KINONIK in association with SPACE GALLERY

~ Kinonoir ~

Billy Wilder’s DOUBLE INDEMNITY starring Barbara Stanwyck & Fred MacMurray, MARCH 11, 2019, 7 PM

Staying faithful to the James M. Cain novel, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944) is a lesson in rapid fire dialogue and how to bring a memorable femme fatale to the screen. Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis and Fred MacMurray’s Walter Neff play a dangerous game from the start – and it’s a grim journey from there. Insurance man MacMurray’s no-nonsense approach to murder and Stanwyck’s coolness make for a chilling look at an amoral universe where insurance payoffs trump life. (In general, helping beautiful women dispose of doltish husbands doesn’t go well for male accomplices in Noir: see Body Heat, The Postman Always Rings Twice, the Last Seduction, etc.) In the end, when Neff’s boss, Edward G. Robinson, figures things out it seems more a victory for actuarial tables than for morality.