Review of Double Indemnity (1973) by Josh M — 14 Jun 2009

While I saw Indemnity not a year ago, I saw it during a noir festival, which meant that a) I was already a little overloaded with noir, and b) I was exhausted when I saw it, and felt that I needed to watch it again to take it all in.

I'm so, so glad I did. Watching it so shortly after The Postman Always Rings Twice was instructive; although the plots are similar, Indemnity blows Postman out of the water. A lot of this is because Wilder realized that noir ultimately is all about style; you can have a grim story, but what people loved was the shadows, the darkness, and the willingness to have truly anti-heroic characters, all of which get delivered in spades here.

And, of course, there's the dialogue. Chandler and Wilder may have hated each other, but their work together here is brilliant, leading to some of the best and most memorable noir dialogue of all time.

Combine all that with three stunning lead performances (everyone always talks about MacMurray and Stanwyck, and with good reason, but it's Robinson who steals to the movie for me) and you have one of the all-time great films.