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Double Indemnity: Special Edition DVD Review

Double Indemnity: Special Edition

September 7, 2006

Director: Billy Wilder,
Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Jean Heather, Tom Powers, Byron Barr, Richard Gaines, Fortunio Bonanova, Porter Hall,

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DVD Review

J.D. Lafrance

“It was a hot afternoon, and I can still remember the smell of honeysuckle all along that street. How could I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle? Maybe you would have known Keyes the minute she mentioned accident insurance, but I didn’t. I felt like a million.” – Walter Neff

Adapted from the James M. Cain novella of the same name by Billy Wilder and acclaimed crime novelist Raymond Chandler (author of The Big Sleep), Double Indemnity (1944) is considered by many to be the quintessential film noir with its exquisite use of John F. Seitz’s atmospheric black and white cinematography – the use of shadows, silhouetted figures and darkness to convey a shadowy world of betrayal and murder (most famously, Venetian blind effects on walls or on characters’ faces so that it looks like the bars in a jail).

Walter Neff (MacMurray) is a hot shot insurance salesman who falls for rich housewife, Phyllis Detrichson (Stanwyck) when she first appears to him clad only in a towel and asks, “Is there anything I can do?” which is a question loaded with suggestion. Neff is there under the pretense of renewing her husband’s automobile insurance. The dialogue between them crackles with delicious sexual tension as Phyllis draws Neff into her web, eventually convincing him to kill her husband and make it look like an accident so that she can collect the money.

Of course, it isn’t that easy and Neff’s friend and co-worker Barton Keyes (Robinson), a persistent claims manager, investigates the case. Edward G. Robinson plays Keyes with grumpy charm, someone who isn’t happy unless he’s griping about phony claims and the foolhardiness of the company he works for. The exchanges between him and Fred MacMurray are priceless as their friendship permeates the snappy, sarcastic dialogue.

Phyllis is very unhappy and is drawn to her tryst with Neff because it is forbidden and their illegal plan excites her. Stanwyck’s character is an archetypal femme fatale: a scheming black widow that uses her sexual appeal to manipulate Neff into getting what she wants. Phyllis uses him and then gets rid of him once he outlives his usefulness. Stanwyck does a great job luring Neff with her faux vulnerability and slightly tawdry look (complete with trashy blond wig) and then coldly turns the screws on him at the crucial moment.

Up to that point, MacMurray had been known for starring in light comedies but was perfectly cast as the flawed salesman who falls for the wrong woman and finds that he’s capable of murder. It’s pretty easy to see why Neff falls for Phyllis – she’s beautiful and has access to a lot of money. The chemistry between him and Stanwyck is filled with all kinds of sexual tension – as much as they could sneak by the censors of the day and that’s part of the allure of the film: everything is suggested and nothing is explicit. For example, the husband’s murder is never shown just the sounds of him dying and shot of Phyllis’ face reacting (or rather not reacting) to what is happening that is very effective.

Looking at Double Indemnity now, it comes across as a fascinating snapshot of Los Angeles in the 1940s with its houses with classic Spanish architecture, when cars were all wonderfully big and stylish and men all wore hats. There is just enough location shots of the actual city mixed with studio interiors to convey a sense of place that doesn’t exist anymore.

Fans of this movie have had to suffer with various inferior incarnations on DVD but no more. On this new special edition DVD, Double Indemnity has never looked better with a crystal clear print that highlights the stunning cinematography. Even without the supplemental material, this DVD would be an essential purchase for film noir fans and film buffs in general.

Special Features:

There is an “Introduction by Robert Osborne,” the host on the Turner Classic Movie channel who provides a brief historical perspective and the film’s place in Hollywood that is a nice mini-primer.

“Shadows of Suspense” is a very well-made retrospective documentary with several film noir experts attempting to define the genre and the film’s place in it. Also covered is its checkered production history: the censors didn’t like the subject matter with many actors turning down the role of Neff before MacMurray took it on. Director Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler worked on the screenplay together but did not get along with Chandler bad mouthing him publicly and Wilder making The Lost Weekend (1945) as a thinly-veiled attack on Chandler. Filmmaker William Friedkin and author James Ellroy also offer their two cents.

There is an audio commentary by film historian Richard Schickel. Time magazine’s film critic claims that this is the first true film noir and proceeds to list the elements it has to support this assertion. He provides brief biographical sketches of Cain and several of the principal cast and crew members which gives us a historical perspective to what we are watching. Schickel also talks about the origins of noir, where the term came from and what inspired the genre to thrive in the ‘40s. This is an informative if somewhat dry track but well worth a listen nonetheless.

Also included is a commentary by screenwriter Lem Dobbs (The Limey) and film historian Nick Redman. Dobbs points out that this film was made before the moniker of film noir became known. He informs us that, at the time, Cain’s novella and others of its kind were considered immoral and it was hard to get it green-lighted by any of the Hollywood studios. The two men compare Cain and Chandler, discussing their characteristics and differences, style of writing, and so on at great length. This is a much more engaging, analytical track with Dobbs tending to dominate in an entertaining fashion.

Finally, there is a theatrical trailer.

The second disc includes the infinitely inferior 1973 remake that was made-for-TV starring Richard Crenna, Samantha Eggar and Lee J. Cobb. The less said about this version the better.

J.D. is a freelance writer who is currently doing research for a book on the films of Michael Mann. He likes reading anything written by Jack Kerouac, James Ellroy, J.D. Salinger, Harlan Ellison or Thomas Pynchon. J.D. is currently addicted to the T.V. series 24 and enjoys drinking a lot of Sprite. This is not a blatant plug for the beverage but if they ever decided to give him a lifetime supply he certainly wouldn’t turn them down.
view all DVD reviews by JD Lafrance

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