- Location: The AFI Silver Theatre
- I killed him for money and for a woman. I didn't get the money, and I didn't get the woman.
- That's the plot of Double Indemnity in a hard-boiled nutshell, and we get it in the first five minutes from a bleeding man confessing into a dictaphone. Several questions arise, but there is never any doubt how things will turn out for insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray). In flashback, narratives have a funny way of sounding preordained, and Neff's fatalistic account is no different. What is different about his story is that it's never completely clear why Neff had to come to such a bitter end. He was astute enough to see trouble coming and had every chance to avoid it, but Walter Neff's story is one of jumping aboard and following trouble "all the way to the end of the line."
- The trouble in this story takes the form of ankleted beauty Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck). Mrs. Dietrichson is one of film noir's classic femme fatales, and Stanwyck absolutely owns the role. Neff is entranced before she even reaches the bottom of the staircase, and he soon subjects Dietrichson to what we assume is his usual onslaught of oily lines and strained innuendo. Amusingly, Mrs. Dietrichson's marital status doesn't seem to dissuade the insurance salesman, who is presumably no stranger to the hard sell. Still, Dietrichson's sultry rebuffs could make any man an optimist, and Neff is only further encouraged when she accidentally-on-purpose meets with him alone. Then the conversation migrates to getting accident insurance for Mr. Dietrichson "without him knowing it" and "without the insurance company knowing that he doesn't know it." That's where the trouble begins.
- Neff is sensible enough to recognize that Dietrichson's proposal is a prelude to murder, and he initially reacts appropriately. "Boy, what a dope you must think I am!" he says, just before storming out of her house. So why are they in each other's arms just a few hours later? It seems like Neff is as enamored with the thrill of gaming the system as with the corresponding financial and sexual rewards. He fully admits that Dietrichson's plan "was all tied up with something (he'd) been thinking about for years." So he did do it for money and a woman, but probably also because this wasn't the first time a fraud scheme had crossed his mind. That's just my theory, though, and part of this film's allure is that we never really get the full answer, assuming one even exists. Regardless, their conspiracy results in exactly the type of murder that Neff hopes will look like an accident, even to the discerning eyes and stomach of Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson).
- Keyes memorably describes his profession as an insurance claims investigator as "a doctor and a bloodhound and a cop and a judge and a jury and a father confessor all in one." His worries take the peculiar form of a figurative "little man" in his stomach who has helped him in the past to sniff out fraudulent claims having to do with both insurance and his own near-marriage ("She'd been dyeing her hair ever since she was sixteen"!). Needless to say, the little man doesn't like Dietrichson's supposed death by falling from a moving train, and it isn't long before Keyes constructs a remarkably accurate theory, minus Neff's involvement. This suggests to Neff that he quickly and violently dissolve his partnership with Dietrichson, but of course she's made some plans of her own. In Keyes' inimitable words, "They're stuck with each other and they've got to ride all the way to the end of the line and it's a one-way trip and the last stop is the cemetery."
- Since a review should be shorter than the film's screenplay, I'll conclude with a quick series of comments. The film's dialogue is outstanding, but I guess that's hardly surprising given the involvement of James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, and Billy Wilder. The acting by Stanwyck, Robinson, and MacMurray is all wonderful, and there are several interesting minor characters whom I didn't even get the chance to mention. The plot is interesting enough, but it's the film's style, tone, and wit that impress me the most. Simply put, Double Indemnity is one of the best films noir and one of my favorite films of all time. And if that's not a colorful enough description, I'm happy to elaborate that, for me, a film like that is "just like a slice of rare roast beef."
- Apparently, Chandler and Wilder didn't get along with each other at all.
- The ending of the novel is rather different, putting it mildly.
- Twin Peaks obviously made several references to this film, not the least of which was a full scene involving an insurance salesman named Neff.
