Double Indemnity and Film Noir

Just this weekend we were all huddled around the big screen TV watching "Double Indemnity." My husband and I for the nth time, our son for the second time. Now he can better follow the dialog and the plot, much better than when he was nine or ten. We love the movie. Imagine Barbara Stanwick, whose legs were gorgeous, well, her figure in 1943 was great, wearing dresses and slacks designed by the Queen of costume design in Hollywood, Edith Head.

In those days actors had to memorize their lines and the lines were exquisite works of art. The wit that drips out of every bit of dialog in this film is mortal, yet pleasant. My husband and I have memorized big chunks of the dialog. And yet the film is still quite a pleasure to watch. There is always a detail we missed or a flaw we think existed in the plot but the plot is flawless.

Just check it out: book by James Cain, screenplay by Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder, who directs the film.

This is one of the seminal film noirs. The name of the genre, so to speak, was given by the French way before the Americans knew that was what they were doing. Not always is the film noir about a bad dame who seduces a fool to kill her husband ( for money is a plus) After watching the film I went to Wikipedia and there I learned there are as many variations on film noir as types of suicide Edward G. Robinson had to spit out in the movie. ( Some say he never forgave Billy Wilder for that monolog )

If you have never seen Double Indemnity, do yourself a favor and rent the brand new DVD out there. There are observations in the film that are pretty amusing for us in Los Angeles. "It was a house of the type that is popular here, with Spanish tiles, going for at least 30 thousand dollars." Fred MacMurray claims there were two movies in which he had to act in his whole career: this one and The Apartment, also by Billy Wilder.

Of course THE CODE had to spoil our fun watching the bad girls plotting murders. They came back, though. This is my tip for the week in film. for more info, google film noir in wikipedia. See you next week!