Double Indemnity

Meeting incognito: Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity
  • Director: Billy Wilder
  • United States, 1944
  • 2 stars out of 5

In some life insurance policies, where the policyholder dies in untypical circumstances, the policy pays out double. It’s called double indemnity, and when old Mr Dietrichson gets bumped off in revenge for the heinous crimes of being cranky and middle-aged, it’s made to look like he fell off a moving train.

It follows that the real protagonist in this movie is implausibility. That a housewife with a bad wig could persuade a worldly insurance salesman into helping her to off her husband. That our friendly local salesman would have no qualms about strangling a man with whom he has no beef. That the filmmakers thought a 23-year old actress would pass for the innocent teenage daughter.

Double Indemnity is creatively shot, and as we can expect from Wilder, the script is witty and sharp – indeed, Edward G Robinson positively thrives in his role as the shrewd invesigator Keyes. However, and perhaps this complaint is all too modern, the plot lacks purpose and the characters lack motivation, so the movie is robbed of any real tension.

Comments

No responses yet to Double Indemnity

Why not give me your comments?

See also:

Some Like It Hot

Spot the men

Director: Billy Wilder United States, 1959 What is it with Billy Wilder movies? For me, only the unprecedented content made The Apartment stand out. Now I find that this highly esteemed comedy ...

  • Originally published: 15 Feb 2007 in Film

The Apartment

Anyone for spaghetti? Lemmon cooks dinner in The Apartment

Director: Billy Wilder United States, 1960 Wilder’s comedy about a clerk who lets his bosses use his apartment for trysts in exchange for career advancement has some unusually dark moments but on ...

  • Originally published: 15 Jan 2007 in Film

The Killers

It's killing time: Ava Gardner and Burt Lancaster in The Killers

Director: Robert Siodmak United States, 1946 Insurance investigator Jim Reardon uncovers dark dealings when assigned to the death of Ole ‘Swede’ Andersen. Told in flashback – with more than a pinch of ...

  • Originally published: 30 Sep 2007 in Film

Ocean’s Thirteen

Here's your cue: battling zombies in Shaun of the Dead

Director: Steven Soderbergh United States, 2007 From far away you can hear the overhead lines crackling across the desert as they stretch through the arid expanses of Nevada toward the mirage glow ...

  • Originally published: 9 Jul 2007 in Film

Ennio Morricone in London

Ennio Morricone poster

The composer Ennio Morricone is not just a hero of cinema, he’s also a hero of mine. I can’t remember how I made the discovery that he’d be conducting the Rome ...

  • Originally published: 3 Dec 2006 in Concerts

Who is that guy?

Photo of Mike Padgett

Hello you. I'm Mike Padgett and I work in the technology sector as an Information Designer.

I also enjoy travel, concerts, films and walking.

I'm based in Brussels, Belgium. My current favourite Belgian beer is St Feuillien Brune.

RSS feeds