An insurance man (Fred MacMurray) helps a platinum blonde (Barbara Stanwyck) kill her husband, but all does... (Learn more)
Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G Robinson (View All)
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Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G Robinson
Directed by Billy Wilder and adapted from a James M. Cain novel by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, Double Indemnity represents the high-water mark of 1940s film noir urban crime dramas in which a greedy, weak man is seduced and trapped by a cold, evil woman amidst the dark shadows and Expressionist lighting of modern cities. Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces insurance agent Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) into murdering her husband to collect his accident policy. The murder goes as planned, but after the couple's passion cools, each becomes suspicious of the other's motives. The plan is further complicated when Neff's boss Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), a brilliant insurance investigator, takes over the investigation. Told in flashbacks from Neff's perspective, the film moves with ruthless determinism as each character meets what seems to be a preordained fate. Movie veterans Stanwyck, MacMurray, and Robinson give some of their best performances, and Wilder's cynical sensibility finds a perfect match in the story's unsentimental perspective, heightened by John Seitz's hard-edged cinematography. Double Indemnity ranks with the classics of mainstream Hollywood movie-making. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
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US Release Date
1/1/44
MPAA Rating
Not Rated
Running Time
106 mins.
Locations
- Los Angeles, California, USA
Language
- English
Awards
- Nominated for a Best Picture award at the 1944 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Actress award at the 1944 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Screenplay award at the 1944 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Black and White Cinematography award at the 1944 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the 100 Greatest American Movies award at the 1998 American Film Institute [Festival/Awar Awards.
- Winner of the U.S. National Film Registry award at the 1991 Library of Congress [Festival/Award] Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Sound award at the 1944 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Score - Drama or Comedy award at the 1944 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Director award at the 1944 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
Distributor
- MCA Home Video
- Paramount
- Paramount Pictures
