| Double Indemnity | |
| Director: | Billy Wilder |
| Producer: | Joseph Sistrom [uncredited] |
| Music: | Miklós Rózsa |
| Cinematography: | John Seitz |
| Editing: | Doane Harrison |
| Studio: | Paramount Pictures |
| Distributor: | Paramount Pictures |
| Runtime: | 107 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $980,000 |
Double Indemnity is a 1944 American crime thriller film noir directed by Billy Wilder, co-written with Raymond Chandler, and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. The film was based on James M. Cain's novel of the same name, which ran as an eight-part serial in Liberty magazine beginning in February 1936.
The film stars Fred MacMurray as an insurance salesman, Barbara Stanwyck as a provocative housewife, and Edward G. Robinson as a claims manager. The title refers to a "double indemnity" clause which doubles life insurance payouts when death occurs in a statistically rare manner.
The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards. Widely regarded as a classic, it is often cited as having set the standard for film noir and as one of the greatest films of all time.
Wounded from a gunshot, insurance salesman Walter Neff stumbles into his Los Angeles office. He records a dictaphone confession for claims manager Barton Keyes.
A year earlier, Neff flirts with Phyllis Dietrichson during a house call about her husband's automobile insurance. Phyllis asks about getting a policy on her husband's life without his knowledge. Neff deduces she is contemplating murder and wants no part of it. Phyllis visits Neff's apartment. He concocts a plan to murder Mr. Dietrichson and trigger the "double indemnity" clause, increasing the payout. Dietrichson unexpectedly breaks his leg.
Neff hides in the back seat of Dietrichson's car while Phyllis drives her husband to a train station. Neff breaks his neck and boards the train posing as the crippled Dietrichson. At a prearranged spot, he jumps off the train. Phyllis helps pose Dietrichson's body on the tracks.
The president of Neff's insurance company believes the death was suicide. Keyes scoffs at the idea, but he does find it strange Dietrichson did not file a claim after breaking his leg. He begins to suspect Phyllis. He deduces she had an accomplice who will split the insurance money. The company refuses to pay out the accidental death clause because Dietrichson was unaware of the policy.
Dietrichson's daughter Lola befriends Neff. She thinks her stepmother Phyllis killed her father and his first wife. Neff fears Phyllis will kill her since Dietrichson changed his will in Lola's favor.
Keyes finds a witness who says the man on the train was not Dietrichson. Neff warns Phyllis that pursuing the insurance claim in court risks exposing the murder. He urges Phyllis to lie low while he convinces his boss to pay out the claim. Neff learns that Lola's hotheaded boyfriend Nino has been visiting Phyllis every night since the murder. Trying to prevent Lola's death, Neff confronts Phyllis.
Neff tells Phyllis he knows about her and Nino. He figures her plan was to manipulate Nino into murdering Lola and maybe him. He threatens to kill Phyllis and blame Nino. Phyllis shoots him. He dares her to shoot again. She does not, and he takes her gun. She says she never loved him "until a minute ago, when I couldn't fire that second shot." As they embrace, Neff shoots her twice.
Nino comes to the house. Neff warns him not to go inside. Neff drives to his office and starts recording his confession. Keyes arrives and hears the truth. Neff plans to flee to Mexico but collapses before he can leave the building.
Uncredited
James M. Cain based his novella on a 1927 murder perpetrated by Ruth Snyder, a married woman from New York City, and her lover Henry Judd Gray.[1] They killed her husband Albert. She colluded with an insurance agent to obtain a $45,000 policy with a double-indemnity clause without Albert's knowledge.
Cain made a name for himself with The Postman Always Rings Twice. Double Indemnity began making the rounds in Hollywood shortly after it was serialized in Liberty magazine in 1936. MGM, Warner Bros., Paramount, 20th Century-Fox, and Columbia were competing to buy the rights for $25,000. The fervor ended when Joseph Breen from the Hays Office warned in a letter to the studios:
The general low tone and sordid flavor of this story makes it, in our judgment, thoroughly unacceptable for screen presentation before mixed audiences in the theater. I am sure you will agree that it is most important...to avoid what the code calls "the hardening of audiences," especially those who are young and impressionable, to the thought and fact of crime.[2]
In 1943, Cain's novella was anthologized with two others in Three of a Kind. Paramount's Joseph Sistrom thought it was perfect for Billy Wilder. The studio bought the rights for $15,000.[2] Paramount resubmitted the novella to the Hays Office and got an identical response as seven years earlier. Paramount then submitted a partial screenplay to the Hays Office. It was approved with three objections about portraying the disposal of a corpse, the gas chamber execution scene, and the skimpiness of the towel worn by the female lead.[2] [3]
Cain felt Joseph Breen owed him $10,000 for vetoing the property back in 1936 when he would have received $25,000.[4]
The restrictions imposed by the Hays Code made adapting Double Indemnity a challenge. Wilder's writing partner Charles Brackett helped with the treatment before bowing out due to the sordid material.[5] Wilder characterized their time apart as a kind of adultery, "1944 was 'The Year of Infidelities'...Charlie produced The Uninvited...I don't think he ever forgave me. He always thought I cheated on him with Raymond Chandler."
