DOUBLE INDEMNITY (DVD) (SPECIAL EDITION/FF/1.33:1) DVD

Double Indemnity
Directed by Billy Wilder and adapted from a James M. Cain novel by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, Double Indemnity represents the high-water mark of 1940s film noir urban crime dramas in which a greedy, weak man is seduced and trapped by a cold, evil woman amidst the dark shadows and Expressionist lighting of modern cities. Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces insurance agent Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) into murdering her husband to collect his accident policy. The murder goes as planned, but after the couple's passion cools, each becomes suspicious of the other's motives. The plan is further complicated when Neff's boss Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), a brilliant insurance investigator, takes over the investigation. Told in flashbacks from Neff's perspective, the film moves with ruthless determinism as each character meets what seems to be a preordained fate. Movie veterans Stanwyck, MacMurray, and Robinson give some of their best performances, and Wilder's cynical sensibility finds a perfect match in the story's unsentimental perspective, heightened by John Seitz's hard-edged cinematography. Double Indemnity ranks with the classics of mainstream Hollywood movie-making. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Cast Fred MacMurray as Walter Neff Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson Edward G. Robinson as Barton Keyes Porter Hall as Mr. Jackson Jean Heather as Lola Dietrichson Tom Powers as Mr. Dietrichson Byron Barr as Nino Zachette Richard Gaines as Mr. Norton Fortunio Bonanova as Sam Gorlopis John Philliber as Joe Pete

Crew Hal Pereira - Art Director Hans Dreier - Art Director Edith Head - Costume Designer Billy Wilder - Director Doane Harrison - Editor Miklos Rozsa - Composer (Music Score) Wally Westmore - Makeup John F. Seitz - Cinematographer Joseph Sistrom - Producer Bertram Granger - Set Designer Walter Oberst - Sound/Sound Designer Stanley Cooley - Sound/Sound Designer Billy Wilder - Screenwriter Raymond Chandler - Screenwriter Cesar Franck - Featured Music James M. Cain - Book Author

Double Indemnity
Billy Wilder only made one proper film noir, but it was a doozy: Double Indemnity is one of the most unrelentingly cynical films the genre produced, with a pair of career-changing performances from Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray and a script by Wilder and Raymond Chandler every bit as black-hearted as James M. Cain's novel Three of a Kind, on which the film was based. The idiosyncratically attractive Stanwyck, generally thought of as pretty but hardly a bombshell, was rarely as sexy as she was as Phyllis Dietrichson, and never as sleazy; Phyllis knows how to use her allure to twist men around her little finger, and from the moment Walter Neff lays eyes on her, he's taken a sharp turn down the Wrong Path, as Phyllis oozes erotic attraction at its least wholesome. While MacMurray was best known as a "nice guy" leading man (an image that stuck with him to the end of his career), he was capable of much more, and he gave perhaps the finest performance of his life as Walter Neff, a sharp-talking wise guy who loses himself to weak, murderous corruption when he finds his Achilles Heel in the brassy blonde Phyllis. (MacMurray's only role that rivalled it was as the heartless Mr. Sheldrake in The Apartment, also directed by Wilder.) And, while they followed the Hays Code to the letter, Wilder and Chandler packed this story with seething sexual tension; Neff's morbid fascination with Phyllis's ankle bracelet is as brazenly fetishistic as 1940s filmmaking got. Double Indemnity was not a film designed to make evil seem attractive -- but it's sure a lot of fun to watch. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
 

Barbara Stanwyck: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Actress (nominated) Billy Wilder: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Director (nominated) Billy Wilder: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Screenplay (nominated) John F. Seitz: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Black and White Cinematography (nominated) Loren L. Ryder: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Sound (nominated) Miklos Rozsa: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Score - Drama or Comedy (nominated) Raymond Chandler: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Screenplay (nominated)

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Picture (nominated) American Film Institute, 100 Greatest American Movies (winner) Library of Congress, U.S. National Film Registry (winner)

General Specifications: Language Options: English, Spanish Subtitle Options: French, Spanish Sound Processing: DDM2.0: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (Recorded in mono, but split to give the illusion of a stereo mix on home theater systems). Additional Features: Disc One: Introduction by Turner Classic movies host and film historian Robert Osborne Shadows of Suspense: Plunge into the world of 1940s Hollywood with a revealing look at a movie masterpiece Feature commentary with film historian Richard Schickel Feature commentary with film historian/screenwriter Lem Dobbs and film historian Nick Redman Disc Two: Double Indemnity - 1973 made-for-television movie starring Richard Crenna, based on the 1944 film DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1: Pre-1954 Standard MPAA Rating: NR DVD Discs Included: 2 DVD Sides: 2 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 182 min Part of Series: Universal Legacy Series   DVD Chapters: Disc #1 -- Double Indemnity: Film 1. Main Titles [1:30] 2. Office Memorandum [5:43] 3. Fully Covered [5:19] 4. The Little Man [4:21] 5. Sour Taste [5:52] 6. Straight Down the Line [10:10] 7. Duplicate Application [4:18] 8. Accidentally on Purpose [5:06] 9. Desk Work [5:17] 10. Extra Careful [3:52] 11. The End of the Line [8:37] 12. Carrying the Ball [8:27] 13. A Troubling Hunch [5:07] 14. Awful Feeling [4:11] 15. Familiar Face [5:39] 16. Sticking Together [7:06] 17. Getting Off the Trolley [11:42] 18. All Washed Up [5:05]