170: Double Indemnity

US  107m  Dir: Billy Wilder  Key Cast: Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck)

Based on: Double Indemnity by James M. Cain (Novel)

Double Indemnity is the film noiriest of film noir. Some say it's the first example of the genre (I'd disagree) but most are agreed that it firmly set the template for the genre. 

Insurance salesman Walter (Fred MacMurray) meets put-upon-wife Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck). The two immediately fall for each other and when Phyllis mentions the desire to murder her husband Walter realises he knows exactly how to commit the crime and get away with it to receive the insurance pay-out. However, Walter's boss Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) has a special skill in discovering when the insurance company has been cheated.

The film was the first Hollywood film to explicitly explore the means, motive and opportunity of a murder. The film begins with an extra-martial affair, includes a cold-blooded murder (happening just out of shot) and then quite a bit of violence in the climax. It certainly feels different than other films of it's day and pushed the limits of the Hays production code. 

The relationship between the two central characters is fascinating. It begins as flirtatious and then there's an element of tension between the pair before they properly become lovers. As they deal with the aftermath of the murder though they turn on each other- there's only really a very brief moment where the pair are happy lovers. It's actually Phyllis who often has the upper hand and she is an understated femme fatale- her character is more complicated than simply being sexy and dangerous but she is very much both of those things. 

I felt like the pacing loses something once the murder takes place. From that point on there's a constant background threat of discovery but it takes some time for it to build into anything concrete. At least though the climax is great and it's really clever how the film creates a framing device of Walter narrating events before his fate is decided.

The atmosphere created here is brilliant. Film noir is as much a style as it is a genre and this perfectly captures it. It also seems to be dark and there's rarely a moment when there is more than a handful of people in the room. The threat of death or capture is constantly around every corner and the narration told by a weary protagonist really adds something too. 

The definitive film noir which stands up well all these years later.