Director: Billy Wilder
Stars: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G Robinson
I was watching NCIS a few days ago, and at one point in the episode, two characters, Tony and Ziva, talk about this film, Double Indemnity, as a classic. Tony usually knows what he is talking about concerning films. (But don't even get me started with his opinion of Strangers on a Train! Those writers need to actually WATCH that movie before they write his lines about it!!)
Walter Neff (MacMurray), an insurance salesman, visits the home of Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck) in a routine house call to renew her husband's auto insurance. Her husband is not at home, and they begin a flirtatious exchange, until she asks if she can get a life insurance policy on her husband without his knowing.
Wise to her game, Neff leaves immediately, putting her in her place, or so he thinks. He knows all the tricks in the business, and this one reeks of murder. Mrs. D shows up at his home later that evening, to flirt some more and assure him she doesn't want to kill her husband, though she's not very convincing in the latter argument, since Neff decides he loves her and that the two of them should kill her husband together.
It's crazy how when you're watching a movie, and your point of view is with the thief (like The Italian Job- love the new version of that one!) or the killer, in this case, you are cheering them on, in the case of the theft, or at least not wanting them to get caught, as in a murder. How do movies do that to us?
If you like the genre (film noir) or suspense, or crime movies, I'm sure you'll be delighted. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that Barbara Stanwyck was a killer!
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