The Great Films – Double Indemnity

  • Title: Double Indemnity
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“How could I have known that murder could sometimes smell like honeysuckle?”

The Great Films - Double IndemnityIt wasn’t the first film in the genre that would come to be known as film moir, but it’s one of the best. Directed by Billy Wilder, who co-wrote the film with Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye), Double Indemnity is often referred to as “the paradigmatic film noir,” raising the bar and setting the standard for all others that followed.

Our story begins with Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), a cocky insurance salesman bleeding out in his boss’ office of a gunshot wound while recording his confession on Dictaphone. Through Neff’s narration the events which led him to this gruesome end are slowly revealed.

A simple house call to get his client to renew his auto insurance becomes anything but when Neff falls hard for the man’s younger wife (Barbara Stanwyck) who, at their first meeting, suggests procuring accidental life insurance for her husband (Tom Powers), without his knowledge.

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