he’s seen every type of scam to claim insurance money!!  Can Keyes be fooled this time by Walter and Phyllis?  4* (I really liked this movie)  

        

107 min, Crime directed by Billy Wilder, screenwriters Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler with Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Poter Hall, Jean Heather, Tom Powers, Byron Barr, Richard Gaines, Fortunio Bonanova, John Philliber.

Note:  Imdb 8.3 out of 10, TCM Leonard Maltin 4* out of 4* average user rating 4.4* out of 5*, Roger Ebert 4*, Rotten Tomatoes 97% critic 95% audience, EmpireOnline Rob Fraser 5*, The Telegraph 5* Marc Lee, Amazon 4.8* out of 5* with 570 reviews.  

Special Note:  Filmed on 6301 Quebec Drive, 1825 N. Kingsley Drive, La Golondrina Café, Producers Studios, Burbank Southern Pacific Station, Paramount Studios, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Venice Canals, Hollywood Hills, Palos Verdes, Bryson Apartments, California.  Billy Wilder added the scene at the railroad tracks where the car won’t start after his car wouldn’t start at the end of a shooting day.  Author James M. Cain admitted later that if he had come up with some of the solutions to the plot that the screenwriters did, he would have used them in his novel.  Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler did not get along during writing the script.  There were many arguments between the two men.  Barbara Stanwyck was originally unnerved when she learned the role was of a ruthless killer.  Wilder asked her, “Are you a mouse or an actress?”  Stanwyck is wearing a blond wig.  There is another film with the same plot and title from 1973.