Double Indemnity

Plot synopsis:
Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), a successful insurance salesman, returns to his office building in downtown Los Angeles late one night. Visibly in pain and sporting a gunshot wound on his shoulder, he begins dictating a confession into a Dictaphone for his friend and colleague, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), a brilliant claims adjuster. The story, told primarily in flashback, ensues.
Neff first meets the alluring Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) during a routine house call to remind her husband (Tom Powers) that his automobile insurance policy is up for renewal. They flirt, until Phyllis asks how she could take out an accident policy on her husband's life without his knowledge. Neff deduces she is contemplating murder, and makes it clear he wants no part of it.
However, he cannot get her out of his mind, and when Phyllis shows up at his own home, he cannot resist her any longer. Neff knows all the tricks of his trade and devises a plan to make the murder of her husband appear to be an accidental fall from a train that will trigger the "double indemnity" clause and pay out twice the policy's face value.
After Dietrichson breaks his leg, Phyllis drives him to the train station for his trip to Palo Alto for a college reunion. Neff is hiding in the backseat and kills Dietrichson when Phyllis turns onto a deserted side street. Then, Neff boards the train posing as Dietrichson and using his crutches. He makes his way to the last car, the observation car, and steps outside to the open platform to supposedly smoke a cigarette. A complication ensues when he meets a passenger named Jackson (Porter Hall) there, but he manages to get the man to leave. Neff then throws the crutches on the railway tracks, jumps off at a prearranged meeting spot with Phyllis, and drags Dietrichson's body onto the tracks by his crutches.
Mr. Norton (Richard Gaines), the company's chief, believes the death was suicide, but Keyes scoffs at the idea, quoting statistics indicating the improbability of suicide by jumping off a slow-moving train, to Neff's hidden delight. Keyes does not suspect foul play at first, but his instincts, to which he refers as the "little man", pointing to his stomach, starts nagging. He wonders why Dietrichson did not file a claim for his broken leg, and deduces he did not know about the policy. Keyes tells Neff of his theory outside Neff's apartment, while Phyllis hides behind the door. Keyes soon concludes that Phyllis and some unknown accomplice murdered Dietrichson for the insurance money, but needs more proof.
Keyes, however, is not Neff's only worry. The victim's daughter, Lola (Jean Heather), comes to him, convinced that stepmother Phyllis is behind her father's death. Lola's mother also died under suspicious circumstances, when Phyllis was her nurse. Neff begins seeing Lola, at first to keep her from going to the police with her suspicions and then because he is plagued by guilt and a sense of responsibility for her.
Keyes brings Jackson to Los Angeles, suspecting that the man aboard the train had not been Dietrichson, but rather had been Phyllis' accomplice in Dietrichson's murder. After examining photographs of Dietrichson, Jackson is sure the man he met was not that old, but at least 10 years younger. Now certain that he can prove murder, Keyes is eager to reject the claim and force Phyllis to sue. Neff warns Phyllis not to pursue the insurance claim in court and admits he has been talking to Lola about her past. Phyllis, however, insists on filing suit to pursue the claim despite the risk to both her and to Neff. Lola eventually tells Neff she has discovered her boyfriend, the hotheaded Nino Zachetti (Byron Barr), has been seeing Phyllis behind her (and Neff's) back.
When Neff learns that Keyes suspects Nino of being Phyllis' accomplice, Neff sees a way out of his predicament. He arranges to meet Phyllis at her house. He informs her that he knows about her involvement with Nino, and guesses that she is planning to have Nino kill him. He tells her that he intends to kill her and put the blame on Nino. She is prepared, however, and shoots him in the shoulder. Seriously wounded but still standing, he slowly comes closer and dares her to shoot again. She does not, and he takes the gun from her. She says she never loved him "until a minute ago, when I couldn't fire that second shot." Neff doesn't believe a word she says, and as she hugs him tightly, Neff says, "Goodbye, baby," and shoots twice, killing her.
