Double Indemnity [4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/Blu-ray] [Criterion Collection]

Overview

"Mortally wounded, insurance-salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) stumbles into his office in the dead of night. He grabs the Dictaphone on the desk of his boss Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) and begins dictating his confession -- which segues into a film-length flashback. While making a standard policy-renewal call, Walter meets the seductive Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), who, we learn in short order, is unhappily married. Phyllis coerces Walter into writing a double-indemnity policy -- which will pay off handsomely in case of accidental death -- on her husband (Tom Powers). Though Walter suspects from the start that Phyllis has murder in mind, he allows himself to be sucked into her scheme. Walter and Phyllis concoct a meticulous plan whereby Mr. Dietrichson will be murdered, with all the evidence pointing to an accidental fall off the observation platform of a moving train. The plan starts unraveling when insurance-agency boss Keyes, who loves Neff like a son and is completely in the dark about Walter's complicity, has a ""stinking hunch"" that Mr. Dietrichson's accident was no accident. Keyes determines that Phyllis was the murderer, but he also miscalculates the identity of Phyllis' co-conspirator. Afraid that he'll be exposed, Walter makes plans to bump off Phyllis -- but as usual, she's a step or two ahead of him. James M. Cain based his novel Three of a Kind on the notorious Hall-Mills case of 1927. Director Billy Wilder, who co-wrote the screenplay adaptation of Three of a Kind (retitled Double Indemnity) with Charles M. Brackett, manages to relate the whole sordid story while still remaining within the censorship confines of 1944. One of Wilder's concessions to the Hays Office was the removal of a climactic 10-minute execution sequence, though stills of that scene exist and have been reproduced dozens of times in film-history books. Double Indemnity is a perfectly cast, perfectly directed gem, as watchable now as when it was first shown, and was improved not one bit when remade for television in 1973."

Product Details

Release Date:	05/31/2022
UPC:	0715515272018
Original Release:	1944
Source:	Criterion Collection
Language:	English
Time:	1:48:00
Format:	Blu-ray
Sales rank:	27

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Barbara Stanwyck	Phyllis Dietrichson
Fred MacMurray	Walter
Edward G. Robinson	Barton
Porter Hall	Mr. Jackson
Jean Heather	Lola
Tom Powers	Mr. Dietrichson
Richard Gaines	Mr. Norton
Fortunio Bonanova	Sam
John Philliber	Joe
Byron Barr	Nino Zachette
Bess Flowers	Norton's Secretary
Kernan Cripps	Redcap
Oscar Smith	Pullman Porter
Betty Farrington	Nettie, the Maid
Edmund Cobb	Train Conductor
Floyd Schackleford	Pullman Porter
James Adamson	Pullman Porter
Sam McDaniel	Garage Attendant
Judith Gibson	Pacific All-Risk Telephone Operator
Clarence Muse	Black Man
Miriam Franklin	Keyes' Secretary
William O'Leary	Chaplain
Edward Hearn	Warden's Secretary
Lee Shumway	Door Guard
Boyd Irwin	First Doctor
George Melford	Second Doctor
Alan Bridge	Execution Chamber Guard,Execution Chamber Guard
George Magrill	Man
John Berry	Bit Part
Harold Garrison	Redcap
Teala Loring	Pacific All-Risk Telephone Operator
Constance Purdy	Fat Shopper in Market
Dick Rush	Pullman Conductor
Floyd Shackelford	Pullman Porter
Douglas Spencer	Louis L. ('Lou') Schwartz
Sam Gorlopis	Fortunio Bonanova
Miklós Rózsa	Composer

Technical Credits

Billy Wilder

Raymond Chandler

Billy Wilder	Director,Screenwriter
Raymond Chandler	Screenwriter
Joseph Sistrom	Producer
B.G. DeSylva	Executive Producer,Producer
Farciot Edouart	Special Effects
Walter Oberst	Sound Effects,Sound/Sound Designer
Jack Duffy	Sound Effects
Loren L. Ryder	Sound Effects
Stanley Cooley	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Greed, lust, and actuarial tables -- matched with a drum-tight script, terrific performances, and perfect direction -- add up to a classic L. A. film noir that remains as scintillating today as it was in 1944. Directed by the great Billy Wilder, Double Indemnity stars Fred MacMurray as an insurance salesman who falls for the wife (Barbara Stanwyck) of one of his clients and becomes entangled in a scheme to bump off her husband. MacMurray may play an insurance salesman, but the dialogue is pure hard-boiled detective, all innuendo and double-entendre, with snappy come-ons and comebacks. It’s no wonder -- the script was based on a novella by James M. Cain and co-written by the godfather of American crime fiction, Raymond Chandler. Sporting a beautifully florid, confessional voice-over worthy of Philip Marlowe himself, the masterfully constructed narrative unfolds entirely in flashback -- a storytelling technique Wilder would reprise to great effect in Sunset Boulevard. The lead actors are unforgettable: MacMurray smug and confident from the get-go, Stanwyck subtly seductive and manipulative. Anchoring the proceedings is the legendary Edward G. Robinson in one of his best performances. Perfectly cast as MacMurray’s boss and father figure, he plays a brusque, cigar-smoking claims manager, with a big heart underneath it all, who ends up unraveling the perfect crime. This is genre filmmaking at its finest, and a definitive noir.