Film Response - Double Indemnity (Directed by Billy Wilder)

4.5

Double Indemnity is a story about an insurance representative who lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions. I really enjoyed this film. It was, admittedly, the first noir I ever watched and I feel that it won't be the last. What was especially enjoyable to me was the fact that many of the visuals often had second meanings, for example the venetian blinds could mean entrapment or the use of cigarettes to show the friendship between Barton and Walter. Sixty years later, it's as taut and engaging and beautiful as any contemporary story. It simmers, it sizzles, the tension between Neff and Dietrichson is positively palpable. But, as the tension between Neff and Dietrichson fizzles, the tension between Neff and Keyes heats up. It's as pure a sample of classic film noir as there is, and it does it with unparalleled style. The story of how and why he dunit, of how he was intoxicated and bewitched, yet came to his senses, not soon enough to save him legally, but at least to come to terms with his own failure was it's own level of great. Fun, different, refreshing. At least to me, that's Double Indemnity.