This is a classic film noir and one I'm embarrassed to say I'd never seen before this weekend. It comes off a little dated but has some of the snappiest dialogue you'll ever hear, courtesy of director Billy Wilder and writer Raymond Chandler.Insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) meets the beautiful but unhappily married Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) and hatches a plan to murder her husband (Tom Powers) and get the insurance to pay double indemnity on an accidental death. Since this is noir, there's no way it goes off without a hitch and Neff discovers that covering up a murder is way more work that committing one.
If I'm being honest, I've seen better noirs but this remains a classic for good reason. There's the aforementioned dialogue, the voiceover exposition, the flashback structure, and the consistent tension-building leading up to a thoroughly inevitable end. It is the blueprint for a thousand films to follow and a must-see for any cinephiles, students, and noir fans.
It's currently streaming through Starz.
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