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Crime, Thriller 107 min NR
Rotten Tomatoes97%Metacritic95IMDb
It's love and murder at first sight!
An insurance representative is seduced by a dissatisfied housewife into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, a claims investigator.
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Meticulous, bleak, intimate and plot-driven.
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Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Taste Buds's numbers.
**A magnificent "noir" with great actors, which was unlucky at the awards, and was immortalized by the public, surviving fresh to this day.** I've previously had the opportunity to mention that I really like noir films, and this is another one that I had the pleasure of seeing and will save for occasional rewatches. Based on a good detective novel, the film is extremely intelligent, dark and well articulated. Made in 1944, still during the Second World War, it was nominated the following year for seven Oscars (Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Black-and-White Cinematography and Best Original Soundtrack for Comedy or Drama). I naturally wasn't alive at the time, but I imagine it was one of the favorite films at that year's awards gala. Interestingly, and not without injustice, it lost them all. Directed in a very intelligent and effective way by Billy Wilder (who was one of the great directors of Hollywood's golden era), the film has excellent cinematography, with magnificent clarity and play of light that takes advantage of the sun, shutters and other forms of soften the brightness when necessary. The soundtrack, by Miklós Rózsa, is very well
Read the whole review on TMDBSo poor old Tom Powers is married to the cold and calculating "Phyllis" (Barbara Stanwyck). When she starts to have an affair with his charismatic insurance broker "Walter" (Fred MacMurray) the two alight on a cunning plan to dispose of him and to claim the life insurance money. Being in the know about these things, "Walter" figures out a way in which they can double the payout. With their hands still rubbing together, the man's body is found on a railway track and when the police believe it accidental, the cash rolls in. All looks good until one of his colleagues "Keyes" (Edward G. Robinson) smells a rat - and he starts to stick his very sensitive nose in. I always felt Barbara Stanwyck was a very under-rated actress - she is terrific here, as is the under-stated Robinson. Even the usually unremarkable MacMurray turns in an strong performance as Billy Wilder, with some great intense photography and wonderfully potent dialogue pulls the threads of this clever and menacing drama together. The always reliable Miklós Rósza creates a score that really works well with the accumulating tension as we head towards a denouement that keeps us on our toes right til the end. This is a great fi
Read the whole review on TMDBPerhaps the single best example of a film noir movie, _Double Indemnity_ (1944), stars Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson. Based on a novel written by James Cain, the screenplay was co-written by Billy Wilder and the amazing Raymond Chandler. Set in 1938 California, the story is based on the true-life 1927 murder of a married Queens, New York woman's husband who was killed by the woman's boyfriend after she took out a large insurance policy that contained a double-indemnity clause. In this movie, Phyllis Dietrichson (played by Stanwyck) takes out a life insurance policy on her husband with the help of insurance salesman-soon-to-be-turned-murderer Walter Neff (played by MacMurray). Robinson plays Barton Keyes, Neff's co-worker and a very suspicious claims adjuster who suspects Phyllis Dietrichson might have had something to do with her husband's sudden death. This movie is an hour and forty-seven minutes of pure movie love. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards [Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Barbara Stanwyck), Best Director, Best Writing-Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Recording, and Best Music (Scoring of a Dramatic or Com
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17 profiled raters. Loved most by The Prestige Hunters; disliked most by The Formalists.
If you loved this film, the television, the book, the music, the game.
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