Cain was Wilder's first choice as a replacement for Brackett. Since Cain was working at Fox, he was never asked.[6] Sistrom was an avid reader and admired The Big Sleep. He suggested Raymond Chandler.[5]
New to Hollywood, Chandler demanded $1,000 and at least a week to complete the screenplay, not realizing he would be paid $750 per week and that it would take fourteen.[7] Chandler's first draft was 80 pages that Wilder characterized as "useless camera instruction". Wilder explained that they would be working together slowly and meticulously. To teach Chandler screenwriting, Wilder gave him a copy of his script for Hold Back the Dawn.[2] They did not get along during the next four months. Chandler quit once, submitting a long list of grievances about Wilder to Paramount. Chandler did agree to appear in the film, glancing up from a magazine as Neff walks outside Keyes' office. It is the only professional footage of the writer.[8]
Chandler and Wilder made considerable changes to Cain's story. Because the Hays Code demanded criminals pay onscreen for their transgressions, the double suicide at the end of the novella was not permissible. The solution was to have the two protagonists mortally wound each other.[9]
Barton Keyes was changed from a fairly clueless colleague into a mentor and antagonist. Fred MacMurray's opening dialogue is very Chandler-esque. He is a corrupt version of Marlowe with a hard-boiled detective's gift for repartee.[5]
Chandler knew Cain's dialogue would not play well onscreen. Wilder disagreed. He hired contract players to read passages of Cain's text aloud. To his astonishment, Chandler was right. Chandler also scouted film locations. He hung around Jerry's Market on Melrose Avenue where Phyllis and Walter discreetly meet to plan the murder. His research instilled a realism about Los Angeles.[10]
Chandler was a recovering alcoholic. Wilder said, "He was in Alcoholics Anonymous...I drove him back into drinking."[2] An embittered Chandler wrote "Writers in Hollywood" for The Atlantic Monthly in November 1945. He seethed, "The first picture I worked on was nominated for an Academy Award...but I was not even invited to the press review held right in the studio."[10] Wilder responded, "How could we? He was under the table drunk..." Wilder's experience with Chandler drew him to The Lost Weekend about an alcoholic writer. Wilder wanted the film "to explain Chandler to himself."[1] Library of America included the screenplay in its second volume of Chandler's work, Later Novels and Other Writings (1995).
Cain was impressed with the screenplay. He said, "It's the only picture I ever saw made from my books that had things in it I wish I had thought of. Wilder's ending was much better than my ending, and his device for letting the guy tell the story by taking out the office dictating machine – I would have done it if I had thought of it."[6]
Sistrom and Wilder wanted Barbara Stanwyck to play Phyllis Dietrichson. She was the highest-paid woman in America.[1] Stanwyck was reluctant to play a femme fatale, fearing it would have an adverse effect on her career. She recalled being, "a little afraid after all these years of playing heroines to go into an out-and-out killer." Wilder asked, "Well, are you a mouse or an actress?" She was grateful for his encouragement.[2]
Because Walter Neff is a weak and malleable heel, Alan Ladd, James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Gregory Peck, and Fredric March all passed on the role.[2] Wilder scraped "the bottom of the barrel" and approached George Raft. Since Raft did not read scripts, Wilder described the plot. Raft interrupted, "Let's get to the lapel bit...when the guy flashes his lapel, you see his badge, you know he's a detective." Since Neff was not a cop, Raft turned the part down.[11] This was the last in a series of films Raft declined which turned out to be classics.[12] Wilder realized the part needed someone who could play a cynic and a nice guy simultaneously.[2]
Fred MacMurray was accustomed to playing "happy-go-lucky good guys" in light comedies. In 1943, he was the highest-paid actor in Hollywood.[13] When Wilder approached him about the role, MacMurray said, "You're making the mistake of your life!" He felt he lacked the skill for a serious part.[3] Wilder pestered MacMurray about it until he wore the actor down. MacMurray felt Paramount would never let him play a "wrong" role, because the studio carefully crafted his image. Paramount let him take the unsavory role hoping to teach him a lesson during negotiations for his contract renewal. MacMurray's success in the role came as a surprise to both studio and actor. He "never dreamed it would be the best picture I ever made."[11]
Edward G. Robinson was reluctant to step down to the third lead as Barton Keyes. Robinson admitted "At my age, it was time to begin thinking of character roles, to slide into middle and old age with the same grace as that marvelous actor Lewis Stone". It helped that he drew the same salary as the two leads for fewer shooting days.[2]
