Movie Review - Double Indemnity (1944)

Double Indemnity

Billy Wilder's 1944 adaptation of James M. Cain's influential book seems to be the quintessential idea of film noir. Retaining all of the dark tones and lightning quick dialogue while pulling in Fred MacMurray to hold the lead role, Wilder crafts a movie full of psychological drama that manages to split off from the novel to land its own creative blows as a taut, thrilling movie.

The film remains fairly faithful to Cain's book, rarely adding or deleting scenes. Instead, Wilder uses the most effective scenes from Cain's novel and gives them room to breathe, allowing MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck to use their romantic appeal to hook the viewer. Stanwyck puts on a great performance in a fairly challenging role; her character, while weak in the opening stages of the film, becomes more sinister and dirty as the film moves ahead, and Stanwyck's body language shifts in the latter part of the film into one scary baby.

MacMurray, too, delivers with panache. He's a charming gent, with quick dialogue deliveries and he nails the performance in the opening and ending shots, an impressive feat when we soon find out that the emotional climax of the film rests on MacMurray's ability to move the audience. 

What's certainly true of the film is that it retains Cain's handful of likable characters. MacMurray deals with a character who murders to get the money and the girl, yet he manages to find niches to fit into that the audience can't help but relate to. It's a midlife crisis of sorts. Edward G. Robinson plays Keyes, MacMurray's boss, who stands out because of his quirky, quick-witted style. Robinson has a small part, but he makes it memorable enough.

Wilder deals well with the murder and subsequent guilt-ridden actions of MacMurray's character Neff. The film moves swiftly from set-up to murder and then switches gears to the defensive. Wilder picks his shots well; he uses the darkness to his advantage, especially in the last few moments of the film when Neff plots his final murder. The poetic end is also inspiring in its staging; MacMurray and Robinson deliver a heart-wrenching scene that perhaps stands as the moment where everything falls into place for the audience while falling apart for Neff.

Even now, Double Indemnity remains a film that one simply must experience. It's difficult to explain, but one can't help but feel that after Wilder's film, crime dramas become purely derived from the emotional impact that this inky film contains.