Double Indemnity (1944)

Some movies have a constant greatness, due to their deep insight into human nature, and their neutral view on the human weakness towards temptation, "Double Indemnity" is one of these, a movie about how the wheel of fate can turn like a russian roulette into the firing position.

Walter Neff (Fred McMurray) is a successful Los Angeles insurances salesman, who works for Pacific All risk, a routine visit to the house of one of his clients Mr Dietrichson to renew the insurance on his cars leads him to dire consequences.

The flirty coy trophy wife Mrs Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces him, and convinces him to join her into a devilish plan to take advantage of some insurance her husband has recently took, the reluctant Mr Neff is betrayed by his human weakness, and since he knows the tricks of his trades, proposes an even more devilish plan, which will let them use the "double indemnity" clause in the contract.

As it is often the case, the nearly perfect plan, has a gran of sand in it, and the suspcting claims adjuster Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) starts to dig into this story, because his intuition tells him that this story is too perfect to be true, while Mr Neff gets deeper and deeper into the trap of Mr Dietrichson, and finds out about her past, and her true nature.

This film is a classic Film Noir, by the famous director Billy Wilder, and based on a novel by Raymond Chandler, the story is great, but so is the cinematography (by John F. Seitz) dark and caulostrophobic, adding to the entrapment feeling by the players in a story which is bigger then them.

Barbara Stanwyck is so femme fatale in this movie, you just can't escape her, like a succubus in some legend, and the poor Mr Neff, doesn't even have the slightest chance to put some order into this mess surrounding him, but the acting award goes to Edward Robinson, this short very smart fast speaker, who is really the pattern of all the Joe Pesci's an Danny DeVito's that came after him.

The camera is non judgemental and even the whole story, because Mr Neff is a plain nice guy, who could be your brother, or your brother in law, it is just about a giant magnetic blackhole kind temptation from which he cannot escape, and which will lead him to push his personal limits, and find out about his well hidden anti-heroic potential.

This movie has a good rank on the AFI's best movies, and Mrs Dietrichson is ranked as one of the top ten vilains of all time, because as sweet as she can be, you can't escape her, I know i wouldn't be able to, so i will chew my words twice before judging Mr Neff.

You need to watch this one !