Rent Double Indemnity (1944)

PG or 15 - Double Indemnity review by JD

The DVD is rated at PG, the Blu-Ray is 5 minutes longer and is 15 rated. I am intrigued as to whether the edited 5 minutes are the reason for the difference. There is some indifferent kissing and possibly the most benign death by shooting I have ever seen in the Blu-ray version. Not really 15 stuff. The reason for heavy censoring in my opinion is the cruelly mercenary motivation of Phyllis Dietrichson brilliantly played by Barbara Stanwyck. The moral code of a praying mantis. I would not show any child this attitude to life for fear of lessons learned. This 1944 black and white American drama will not be to many people's taste. I am not at all surprised however that the previous reviews have been gushing. If this is a genre for you it is a truly classic film.

Superb - Double Indemnity review by RP

Insurance salesman Walter Neff (played by Fred MacMurray) has an affair with customer's attractive, murderous wife (Phyllis Dietrichson, played by Barbara Stanwyck). Together they plan to kill hubby and claim the insurance money – but suspicious claims investigator (Barton Keyes, played by Edward G. Robinson) smells a rat, and the unlucky Walter ends up with no woman, no money – and indeed, dead.

The three main characters are all well cast – the woman attractive and deadly, the salesman good looking, fast talking and slightly oily, the investigator rumpled, world weary and cynical. A superb film with excellent plot, excellent dialogue, excellent acting. 5/5 stars. Highly recommended.

Favourite Noir. - Double Indemnity review by Steve

This is film noir's year zero. If noir was created at the junction of US pulp fiction and German film aesthetics, it couldn't be more auspicious. It was adapted by Raymond Chandler, the crime novel's ultimate poet. Director Billy Wilder emerged from UFA in Berlin, and Miklós Rózsa, the composer of the dreamy orchestral score, went to Hollywood on the same wave.

It invents most of the genre motifs, and the closer a film adheres to its archetypes, the more noir it feels: the witty, pessimistic dialogue and narration; the angel-of-death femme fatale; the weak natured hero caught in the grip of an implacable destiny; the shadows and the neon soaked streets.

It is also a vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck's chilling performance as a psychopathic murderer who lies dormant in the Los Angeles suburbs until reanimated by Fred MacMurray, an insurance salesman looking to dupe the system from within. It is about corruption and greed hidden in the hearts of ordinary seeming people, shielded from the public gaze in the dusty interiors of American homes .

There is a sickness in their malign desires, which is horrifying. Much of this is taken from James M. Cain's source novel. The incredibly dark photography is classic noir. While the film is flawless in every respect, it's Chandler's voice that makes it sublime, whether the fabulous wisecracks, or explaining the nihilistic dreams of its doomed heroes.