Outside, Neff waits for Nino to arrive (something Neff had orchestrated). Neff advises him not to enter the house and instead go to Lola, the woman who loves him. Nino is reluctantly convinced and leaves as told. Neff drives to his office and starts speaking into his Dictaphone, as seen at the film's opening. Keyes arrives unnoticed and hears enough to know the truth. Keyes sadly tells him, "Walter, you're all washed up." Neff tells Keyes he is going to Mexico rather than face the gas chamber, but sags to the floor from his injury and blood loss before he can reach the elevator. A weakened Neff tells Keyes the reason he couldn't figure the case out was because the guy he was looking for was "too close, right across the desk from you." When Keyes replies "closer than that, Walter." Neff replies that he loves Keyes too. As Neff had done, lighting Keyes' cigars for him throughout the film, Keyes lights Neff's cigarette as they await the police and an ambulance.

Tags: neo noir, murder

Review:
This 1973 remake of the classic 1944 Billy Wilder film, "Double Indemnity," is a textbook example of how to destroy a great script.
While Hollywood has gone after greedy executives that colorize black-and-white films and sought disclaimers on wide-screen movies that are shown in pan-and-scan versions, the industry has ignored the hacks that insist on taking a classic film and diminishing it with a shoddy remake.The first step in producing a bowdlerized version of a classic is to edit the script.
The Billy-Wilder-Raymond-Chandler work was cut by a half hour to fit the finished film into a specified time-slot with room for commercials.
Thus, the brand-new "Double Indemnity" eliminates the atmospheric black-and-white film-noir cinematography that enhanced the mood and characterizations of the original.
Gone are the close bond between Keyes and Neff and the erotic attraction between Neff and Phyllis.The look of Jack Smight's take on "Double Indemnity" is more "Dynasty" than film noir.
Phyllis Dietrickson has a designer home to die for, and Neff's comfy pad would be hard to afford on an insurance salesman's salary, not to mention the sporty Mercedes convertible that he drives.
Richard Crenna shows little interest in Samantha Eggar, and their kisses are about as lusty as those between a brother and a sister.
Crenna fails to capture the cynicism of Neff, and his attempts at double-entendre and sexual suggestiveness fall horribly flat.
Director Jack Smight and his three principals have all done much better work.There was no conceivable reason to produce this wretched remake except to fill time in a broadcast schedule.
There was no conceivable reason to resurrect this dud on DVD and package it with the original film except to fill out a double-disc package.
The 1973 "Double Indemnity" should be titled "10% Indemnity," because viewing it only underscores the 100% perfection of the original movie..
When Samantha Eggar (as Phyllis Dietrickson) answers the door of her house swathed in a towel, you realize that as competent an actress as Eggar may be, she doesn't have the hypnotic allure of Barbara Stanwyck.
In the original film, Wilder had Stanwyck not only appear in a towel, but she enters the scene on the second floor balcony of the house.
Stanwyck's stand-in, Eggar, answers the door with a towel around her.
The script may have said "Phyllis appears in towel" so the filmmakers of the remake simply follow the instructions and include the required towel.
The filmmakers of the remake gave her a towel because that's what Wilder did.
Part of the problem is Crenna appears so much like a 70's actor.
In the original, Neff says, "I didn't get the money, and I didn't get the woman." In the 1973 version, Crenna says, "I didn't get the money, and I didn't want the woman." Did the filmmakers completely misunderstand the entire point of the story?
This 1973 boring remake is a forgettable TV-movie made probably by the same people who did "Gilligan's Island".
This 1973 TV remake of the Billy Wilder classic is inferior to the original.
This remake's only improvement over the original is that it cuts down the role of Lola Dietrichson, the step-daughter of the femme fatale, Phyllis Dietrichson.And that's it for the good things.The bad things are many.
The director records everything in an indifferent manner: if you watched the film with the sound muted you'd hardly get the impression that anything especially interesting was happening.
Because of modern bad taste, the film must be in color instead of black and white.
Walter Neff's expensive apartment, in particular, is hideous.The modern setting hurts in a lot of small ways.
Women in mourning stopped wearing veils, which robs Samantha Eggar of a prop Barbara Stanwyck made splendid use of in a key scene.
