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Money. Double Indemnity is a story that revolves around a woman's attempts not only to have her oil baron husband murdered, but to profit immensely from it. Wilder presents Phyllis Dietrichson as a materialistic housewife, whose trinkets such as her anklet and lipstick signal both indulgent affluence and excessive eroticism.
- Character List
Double Indemnity study guide contains a biography of...
- Double Indemnity Summary
Double Indemnity Summary. 1938. Los Angeles. The night is...
- Literary Elements
Double Indemnity study guide contains a biography of...
- Character List
Dec 20, 1998 · It's the right fit for the hard urban atmosphere and dialogue created by Cain, Chandler, and the other writers Edmund Wilson called "the boys in the back room.”. "Double Indemnity” has one of the most familiar noir themes: The hero is not a criminal, but a weak man who is tempted and succumbs.
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In many ways, Woody Allens quote encompasses all the main elements that make Billy Wilders Double Indemnity (Paramount Pictures, USA, 1944) a masterpiece. Anchored in the film noirs aestheticism, its low-key lighting, oppressive music, sharp dialogues and breathtaking performances achieve to make this film an unavoidable classic.
It is essential to understand the characteristics of film noirs aesthetic to appreciate Double Indemnitys richness. The term has first been used in 1946 by French critics to describe the rise of crime dramas in Hollywood that explored sexual motivations and growing cynicism. Its low-key black and white style is significantly recognizable, influence...
Much has been said about the use of low-key lighting in film noir. Like painters, cinematographers create an effect of chiaroscuro, and darkness tends to dominate the shot composition. Double Indemnity seems to be sculpted by light (and absence of light), anchoring the movie within the film noir tradition. The credits and the opening sequence of th...
In film noir, lighting implicitly develops key points around the story and the protagonists. It hides them from the audiences sight, and wraps the plot in enigmas and secret crimes. Yet Double Indemnity adds in an extra layer of complexity lighting also reveals the hidden evils within the characters. Thus, it is used as a narrative feature which p...
This world of obscurity is also conveyed through the sharp-witted dialogues and the neurotic soundtrack that contribute to the films grandeur. Wilder and Raymond Chandler produced jazzy dialogues, with a dark sense of humour. The actors say their lines promptly: they fight each other through speedy cross-talks. Yet Walter and Phyllis both use speec...
Wilders direction is impeccable, and actors play their role with dexterity and intelligence. The choice of cast has contributed to the films popularity: Barbara Stanwyck was the highest paid actress in America at the time, and Edward G. Robinson had been a star since the successful Little Caesar. Fred MacMurray was more famous in light comedies, bu...
Wilders ingenious craftsmanship of lighting, sound, dialogue and performance succeeds in making the film a real chef doeuvre. All the cinematographic qualities of Double Indemnity contributed to its enormous impact on film history: everyone remembers these beautiful black-and-white shots, like lonely Edward Hopper settings, and the actors brillianc...
Blakeney, Catherine, An Analysis of Billy Wilders Double Indemnity, StudentPulse (2009) accessed the 13/02/2014 Gemünden, Gerd, A foreign affair: Billy Wilders American Films (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008) Hanson, Helen and ORawe, Catherine, The femme fatale: images, histories and contexts (Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK ; New York : Palgrave Mac...
Double Indemnity is a 1944 American crime thriller film noir directed by Billy Wilder, co-written with Raymond Chandler, and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. The film was based on James M. Cain 's novel of the same name , which ran as an eight-part serial in Liberty magazine beginning in February 1936.
Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity (1944). Double Indemnity, American film noir, released in 1944, that was considered the quintessential movie of its genre. It followed the time-honoured noir plotline of a man undone by an evil woman. (Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.) MacMurray, Fred.
- Lee Pfeiffer
A Los Angeles insurance representative lets an alluring housewife seduce him into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, an insurance investigator. In 1938, Walter Neff, an experienced salesman of the Pacific All Risk Insurance Co., meets the seductive wife of one of his clients, Phyllis Dietrichson ...
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Double Indemnity Summary. 1938. Los Angeles. The night is dark and the blood seeping from Walter Neff is red. Neff is an insurance salesman for the Pacific All Risk Insurance Co. and he is in his office, recording a confession into his Dictaphone. The confession is addressed to Barton Keyes, the claims agent who is his immediate superior.
