Written by Jennifer
March 26, 2009
If you've ever considered killing someone to claim insurance money, Double Indemnity will undoubtedly make you think twice.
If you've ever considered killing someone to claim insurance money, Double Indemnity will undoubtedly make you think twice. Murder is a very bad thing, but when you get all greedy about it, you're pretty much begging for trouble. Just ask Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) and Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck).
Walter is a seasoned insurance salesman who meets Phyllis when he drops by to update her husband's automobile coverage. She greets him wearing only a towel, and he waits as she changes into something more appropriate. Sparks fly as they exchange bitingly flirty banter, and Phyllis casually inquires about accident insurance - like shouldn't her husband have some if he's going to be working on a big bad oil rig? And wouldn't it be just as well if he didn't know about it?
Well, Walter's no dummy. Insurance men know more tricks than a car full of monkeys, but he can't resist a lady wearing a honey of an anklet, especially when she shows up at his apartment later that evening. After a few drinks and some fooling around, Walter is pretty excited about that accident insurance. No longer content to be an accessory, he takes charge of Mr. Dietrichson's accident himself. Certain accidents are worth more money than others, and it would be mighty handy if this one involved a train.
After several surreptitious meetings in the grocery store (very subtle, especially when Phyllis wears her sunglasses), Phyllis and Walter execute their plan. Everything goes perfectly, but Walter gets a funny feeling when it's all over. In his narration, he says, "Suddenly it came over me that everything would go wrong. It sounds crazy, Keyes, but it's true, so help me. I couldn't hear my own footsteps. It was the walk of a dead man." Of course Walter is right, and everything unravels from here. His colleague, Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), smells a rat, so it's not likely that the insurance money will come through, and when Dietrichson's daughter, reveals her suspicions about Phyllis, Walter finds himself in one heck of a mess.
Fast-paced and peppered with snappy dialogue, Double Indemnity was far ahead of its time, and still seems fresh more than sixty years after its release. It certainly seems fresher than the 1973 television remake included in this Special Edition. Though it follows the original script almost word for word, it lacks tension, and there is little chemistry between the two leads, Richard Crenna and Samantha Eggar. There's really no good way to drop a story from 1944 into 1973 without creating an anachronism, and this film has all the sophistication of a SNL sketch. Even so, it's strangely watchable in a Mystery Science Theater kind of way.
Far more interesting is the documentary, "Shadows of Suspense" in which notable directors and film historians describe Double Indemnity's rocky road to filmhood. The Hays Code, which outlined the standards of decency for American movies, deemed it the scandalous story of an adulteress and a fornicator. Well duh! That's what makes it so juicy! Aside from being far too racy for its own good, screenwriters Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler could barely stand to be in the same room together. The drama behind Double Indemnity is almost as compelling as the movie itself, and makes this one honey of a Special Edition.
