“Double Indemnity” (1944)

Double Indemnity

Grade: A+

One of the greatest noirs ever made — and one of the greatest of all films, for that matter — Double Indemnity is engrossing from the get-go. The acting is superb, the twists and turns of the story are exquisite and the pacing is fantastic. If you believe in the mantra “they don’t make ‘em like they used to,” you can point to Double Indemnity as your evidence.

Directing:

Although not the first film noir made in Hollywood, Double Indemnity went a long way in defining the style. Director Billy Wilder uses shadowy scenery and chiaroscuro to expert effect: one of his best motifs is the Venetian blind lighting, which turns the everyday humdrum of an insurance office into an inescapable prison. Taking influence from the films of German expressionism, Wilder gives this doomed fable the bedeviled atmosphere that it deserves — Los Angeles has never looked lonelier. You can feel the walls closing in with every frame.

At the same time, Wilder’s style never shows off. His directing is elegant yet efficient, and Double Indemnity moves at a rapid pace. Smartly, he lets the talented actors drive the story, thereby increasing the realism. The focus is on the characters, not the camera. Wilder’s excellent pacing is why the film remains so impactful.

Acting:

There are three principal characters in Double Indemnity, all of whom are played by fantastic actors delivering career-best performances. Fred MacMurray is our smooth-talking antihero, Walter Neff, an insurance salesman who is too clever, or dumb, for his own good. He falls under the spell of Phyllis Dietrichson, played by Barbara Stanwyck, who is the most conniving, manipulative and enticing femme fatale ever created. She is evil personified, but due to Stanwyck’s magnetic performance, we never get tired of watching her.

But the best performance belongs to Edward G. Robinson, playing against type as a dedicated claims manager named Barton Keyes. It’s refreshing to see Robinson, who usually plays gangsters or other tough tough-guy roles, as the film’s moral compass. He’s still as stern and gritty and ruthless as ever, but this time Robinson uses his powers on the right side of the law — Keyes is one of the best supporting characters in cinematic history, and Robinson’s speedy line delivery and subtle range of emotion is an impressive tour de force.

Writing:

Like many noirs, Double Indemnity is based around a “perfect crime gone wrong.” Even though the ending is inevitable, the twists and turns to get there are among the most entertaining and enthralling of Wilder’s career. Or Raymond Chandler’s, for that matter. Their screenplay — which ranks along Casablanca, Citizen Kane and Adaptation as among the finest ever written — is filled to the brim with snappy dialogue, rich characterization and hardboiled drama.

At first, you might think the clever lines are too clever: better on the page than on screen. But then you realize how natural it sounds coming from these great actors, which reinforces the notion that only a great performance could make such quips come to life. And when you find yourself so caught up in the tight storyline that the whip-smart dialogue becomes an afterthought, it becomes clear that Double Indemnity is in a class all its own.

Music:

The storyline is filled with quiet suspicion, but Miklós Rózsa’s orchestral score is brash and overly dramatic like a Franz Schubert symphony. Nonetheless, the sheer ambition and epic scale of Rózsa’s music goes a long way in engulfing the viewer into the world of the film. The music is as much a part of Double Indemnity as Wilder’s directing, Chandler’s screenplay or Stanwyck’s acting. It is a terrific, all-encompassing soundtrack.

Ending (SPOILERS):

Because of the confessional voiceover framing device, we already know that Neff will end the film in jail or worse. Still, the poetic grandiosity of the final image — Keyes lighting Neff’s cigarette as he bleeds out (the roles had been reversed throughout the entire film) — is, quite simply, a perfect conclusion.

“I picked you for the job, not because I think you’re so darn smart, but because I thought you were just a shade less dumb than the rest of the outfit. Guess I was wrong. You’re not smarter, Walter. You’re just a little taller.” — Barton Keyes

Why Double Indemnity gets an A+:

Every aspect of this tightly plotted film is superb, from the acting to the directing to the dialogue-driven screenplay. One of the best movies ever made.

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