Double Indemnity

A woman (Barbara Stanwyck) entices an insurance agent (Fred MacMurray) to help her murder her husband.

Double Indemnity is a superior film noir from director Billy Wilder in which everything works, even though most of it shouldn’t.

The script shouldn’t work. Screenwriters Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder didn’t get along at all, with Chandler even storming out at one point, yet the result is a tight, engaging script full of crackling dialog.

The cast shouldn’t work. Wilder had a tough time finding a leading man, with many actors turning him down before he finally convinced Fred MacMurray to take the part, yet MacMurray seems tailor made for the role of Walter Neff, a sleazier shadow of Chandler’s more famous creation: Philip Marlowe.

Barbara Stanwyck should look ridiculous in her blonde wig, yet it only serves to make her character seem both artificial and confident at the same time, and efficient bit of characterization.

The direction shouldn’t work. Wilder only had two Hollywood credits under his belt at this point: a light comedy in The Major and the Minor, and a war thriller in Five Graves to Cairo, yet he turns in what would become one of the cornerstones of the film-noir genre with knockout photography from John Seitz, and a great score from Miklós Rózsa.

Wilder, Chandler, Stanwyck, Seitz, and Rózsa all received Oscar nominations for their work in the film, which received seven nominations total, including Best Picture. Of course, it lost them all, with Going My Way nabbing the big one, but the Academy’s shortsightedness regarding this classic shouldn’t stop you from seeking it out. It’s one of the greats.