Note: This is #20 in my 52 Classic Movies in 52 Weeks challenge for 2009.
As far as examples of film noir go, I liked Double Indemnity a lot more than I did Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon, mainly because it’s so different and intriguing in the way that it tells a murder mystery from the villain’s point of view. The villain in question is Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), a shady insurance salesman living in L.A. When Neff tries to re-up an insurance policy on an old client, the lady of the household (blond and sultry, of course) tempts him into a plan involving the murder of her husband and not only cashing in on his fat life insurance policy, but doing so using the “double indemnity” clause that super sizes the settlement. The balance of the movie traces the unraveling of the conspirators’ plans.
There’s plenty to like about the movie. If I were doing this 52-in-52 thing from the perspective of a student of film, for example, I’d probably remark on the interesting framing technique that opens the movie with a bleeding Neff confessing his entire sequence of dirty deeds into a dictaphone machine so that the bulk of the movie is presented as a flashback. I’m guessing such a thing wasn’t nearly as common in 1944 as it is now.
But I won’t go into all that, because I think watching Double Indemnity in 2009 actually stands up fine just as entertainment outside of an academic exercise. MacMurray and Barbara Stanwick give great performances and in line with the whole film noir thing the hook is that it’s fun to see morally challenged people behaving badly while moping around starkly lit sets. And I liked how while the story was a straight-up murder mystery, the mystery in this case wasn’t who done it, but rather how Ness’s nemesis (a co-worker in charge of investigating insurance fraud) was going to figure out what we already know.
So, good stuff. Plus I got a kick out of every time Neff called somebody “Baby.” Trailer below.
This week Jeremy also reviewed The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
I adore this film – probably my favourite of Billy Wilder’s, and that’s saying something when you consider that he was also responsible for Sabrina, Some Like It Hot and Sunset Blvd. (all of which you should try, by the way, if you’re continuing to catch up on the classics). It’s amazing how suspenseful it is, for a story that gives you all the “answers” in the very first scene.
One of the most interesting things about the great film noir of the era is the great writers they got to work on the scripts. Raymond Chandler was the one who adapted Double Indemnity from the novel, while William Faulkner adapted Chandler’s The Big Sleep, the other major noir of the mid-forties. There wasn’t so much… professional separation of different media as what you see now.
Also, if you liked “G.” (Edward G. Robinson, that is), look up Key Largo, which has him facing off against Bogart and Bacall.