Filming ran from September 27 to November 24, 1943.[14] John F. Seitz was the premier director of photography at Paramount, having worked since the silent era. Seitz was nominated for an Academy Award for Wilder's Five Graves to Cairo (1943). The director praised Seitz's willingness to experiment. They gave the film a look reminiscent of German expressionism with dramatic deployment of light and shadows.[2] Wilder recalled, "Sometimes the rushes were so dark that you couldn't see anything. He went to the limits of what could be done." The bright Southern California exteriors contrasted with gloomy interiors to suggest what lurks just beneath the facade.[1] The effect was heightened by dirtying up the set with overturned ashtrays and aluminum particles blown into the air to simulate dust.[3]
Seitz used "venetian blind" lighting to simulate prison bars trapping the characters.[15] Barbara Stanwyck reflected, "for an actress, let me tell you the way those sets were lit, the house, Walter's apartment, those dark shadows, those slices of harsh light at strange angles – all that helped my performance. The way Billy staged it and John Seitz lit it, it was all one sensational mood."[9]
For Neff's office at Pacific All Risk, Wilder and set designer Hal Pereira conspired to create a little in-house joke by copying the corporate headquarters of Paramount Pictures in New York City.
Stanwyck wears a blonde wig "to complement her anklet...and to make her look as sleazy as possible." People told Wilder the wig looked fake. Paramount production head Buddy DeSylva was overheard saying, "We hired Barbara Stanwyck, and here we get George Washington."[2] Wilder insisted, "It's meant to show that she's a phony character and that all of her emotions are fraudulent". A week into filming, Wilder realized the wig was a mistake, one he considered the biggest in his career. There was too much completed footage to change Stanwyck's hair at that point.[1] [3]
Edith Head designed Barbara Stanwyck's costumes.[16] Her designs focus on bias-cut gowns, blouses with wide sleeves, and the waistline. Shoulder pads were the style of the 1940s, but they also accentuated the femme fatale's power. In Stanwyck's death scene, her platinum blonde wig and white jumpsuit contrast entirely with Neff's dark suit creating a chiaroscuro effect. They are the main source of light in the film's darkest scene.[16]
When Phyllis and Walter dump the corpse on the tracks, they were supposed to get in their car and drive away. The crew shot the scene as written. As Wilder left the exterior location, his car would not start. He ordered the crew back and reshot the scene with Phyllis struggling to start her car. Wilder insisted MacMurray turn the ignition so slowly that the actor protested, but the result was one of the more suspenseful scenes in the film.[10] [11]
Wilder managed to bring the whole production in under budget at $927,262 despite $370,000 in salaries for just four people: $100,000 each for MacMurray, Stanwyck, and Robinson; $44,000 for Wilder's writing plus $26,000 for his directing.[17] Wilder considered Double Indemnity his best film because it had so few scripting and shooting errors.[18] He marked two high points in his career as Cain's praise for Double Indemnity and Agatha Christie's compliments about his adaptation of Witness for the Prosecution.[4]
The screenplay ends with Neff dying in the gas chamber. Wilder shot the scene from Neff's perspective, looking out of the glass chamber at Keyes. The film ends with a shocked Keyes leaving the prison.[19] Wilder shot for five days and spent $150,000 on the scene.[20] He felt it was one of the best scenes he ever directed.[7] Production stills exist, and the footage may still be in Paramount's vaults.[19]
The director decided to end with Keyes and Neff in their office, because "You couldn't have a more meaningful scene between two men...The story was between the two guys."[10] Chandler objected to the change.[2] Joseph Breen felt the execution was "unduly gruesome".[21] Removing it settled his office's last issue with the movie.[11]
Wilder liked Miklós Rózsa's work on Five Graves to Cairo and hired him for Double Indemnity. Wilder suggested a restless string figure to reflect the conspiratorial activities of Walter and Phyllis. He had in mind the opening of Franz Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, which is heard onscreen in the scene at the Hollywood Bowl. Rózsa liked the idea, and Wilder was enthusiastic about the score as it took shape.[17] [22]
