Walter Neff is an insurance salesman who meets the sultry Phyllis Dietrichson and falls madly in love with her. Together they hatch a scheme to forge a life insurance policy on Phyllis' husband and then bump him off. The plan seems perfect, but once the deed is done Walter's nerves start to fail him and a cunning fraud investigator at his office begins to dig a little too close to the truth ...
Billy Wilder's career was just a bit too acclaimed and strewn with accolades for me, but this classic adult film noir is deserving of all the praise it receives. The script, by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, is a dazzling adaptation of James M. Cain's pulp fiction classic. The murder sequence is both exhilarating in its detail and chilling in its realism - these are not gangsters or psychopaths, but ordinary people who do something monstrous borne out of lust and greed. Both MacMurray and Stanwyck (despite a silly blonde wig) give career-best performances which are charming, dazzling, amusing and chilling, all at the same time. Stanwyck is the ultimate cold-hearted femme-fatale (just pipping Lana Turner and Rita Hayworth in my opinion), and right from the moment she first appears (dressed only in a bath-towel), she eats up the screen. MacMurray is brilliant as Neff; a sap, but not a fool, who learns all too late he doesn't have what it takes to be a killer, and that women are never quite what they seem. Both are surpassed however by old pro Robinson as the wily claims investigator, who can smell a phoney setup a mile away. Robinson is amazing; a man for whom facts and statistics are never wrong and rule human nature, at least when it comes to money - a sad but profound truth. Equally good is the extremely dark photography by John Seitz (see also Sullivan's Travels, This Gun For Hire, Invaders From Mars and many others), with daring foreground shadows (Neff looking out his apartment window), stunning use of closeups (the big one of Phyllis while the dirty deed is being done) and many rule-breaking moments (when the husband is talking and signing the forms the focus should be on him, but it's on Phyllis). Best of all is Chandler's ricochet dialogue, which revs up the frisson and tumbles crookedly out of the actors. There are too many classy lines to mention, but my favourite is when Phyllis says, "I wonder if I know what you mean.", and Walter hits back with, "I wonder if you wonder.". Although movie adaptations of Dashiel Hammett's books kick-started this genre (The Thin Man, The Glass Key, The Maltese Falcon), this is the pivotal Hays-Code-ignoring lurid murder potboiler of the forties, followed by such greats as The Postman Always Rings Twice, Deadly Is The Female/Gun Crazy and D.O.A. (and later Blood Simple and Red Rock West). This is a stylish, extremely well acted movie of a great book, and a real treat for all fans of classic crime fiction.
Billy Wilder's career was just a bit too acclaimed and strewn with accolades for me, but this classic adult film noir is deserving of all the praise it receives. The script, by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, is a dazzling adaptation of James M. Cain's pulp fiction classic. The murder sequence is both exhilarating in its detail and chilling in its realism - these are not gangsters or psychopaths, but ordinary people who do something monstrous borne out of lust and greed. Both MacMurray and Stanwyck (despite a silly blonde wig) give career-best performances which are charming, dazzling, amusing and chilling, all at the same time. Stanwyck is the ultimate cold-hearted femme-fatale (just pipping Lana Turner and Rita Hayworth in my opinion), and right from the moment she first appears (dressed only in a bath-towel), she eats up the screen. MacMurray is brilliant as Neff; a sap, but not a fool, who learns all too late he doesn't have what it takes to be a killer, and that women are never quite what they seem. Both are surpassed however by old pro Robinson as the wily claims investigator, who can smell a phoney setup a mile away. Robinson is amazing; a man for whom facts and statistics are never wrong and rule human nature, at least when it comes to money - a sad but profound truth. Equally good is the extremely dark photography by John Seitz (see also Sullivan's Travels, This Gun For Hire, Invaders From Mars and many others), with daring foreground shadows (Neff looking out his apartment window), stunning use of closeups (the big one of Phyllis while the dirty deed is being done) and many rule-breaking moments (when the husband is talking and signing the forms the focus should be on him, but it's on Phyllis). Best of all is Chandler's ricochet dialogue, which revs up the frisson and tumbles crookedly out of the actors. There are too many classy lines to mention, but my favourite is when Phyllis says, "I wonder if I know what you mean.", and Walter hits back with, "I wonder if you wonder.". Although movie adaptations of Dashiel Hammett's books kick-started this genre (The Thin Man, The Glass Key, The Maltese Falcon), this is the pivotal Hays-Code-ignoring lurid murder potboiler of the forties, followed by such greats as The Postman Always Rings Twice, Deadly Is The Female/Gun Crazy and D.O.A. (and later Blood Simple and Red Rock West). This is a stylish, extremely well acted movie of a great book, and a real treat for all fans of classic crime fiction.