(Oddly, Lola still has the line where she reveals that her stepmother was trying on a black hat and veil before she had need of them.)Stephen Bochco keeps much of the Billy Wilder-Raymond Chandler script the same.
Bochco may not be to blame.Richard Crenna is passable as Walter Neff.
With a director who barely seems interested in what's happening in front of the camera, how could Barbara Stanwyck herself have come off well?.
It was hard to watch this film and be totally fair and objective since I am a big fan the original 1944 movie.
Scene after scene, I found myself comparing what I was looking at it, and remembering how it played out with Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G.
Now I was seeing these famous actors playing their famous roles replaced by Richard Crenna, Samantha Eggar and Lee J.
Cobb.When it was all over, I found it wasn't as bad as I had expected but it's no match for the 1944 original.
The two main areas in which this made-for-TV film wasn't as good were (1) the electricity between the two leads was missing and (2) being only 90 minutes, they rushed the story with hardly time to develop the plot, characters and chemistry between those leads.
Crenna and Eggar were flat, and simply no match for MacMurray and Stanwyck as "Walter Neff" and "Phyllis Dietrichson," respectively.Where this re-make held its own was in the other characters, such as "Barton Keyes" and "Edward Norton." Cobb was terrific as Keyes and Robert Webber as Norton, head of the insurance company.
Otherwise, the storyline was very similar, just rushed.However, one viewing was enough and I will happily go back to the original version for the rest of my viewings of this classic story and film..
OK so it's made for TV, but why watch a bad copy, when you can get your hands on the superb original?
As a big fan of the original film, it's hard to watch this show.
Crenna is not a bad choice as Walter Neff, but his snappy wardrobe and "swank" apartment don't fit the mood of the original, or make him an interesting character.He does his best to make it work but Samantha Egger is a really bad choice.
Lee J.Cobb tries mightily to fashion Barton Keyes,but even his performance is just gruff, without style.It feels like the TV movie it was and again reminds me of what a remarkable film the original still is..
Unlike the sizzle you could see and practically feel between MacMurray and Stanwyck in the original, the chemistry between dumb ol' Dicky Crenna and whats-her-face here is just non-existent.
Cobb as Keyes practically burping/upchucking his way through the explanation of his "Little Man" to Mr. Garloupis.
Bochco must have known how unnecessary the whole idea was, especially since no amount of effort could even hope to get the project out from the shadow of Billy Wilder's classic 1944 version.
The three leads (Richard Crenna and Samantha Eggar as the illicit lovers, Lee J.
Insurance salesman Walter Neff (Richard Crenna) is hurt and returns to his office to record a confession.
He's not home but his alluring wife Phyllis (Samantha Eggar) is there to meet him.
He secretly sells her husband an accident insurance policy and insists on killing him on a train to collect the double indemnity of $400k.This is an unnecessary remake and not a good one.
Jack Smight directed this TV remake of the original 1944 film, based on James M.
Cain's novel, that stars Richard Crenna as Walter Naff, an insurance salesman seduced by a client's wife named Phyllis Dietrichson(played by Samantha Eggar) to murder her husband for the insurance money, with the double indemnity clause giving them twice the payout, though Walter's boss Barton Keyes(played by Lee J.
Cobb) is suspicious of Phyllis, convinced she murdered her husband with the help of another man, not knowing that it's Walter...
Needless and ineffectual remake still has a good cast and story, but no atmosphere or point at all..
This remake of the film noir classic about a seductress and an insurance man having an affair of horror, planning the murder of her husband, gives us the same question as just about any remake.Why the remake?
Many remakes are simply film adaptations of classic novels, such as TREASURE ISLAND.Here, though, we have what is essentially a "homage" to E.G. Robinson and the others, who made the original classic.The crux of the story is the Columbo style E.G. character.
I don't mean to disparage Richard and Samantha, but they were very bland.And that was probably the point, to keep them bland.It still makes for the question "Why the remake?" Lee J Cobb tries to make this his own role.
Cobb, in the effort to make it his own, knows it is taking something away when he adds "much closer", but he doesn't want to be compared too much to E.G.'s perfect portrayal.Which is why you don't really want to remake a classic film noir..