Paramount's music director Louis Lipstone reprimanded Rózsa for writing "Carnegie Hall music". Rózsa mistook this as a compliment. Lipstone suggested he listen to Madame Curie to learn how to properly score a film. He felt Rózsa's music was more appropriate for The Battle of Russia.[17] [22] He expected Paramount's artistic director Buddy DeSylva to agree. When DeSylva heard the music, his only note was that there should be more of it.[22] The score was nominated for an Academy Award, and the success brought Rózsa more studio work.[22]
Exteriors of the Dietrichson house in the film were shot at a 3200-square foot, Spanish Colonial Revival house built in 1927. The house is located at 6301 Quebec Drive in the Beachwood Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles. On a Paramount soundstage, the production team copied the interior of the house, including the spiral staircase.[23]
The Southern Pacific Railroad Station in Burbank was used in the film with a prop sign for Glendale. The site now hosts the Burbank Metrolink.[24] Walter Neff's apartment building was at 1825 N. Kingsley Drive in Hollywood, and the Hollywood & Western Building also appears in the film.[25]
Double Indemnitys first theatrical engagement was at the Keith's in Baltimore, on July 3, 1944.[26] The film opened nationwide on July 6, 1944.[27] It was an immediate hit with audiences, despite a campaign by singer Kate Smith imploring the public to stay away on moral grounds.[17] James M. Cain recalled, "there was a little trouble caused by this fat girl, Kate Smith, who carried on a propaganda asking people to stay away from the picture. Her advertisement probably put a million dollars on its gross."[6]
When Double Indemnity was released, David O. Selznicks was promoting Since You Went Away with trade magazine ads that claimed its title had become "the four most important words uttered in motion picture history since Gone with the Wind." Wilder riposted with an ad of his own claiming Double Indemnity were the two most important words uttered in motion picture history since Broken Blossoms. Selznick was not amused and threatened to stop advertising in any of the trades if they continued to run Wilder's ads.[17]
Reviews were largely positive, though the content made some uncomfortable. While some critics found the story implausible and disturbing, others praised it as an original thriller. In The New York Times, Bosley Crowther called the picture "Steadily diverting, despite its monotonous pace and length." He complained that the two lead characters "lack the attractiveness to render their fate of emotional consequence", but also felt the movie possessed a "realism reminiscent of the bite of past French films".[2]
New York Herald Tribunes Howard Barnes wrote it was "one of the most vital and arresting films of the year", praising Wilder's "magnificent direction and a whale of a script". Variety felt it "sets a new standard for screen treatment in its category".[2]
Radio host and Hearst paper columnist Louella Parsons said, "Double Indemnity is the finest picture of its kind ever made, and I make that flat statement without any fear of getting indigestion later from eating my words."[4]
The Brooklyn Eagle was highly complimentary, "Besides MacMurray, who shows up as a top flight dramatic actor in a role that is a new type for him, and Miss Stanwyck, who has never given a more striking performance, 'Double Indemnity' has a third standout star, Edward G. Robinson, in his best role in many a film....By the way, there's no need to warn the teenagers away from this one; they wouldn't skip it in any case, and besides, 'Double Indemnity' makes it beautifully clear that murder doesn't pay—and certainly the insurance company doesn't, without sharp investigation."[28]
In the Los Angeles Times, Philip K. Scheur ranked it with The Human Comedy, The Maltese Falcon, and Citizen Kane as Hollywood trailblazers. Alfred Hitchcock wrote to Wilder saying, "Since Double Indemnity, the two most important words in motion pictures are 'Billy' and 'Wilder'."[4]
The film's critical reputation has only grown over the years. In 1977, Leslie Halliwell raved, "Brilliantly filmed and incisively written, perfectly capturing the decayed Los Angeles atmosphere of a Chandler novel, but using a simpler story and more substantial characters."[29] In a 1998 review for his "Great Films" series, Roger Ebert wrote, "The photography by John F. Seitz helped develop the noir style of sharp-edged shadows and shots, strange angles and lonely Edward Hopper settings."[30]
In Empire, Rob Fraser enthused, "Film noir at its finest, a template of the genre, etc. Billy Wilder in full swing, Barbara Stanwyck's finest hour, and Fred MacMurray makes a great chump."[31]
The film holds a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 105 reviews.[32] It scores 95/100 based on 18 reviews on Metacritic.[33]
At the 17th Academy Awards on March 15, 1945, Double Indemnity was nominated for 7 Oscars.[34]
| Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17th Academy Awards | Best Picture | Paramount Pictures | Lost to Going My Way – Leo McCarey (Producer) |
