
In 1938, Walter Neff, an experienced salesman of the Pacific All Risk Insurance Co., meets the seductive wife of one of his clients, Phyllis Dietrichson, and they have an affair. Phyllis proposes to kill her husband to receive the proceeds of an accident insurance policy and Walter devises a scheme to receive twice the amount based on a double indemnity clause. When Mr. Dietrichson is found dead on a train track, the police accept the determination of accidental death. Howeve... (Full plot summary below)
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In 1938, Walter Neff, an experienced salesman of the Pacific All Risk Insurance Co., meets the seductive wife of one of his clients, Phyllis Dietrichson, and they have an affair. Phyllis proposes to kill her husband to receive the proceeds of an accident insurance policy and Walter devises a scheme to receive twice the amount based on a double indemnity clause. When Mr. Dietrichson is found dead on a train track, the police accept the determination of accidental death. However, the insurance analyst and Walter's best friend Barton Keyes does not buy the story and suspects that Phyllis has murdered her husband with the help of another man.
Leave your thoughts about Double Indemnity.
| eFilmCritic.comRob GonsalvesThe perfect material for Wilder to remake himself as Hollywood's dark jester for decades. |
| Alternate EndingTim BraytonDialogue so hard boiled that you could use it to drive railroad spikes. |
| IGNJeff OttoDouble Indemnity is a masterpiece of Hollywood storytelling. |
| Empire MagazineRob FraserFilm noir at its finest, a template of the genre, etc. Billy Wilder in full swing, Barbara Stanwyck's finest hour, and Fred MacMurray makes a great chump. |
| CinePassionFernando F. CroceVariations and tributes can't blunt the sting of Wilder's acidic noir benchmark |
| New YorkerPauline KaelThis shrewd, smoothly tawdry thriller, directed by Billy Wilder, is one of the high points of nineteen-forties films. Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis Dietrichson—a platinum blonde who wears tight white sweaters, an anklet, and sleazy-kinky shoes—is perhaps the best acted and the most fixating of all the slutty, cold-blooded femmes fatales of the film-noir genre. |
| Time OutJessica WinterThis is the gold standard of '40s noir, straight down the line. |
| Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonIn this carefully modulated performance -- she never even raises her voice -- Stanwyck is the ultimate lollapalooza, all legs and sneers and helpless eyes. |
| Creative LoafingMatt BrunsonQuite possibly the most perfect example of film noir to emerge from Hollywood during that genre's reign. |
| Radio TimesTony SlomanThis classic thriller from director Billy Wilder is one of the best-loved examples of film noir ever made. |