“How could I have known that murder can smell like honeysuckle?” 80 years after its release, Billy Wilder’s 1944 crime feature remains a must-watch. Famously snubbed at the Oscars, winning none of its seven nominations, Double Indemnity was victorious in the long run, becoming a classic seminal work and heavily influencing noir as a genre, with its femme fatales, anti-heroes, and overtones of cynicism and menace.
In 1938 Los Angeles, insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) visits the Dietrichson house to renew their automobile insurance. As Mr Dietrichson is out, Neff meets his wife Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck) who, emerging in nothing more than a towel and anklet, fails to subtly inquire about accident insurance for her husband. Neff instantly sniffs out her murderous intentions, so he departs hastily, but her proposal becomes implanted in his mind.
Whether it was the sexually charged rapport with the seductive and forbidden Mrs Dietrichson, or the chance to best his company’s crooked claims bloodhound, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), Neff is convinced to devise a conspiracy that will invoke the double indemnity clause that increases the pay out for statistically unlikely deaths while throwing Keyes off the scent.
As Double Indemnity was made in a morally constricting period, Neff and Phyllis’s attraction is presented through witty sparring rather than erotic acts. Just as Mr Dietrichson’s death isn’t shown on screen — the camera focuses on Phyllis’s unperturbed stare instead — neither is any physical affection between the partners in crime, bar a few closed-mouth kisses. Due to guidelines that put murder and sex in the same ethically offensive category, their clandestine meetings are filled with unambiguous car-themed innuendos, discussing “smashed fenders” and the dangers of being “not fully covered”. The aggressiveness of the euphemisms is almost, if not more, blush-worthy than any explicit behaviour — Thanks Hays Code!
But this lack of physicality works for their relationship as we realise that Neff didn’t necessarily kill Mr Dietrichson “for money and a woman” as he claims in his confession. In the end, he gives both of these incentives up. As a successful salesman, Neff gets a thrill from persuading people to submit to him. What began as a brazen flirtation to ‘win’ the unattainable, a married woman, becomes his biggest challenge yet: to fool the man whom he has a close, paternal relationship with. He loves Keyes, Neff tells him “I love you” repeatedly. The genuine tragedy is Neff’s betrayal of Keyes, not Phyllis, which is why Wilder ends the film with their confrontation.
Nominated for an Academy Award, the score is thrilling. When the strings crescendo, the notes almost trip over themselves in a frantic urgency, reflecting the intensity of the scenes. At its nerve-racking peak, the getaway car fails to start, and the disbelieving looks of dread on MacMurray and Stanwyck’s faces are captivating. The use of light and shadow also add to this apprehensive mood, the murky and perpetually dim streets are a stark contrast to the severely lit offices where crime has nowhere to hide.
We know, through flashbacks of the ill-fated events that are narrated by Neff as he confesses to Keyes’s Dictaphone, that his downfall is inevitable. Regardless, Double Indemnity is a riveting and suspenseful thriller that is worthy of its crowning as a classic.
4K UHD + Blu-ray Special Edition Features
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
- Audio commentary featuring film critic Richard Schickel
- New interview with film scholar Noah Isenberg, editor of Billy Wilder on Assignment
- New conversation between film historians Eddie Muller and Imogen Sara Smith
- Billy, How Did You Do It?, a 1992 film by Volker Schlöndorff and Gisela Grischow featuring interviews with director Billy Wilder
- Shadows of Suspense, a 2006 documentary on the making of Double Indemnity
- Radio adaptations from 1945 and 1950
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Angelica Jade Bastién
Double Indemnity is out now
