Synopsis
A rich woman and a calculating insurance agent plot to kill her unsuspecting husband after he signs a double indemnity policy. Against a backdrop of distinctly Californian settings, the partners in crime plan the perfect murder to collect the insurance, which pays double if the death is accidental.
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Cast
- Fred MacMurrayWalter Neff
- Barbara StanwyckPhyllis Dietrichson
- Edward G. RobinsonBarton Keyes
- Porter HallMr. Jackson
- Richard GainesEdward S. Norton Jr.
- Jean HeatherLola Dietrichson
- Tom PowersMr. Dietrichson
- Fortunio BonanovaSam Garlopis
- Byron BarrNino Zachetti
- John BerryBit Part (uncredited)
Recommendations
- 100
The New Yorker
This shrewd, smoothly tawdry thriller, directed by Billy Wilder, is one of the high points of nineteen-forties films. 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. - 100
Chicago Sun-Times
To describe the story is to miss the nuances that make it tantalizing. - 100
The Telegraph
Film noir is the most intoxicating of Hollywood cocktails, and none is more potent than Double Indemnity...It breaks the rules of filmmaking with breathtaking confidence and is all the more satisfying for - 100
Empire
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. - 100
The Guardian
I love Double Indemnity because it's about a couple who are cheap and greedy, but achieve a kind of tragic heroism; because it has one of the great father-son relationships (although they aren't actually father and son); because it's a thoroughly cynical thriller redeemed by just a fading touch of romance. And it also has a trio of superb performances. - 100
The Hollywood Reporter
It is in the clandestine scheming of the sex-hungry man and the cunning woman, in the methodical method of their plotting the husband's murder that Wilder builds the suspense that pounds and drives to a staggering climax. There are at least three instances of suspense so great that the heart almost stops beating. The highest praise one can give the Sistrom production is to say that it is like a masterpiece of mystery fiction coming vividly to life on the screen. As you cannot lay down such a book until it has been read through, neither then can you shake off the witchery exerted over you by this film from its very opening scene. - 100
Variety
Indemnity is rapidly moving and consistently well developed. It is a story replete with suspense, for which credit must go in a large measure to Billy Wilder’s direction. - 100
Empire
Superlative crime yarn adapted with precision and skill from the classic James M. Cain novel.