It's a hard chore to even equal, let alone top, the likes of Barbara Stanwyck or Edward G.
5) David Janssen, Rosemary Forsyth, and Dean Jagger.Other candidates for Phyllis could be Elizabeth Ashley and Diana Hyland.John Badham was doing some stylish TV movies at the time including "Isn't it Shocking?" with Alan Alda and "Reflections on Murder" with Tuesday Weld.
The second of the 2 discs in the splendid new DOUBLE INDEMNITY (DI) DVD set contains Universal's updated 1973 TV-movie version (let's call it DI v2).
The original 1944 film noir rocks, but the remake sinks like a stone.
Still, both versions are worth a look for anyone who wants to learn how make a spellbinding film noir, because you learn important lessons when you watch them back-to-back: 1.
*Just because your leading lady is pretty, it doesn't automatically mean she's irresistible enough to lead men to their doom.* As the 1973 edition of femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson, Samantha Eggar is very pretty.
I'll admit I liked Eggar's long, lovely red hair (and the black turban she wears in the murder scene -- very Lana Turner!) better than Barbara Stanwyck's trashy blonde wig (as a studio boss reportedly griped during the filming of the original DI, "I hire Barbara Stanwyck, and I get George Washington!").
*It don't mean a thing if the leads ain't got that zing.* That brings me to Eggar's delivery; she always sounds vaguely bored and/or annoyed with Richard Crenna's Walter Neff.
DI v2 might be remembered as more than just a cinematic footnote if Eggar and Crenna had even a fraction of the chemistry that sizzles between Stanwyck and MacMurray, the latter brilliant as a cynical smart-aleck whose street-wiseness goes out the window under this devious dame's influence.
It just goes to show that in a story like this, the best acting in the world won't help if the leads don't have chemistry and charisma.3.
*A little moody atmosphere goes a long way in crime movies.* Despite the attractive locations, especially the Spanish-style accents in the opulent Dietrichson home (though I'd forgotten how prevalent the colors beige, harvest gold, and avocado green were back in the 1970s, not to mention blocky impressionistic artwork!
The remake's flat '70s TV lighting and uninspired camera angles can't hold a candle to the original's menacing lighting effects and the great John Seitz's photography, which looks almost like painting with shadows.
Ironically, the 1973 update now feels more dated than the 1944 original -- and if you listen carefully early on, you'll realize the first film was actually set in the late 1930s!
Billy Goldenberg's piano-and-strings music is somber enough, though it certainly won't make you forget Miklos Rozsa's brassy, powerful score for the original.Apart from Eggar's forgettable performance, the good cast helps make DI v2 fairly watchable, though far from a must-see except for completists like me.
Cobb's portrayal of Barton Keyes is good, but quite different from Edward G.
Don't get me wrong, though -- Cobb's approach is quite effective in the context of the remake, especially since the remake as a whole has a lot less snap, crackle, and pop than the original.
:-) With a script by Steven Bochco and direction by TV crime-show veteran Jack Smight (who also did a nice job with theatrical suspensers HARPER, KALEIDOSCOPE, and NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY), you'd think DI v2 would still be worth watching, but despite the occasional gripping moment, this '70s show is still just polyester while the original is pure silk..
You can't help comparing this 1973 TV version to the 1940s original directed by Billy Wilder and starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G.
As expected, the original comes out light years ahead, a classic of genuine film noir.The story line is still here.
An insurance salesman connives with a manipulative seductress to murder her husband and collect double indemnity on the insurance policy they've just taken out on him.
Well, there are a couple of problems, and some other changes that aren't necessarily problems but don't add anything to the experience of viewing the film.The story belongs in the 1940s.
When Wilder and Raymond Chandler (in his sober period) put the thing together it had a good, old-fashioned black-and-white pizazz in its dialog and setting that just doesn't fit well into the 1970s.Phyllis Dietrichson belongs in a slightly cramped but very comfortable old house, a slightly dated mission-style multi-story dwelling with honeysuckle around it and windows that can be closed and shuttered.
Phyllis (Samantha Eggar) lives in a modern house that resembles a cement box on the outside.