| Best Director | Billy Wilder | Lost to Leo McCarey for Going My Way | |
| Best Actress | Barbara Stanwyck | Lost to Ingrid Bergman for Gaslight | |
| Best Writing, Screenplay | Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler | Lost to Frank Butler and Frank Cavett for Going My Way | |
| Best Cinematography – Black and White | John F. Seitz | Lost to Joseph LaShelle for Laura | |
| Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture | Miklós Rózsa | Lost to Max Steiner for Since You Went Away | |
| Best Sound, Recording | Loren Ryder | Lost to Edmund H. Hansen for Wilson |
Filmed and released during the dark days of World War II, the film was not popular with the Academy. Wilder went to the awards ceremony expecting to win. The studio had been backing its other big hit of the year, Leo McCarey's Going My Way, and their employees were expected to vote for the studio favorite. As Double Indemnity kept losing during the awards show, it became evident that there would be a Going My Way sweep. When McCarey was named Best Director, a bitter Wilder tripped him on his way to accept the award.[2] After the ceremony, Wilder yelled so everyone could hear him, "What the hell does the Academy Award mean, for God's sake? After all – Luise Rainer won it two times. Luise Rainer!"[11]
The U.S. Library of Congress selected Double Indemnity for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1992.[35] [36]
American Film Institute included the film on several lists:
Double Indemnity is often referenced as one of the greatest films of all time:
Top 100 films of all time, #43 (1998).[38]
100 Greatest Movies of All Time, #50 (1999).[39]
"Top 100 Essential Films of All Time", #29 (2002).[40] [41]
All-Time 100 best movies (2005).[42]
Greatest Screenplays, #26.[43]
"100 Greatest American Films", #35 (2015).[44]
Double Indemnity is a seminal example of the film noir genre. It is often compared with Wilder's other acclaimed film noir Sunset Boulevard (1950). Both narrative structures begin and end in the present. Both protagonists narrate the plot as a flashback. Film scholar Robert Sklar explains, "[T]he unusual juxtaposition of temporalities gives the spectator a premonition of what will occur/has occurred in the flashback story...Besides Double Indemnity and Detour, voice-over is a key aspect of Mildred Pierce, Gilda, The Lady from Shanghai, and Out of the Past...as well as many others."[47] Critic and writer Wendy Lesser notes that the narrator of Sunset Boulevard is dead before he begins narrating, but in Double Indemnity, "the voice-over has a different meaning. It is not the voice of a dead man...it is...the voice of an already doomed man."[48]
Wilder was oblivious to film noir. He claimed, "I never heard that expression film noir when I made Double Indemnity...I just made pictures I would have liked to see. When I was lucky, it coincided with the taste of the audience. With Double Indemnity, I was lucky."[49]
The Screen Guild Theater twice adapted Double Indemnity as a radio drama. Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck reprised their roles in the first broadcast on March 5, 1945. Stanwyck appeared again on the February 16, 1950 version, this time opposite Robert Taylor.[50]
On October 15, 1948, Ford Theatre produced another radio adaptation with Burt Lancaster and Joan Bennett.[51] Lux Radio Theater broadcast one with MacMurray and Stanwyck on October 30, 1950.[52]
The movie was remade as a television film, with direction by Jack Smight and a teleplay adapted by Steven Bochco. It aired on ABC on October 13, 1973.[53]
Double Indemnity is parodied in 1993's Fatal Instinct. The hero's wife conspires to have him shot on a moving train and fall into a lake so that she can collect on his insurance, which has a "triple indemnity" rider. Carol Burnett parodied the film as "Double Calamity" on her TV show.
After the success of Double Indemnity, imitators were rampant. In 1945, Producers Releasing Corporation, one of the B movie studios of Hollywood's Poverty Row, financed Single Indemnity starring Ann Savage and Hugh Beaumont. Marketed as Apology for Murder, Paramount was not fooled by the title change and obtained an injunction against the film's release that still remains in effect.[54]
So many imitations flooded the market that Cain believed he deserved credit and remuneration. Cain was also disaffected about the extortionate practices of the film studios which could pay writers thousands of dollars for a copyright and earn millions from the resulting movie. He led a movement within the Screen Writers Guild to create the American Author's Authority, a union that would own its members' works, negotiate better subsidiary deals, and protect against copyright infringement. The AAA never got off the ground, partially due to the growing momentum of the Red Scare.[55]
See page 94 for two still photos of the execution scene.