double indemnity (1944)

A house call with disastrous consequences, that’s how insurance agent Walter Neff could describe his fateful first meeting with the seductive Phyllis Dietrichson. During a run-of-the-mill check-up of an expired car insurance policy, Walter falls under the spell of Phyllis, the wife of his client. So much so that they start plotting the perfect murder of her husband. After the murder, the couple wants to run away with the life insurance money. But the death and the possible insurance fraud raise the suspicions of the head of insurance claims in Walter’s company.

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DOUBLE INDEMNITY is one of Billy Wilder’s early films noirs, where the (anti-)hero is not a criminal, but a weak man who can’t resist the seduction of a manipulative woman. The femme fatale in question is ruthlessly and icily portrayed by Barbara Stanwyck, who plays one of the – if not thé – most reprehensible women in film noir history. Stanwyck was Wilder’s first choice to play Phyllis. But the actress, then the highest paid woman in the United States, had her doubts about the role. “I’m a little afraid after all these years of playing heroines to go into an out-and-out killer,” she said to Wilder. “Well, are you a mouse or an actress?”, replied the director. And we all know the answer to that question.

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Billy Wilder US, 1944, 107 min

Cast Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson

Spoken language English

Subtitles Dutch