Walter Neff (Richard Crenna) lives in a pad in Marina del Ray with a view of the yacht moorings, instead of the somewhat seedy hotel flat in the original.
So Lola's no-good boyfriend (a med-school dropout in the original, a law student here) is no longer Nino Sachetti but somebody with a barbaric and WASPy name like Don Franklin.
Otherwise the dialog is almost identical to the original, except for the addition of a wisecrack near the beginning, when Neff tells Phyllis, "I gave up a Rhodes scholarship to peddle insurance door to door." Performances.
Crenna is probably as good as MacMurray was in the original.
Cobb as Keyes isn't the human buzz saw that Edward G.
Robinson was in the original, he carries the part in his own exasperated way.
Samantha Eggar, alas, is no Barbara Stanwyck.
When someone remakes a classic movie, the remake is always unfavorably compared to the original.
Also, there's a chance that the remake is so radically different that it is just too unfamiliar to audiences.Well, the 1973 TV version of "Double Indemnity" has almost identical scenes and dialogue as the 1944 original.
Fred MacMurray was great as the lecherous, leering insurance agent Walter Neff in the original; Richard Crenna just seems world-weary and tired.
Robinson brought great manic energy to his role as MacMurray's boss Barton Keys; Lee J.
Samantha Eggar is all wrong as the conniving, back-stabbing Phyllis Dietrichson; while Barbara Stanwyck was just superb in this wicked role, Eggar is overly polite and mannered and just seems way out of place.Robert Webber, in the old Richard Gaines role as Robinson's boss Norton, and John Fiedler taking the Porter Hall role as the crucial witness, bring some life to the movie.
However, this great plan doesn't play out exactly as they'd anticipated when the husband and agent begin wondering whether or not they can trust their new co-conspirator.The idea of remaking the classic 1944 version of this film is pretty pointless.
After all, why remake a film that is considered a classic?!
Perhaps they were easy and cheap to make and even if they were bad they were guaranteed a certain audience...but it still seems wrong to have done this.Richard Crenna plays the part originally played by Fred MacMurray.
Samantha Egger plays the part originally played by Barbara Stanwyck.
Cobb plays the part originally played by Edward G.
All of these are reasonably good actors...but certainly not up to the quality of the originals.
What's worse, however, is that the original director (Billy Wilder) was a genius...yet here the film is helmed by 'Jack Smight'?!?
Now if there never had been an earlier version of this film, then it would have been a made for TV movie that would have been worth seeing--one you'd probably remember.
It can't possibly compare to the 1944 Billy Wilder Film Noir classic as anyone in their right mind ought to know -sight unseen- but that doesn't mean this update should be seen as a separate entity, either.
Cobb was able to hold my interest as a world-weary, tired-looking Keyes but Richard Crenna's affable and inoffensive Walter Neff only reminded me of Bill Bixby on a bad day.
The completist in me is thankful this speeded up "Me Decade" update was included as part of the DOUBLE INDEMNITY DVD extras but the experience not only made me long to see the original, it had me nostalgic for any episode of the better-made COLUMBO TV series.
Like DOUBLE INDEMNITY, it was needlessly remade with TV movie queen Virginia Madsen as the titular vixen and Richard Thomas as the milquetoast husband..
(Seriously, he was 81, and kicked the bucket four years later.) Be that as it may, if you watch both the original and a remake from decades later for the first time because the film studio is making more money on a deluxe DVD set than it would by packaging the original alone, it usually turns out to be a case of a defendant providing the rope with which they should be hoisted up, figuratively speaking.
Superior 1970s remake far outshines the 1944 original..
ATMOSPHERIC THRILLER directed by Jack Smight exceeds the 1944 original.
Richard Crenna mantains his reputation as a major 60s/70s leading actor teamed with the excellent Samantha Eggar in this vastly superior remake of the 1944 "classic film noir" that had an inferior team of Fred McMurray and Barbara Stanwyck.
Richard Crenna is totally head and shoulders above the fumbling and uncertain Fred McMurray and Samantha Eggar adds real style, glamour and sexiness in her role.