Part of Romance Is Dead
Insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) gets roped into a murderous scheme when he falls for the sensual Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), who is intent on killing her husband (Tom Powers) and living off the fraudulent accidental death claim. Prompted by the late Mr. Dietrichson’s daughter, Lola (Jean Heather), insurance investigator Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) looks into the case, and gradually begins to uncover the sinister truth.
Billy Wilder’s seminal film noir helped cement the genre in pop culture with its expressionist lighting, Stanwyck’s quintessential femme fatale, and its troubled, obsessed antihero. The root inspiration of countless imitators, this absolute masterclass in storytelling, style and moody aesthetics is not to be missed on the big screen.
“Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis Dietrichson — a platinum blonde who wears tight white sweaters, an anklet, and sleazy-kinky shoes — is perhaps the best acted and the most fixating of all the slutty, cold-blooded femmes fatales of the film-noir genre.” —Pauline Kael, New Yorker “The season's nattiest, nastiest, most satisfying melodrama. James M. Cain's novelette was carnal and criminal well beyond screen convention. Director Billy Wilder's casting is just as unconventional.” —TIME (Jul 10, 1944) “Billy Wilder has broken open a door hitherto locked to all those connected with the creation of motion pictures. He has made the hero and heroine of his stark drama a pair of murderers. There is no gloss to their wrong-doing, no sugar frosting to make palatable their misdeeds. It is a drama the like of which no other picture in recent memory brings to mind.” —Hollywood Reporter (Apr 24, 1944) “DOUBLE INDEMNITY is full of tense, gritty pleasures, including one of Robinson’s strongest bulldog-style turns. But Stanwyck holds the brassy key to its success. She was that Hollywood rarity — a thoroughly unsentimental big star.” —Michael Sragow, Salon
