>>REVIEW
DOUBLE INDEMNITY
DIRECTED BY Billy Wilder
1944, Universal Home Video
Double Indemnity is the greatest film noir of all time. If there is one thing that the new deluxe edition two-disc DVD release of the film proves, it’s that you don’t have to take my word for it.
Even without the mountains of bonus features, the film speaks for itself. Based on the carnal pulp thriller by James M. Cain and adapted by the equally hardboiled Raymond Chandler, Billy Wilder’s seminal thriller is loaded with the kind of crackling dialogue that still sparks even 60 years later. When buttoned-down insurance man Walter Neff (a surprisingly snarky Fred MacMurray) is seduced by text book femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), the two plot to off her grumpy husband and collect the money.
Of course, a scam like this is never easy and even if they convince Neff’s almost psychic boss, Barton Keyes (a pitch-perfect Edward G. Robinson), they still have their own baser instincts to deal with. It’s sex, lies and murder, and while two of those three always happen off screen, Double Indemnity still smoulders thanks to Wilder’s keen eye and dark sense of humour.
What makes this new edition so special, aside from the luminous transfer from a recently re-mastered print, is the wealth of extras that accompany the film. You can take or leave the intro from Turner Classic Movies film historian Robert Osborne and dive right into Shadows of Suspense. With the help of historians, enthusiasts, authors and filmmakers, this 40-minute doc explores the long road Wilder travelled to make the film and the cultural impact it still has to this day.
For more detail there are two separate commentary tracks with a total of three historians walking you through Double Indemnity shot by shot. Richard Schickels’s take on the film is more interesting than listening to Nick Redman try to keep Lem Dobbs’s massive ego in check. (For fans of commentary tracks, Dobbs is the co-writer of The Limey. On that DVD you can hear him and director Steven Soderbergh tear each other apart as they watch the film). Regardless of who is speaking, two points become crucially clear – Double Indemnity wrote the book on noir and post-war Hollywood wouldn’t be the same without it.
Included on disc two is the 1973 TV remake of Double Indemnity starring Richard Crenna. Using a truncated version of Wilder and Chandler’s screenplay this abominable re-creation proves that it takes more than a good script to make a good movie. Watching this tripe will only inspire you to want to watch the original.
If you haven’t seen Double Indemnity, count yourself lucky. Double Indemnity is so good that I wish I had never seen it just so I could experience it for the first time all over again. I’d be hard pressed to find another film that deserves that kind of praise. |
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