Sexylocher Masterful Movie

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

utgard14 Film noir classic, directed by Billy Wilder, about an insurance salesman (Fred MacMurray) who falls for a married woman (Barbara Stanwyck). She uses him to help her get rid of her husband problem. It's a firecracker of a film that moves quickly, with hard-bitten characters and snappy dialogue brought to life by a great cast and a legendary director. Easily MacMurray's best role on the big screen. Wonderful supporting work from Edward G. Robinson. Stanwyck is terrific, as well, although selling her as the kind of woman a man could fall in lust with at first sight is one of the film's only flaws. Beautifully shot by John Seitz. The incredible score is courtesy of Miklós Rózsa. A lot of top talent worked on this. Nominated for seven Oscars, it took home zero. Which is a crying shame, especially with regard to the screenplay written by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, adapted from a novel by James M. Cain. I like Going My Way as much as the next person but, come on now, this script has quite possibly the best dialogue in movie history. It's on my list of top ten favorite movies of all time so obviously I recommend it.

Prismark10 One of the earliest example of Film Noir. The third film in Hollywood by Billy Wilder that he co-wrote with Raymond Chandler who brought the hard boiled dialogue to this thriller. This film made Wilder's name.Fred MacMurray is the insurance salesman who falls for the femme fatale with the anklet, Barbara Stanwyck. Fatally wounded he tells his tale in flashback, confessing to a Dictaphone so the company's investigator, Edward G Robinson will know that the guy across the desk was the murderer.Stanwyck was the nurse who might have bumped off the first wife and then married widower, an oil tycoon. Now bored or just wants to be on her own with the wealth, she wants to get rid off the husband. MacMurray is smitten enough to help her do the deed. The proceeds of the accidental death insurance policy she has just taken out is I guess just a bonus. Once the husband is dead he realises that he is a dead man walking.This is a cleverly constructed thriller. It really is a relationship between MacMurray, Robinson and Stanwyck. At the end it is Robinson he lets down.MacMurray is the every-man, the insurance salesman good at his job but bored and wants to runaway with a hot woman. Stanwyck is the cold, icy one. You know she is using MacMurray, he is just a sap to her. The film belongs to Edward G Robinson, the bloodhound who knows all the tricks in the books and he has volumes of them on his shelving.

Scott LeBrun Fred MacMurray memorably plays Walter Neff, an insurance salesman whose fate is sealed when he meets Phyllis Dietrichson (a smoking hot Barbara Stanwyck), the wife of a client. She's had thoughts of bumping off her husband (Tom Powers), and he is able to put ideas into her head of how to murder the man and profit from it. It would seem to be the perfect crime, and it does go off without a hitch, but there's just one problem. Walter has a colleague named Barton Keyes (a grandiose Edward G. Robinson), who has a talent for smelling a rat when it comes to insurance claims.The cast simply couldn't be better in this quintessential example of the entire film noir genre. Certainly the story (script by director Billy Wilder and author Raymond Chandler, based on the novel by James M. Cain) offers a now classic scenario that's been re-used many times since. The film is definitely dialogue heavy, but when the dialogue is this sharp, one can't really complain. Robinson, in particular, has a field day with his lines and he's able to get them out in a fast, breathless way. MacMurray is solid as a man who finds it increasingly hard to keep his cool, and is certainly no angel, given how readily he finds himself eager to pull off this scam. Still, he's absolutely no match for Stanwyck, who is one of the all time great "femme fatales" to be found in this genre. She's utterly conniving and knows how to turn on the heat to get what she wants. The three stars receive capable support from Porter Hall as a key witness, Powers as the murder victim, Jean Heather as his daughter, Byron Barr as her surly suitor, Richard Gaines as the boss at the insurance agency, and Fortunio Bonanova in a bit near the beginning as a luckless truck driver. (Chandler himself has a Hitchcock type role as a man reading a book outside Keyes' office.)Craftily plotted, atmospheric, and quite witty, this hallmark of film noir deserves to be seen by any lover of Old Hollywood cinema.10 out of 10.

JLRMovieReviews Barbara Stanwyck is unhappily married but not helpless in this hypnotic Billy Wilder film classic, "Double Indemnity," based on the James Cain novel. Stanwyck is hardly ever helpless. She plays the quintessential femme-fatale, as she seduces insurance salesman Fred MacMurray into her web and entices him to kill for her. The target is her husband. That's all you really need to know. But why am I reviewing this with so many reviews already? #1: To be among the masses who say and agree that this is arguably the best film noir ever, and #2 : To sing the praises of Edward G. Robinson! Many people will invest a lot of time in Billy Wilder's stylized technique of movie-making and his attention of each minute detail and the incredible dialogue and script, co-written by Raymand Chandler, and perhaps Fred MacMurray's best performance on screen, but while all this is true and all these factors come together to make a perfect film. One of the biggest factors is Edward's contribution to this film. The words on the page burst forth, when Edward says them. His tirades about death statistics bring life and breath to the film in contrast to the other two, who are somberly serious and only thinking about how to get out their problems alive! The balance of "hammy" Edward and his outbursts conveying joy, revelation, frustration and feeling about his job and his "little man" and "Papa," solving each mystery, along with the walking dead characters make for a mesmerizing movie experience. I have praised the always professional and exceptional Stanwyck before in other reviews. To go on any further with anything would be redundant; this is Billy Wilder and his cast's finest hour.