List Price: $14.98 Our Price: $12.28YOU SAVE $2.7!
Buy it
DVD Double Indemnity
Director Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard) and writer Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep) adapted James M. Cain's hard-boiled novel into this wildly thrilling story of insurance man Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), who schemes the perfect murder with the beautiful dame Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck): kill Dietrichson's husband and make off with the insurance money. But, of course, in these plots things never quite go as planned, and Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) is the wily insurance investigator who must sort things out. From the opening scene you know Neff is doomed, as the story is told in flashback; yet, to the film's credit, this doesn't diminish any of the tension of the movie. This early film noir flick is wonderfully campy by today's standards, and the dialogue is snappy ("I thought you were smarter than the rest, Walter. But I was wrong. You're not smarter, just a little taller"), filled with lots of "dame"s and "baby"s. Stanwyck is the ultimate femme fatale, and MacMurray, despite a career largely defined by roles as a softy (notably in the TV series My Three Sons and the movie The Shaggy Dog), is convincingly cast against type as the hapless, love-struck sap. --Jenny Brown
"I never knew that murder could smell like Honeysuckle."
There are several titles that always come to mind when discussing Film Noir, and "Double Indemnity" is one of those great titles. It's the story of insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) who knocks on the door of sultry Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) one fateful afternoon.
Excellent performances make this film very watchable, and the three main characters--Neff, the salesman, Phyllis, the lonely housewife, and Barton Keyes (Edward G Robinson) as the investigator are all fascinating. I'm used to seeing Fred MacMurray in 'nice' roles, but here as salesman, Neff, well, he's just a little bit shady. There are some great scenes as he explains that working for an insurance company inevitably gives him ideas about scamming the company. When Neff first meets Phyllis, sparks fly, and Neff crosses over the line with his blatant, suggestive flirting. He's met his match in Phyllis--and there's far more to her than meets the eye--she's rotten through and through. Phyllis delivers all the usual whining to Neff about her nasty, old boring husband, but then when Mr. Dietrichson makes an appearance, the absurdity of the marriage is blatantly apparent. Mr. Dietrichson is a grumpy, cheap complainer who stands in the way of Neff's romance with the luscious Phyllis, and so the lovers plot to murder the husband and collect on a double indemnity life insurance policy at the same time.
Barton Keyes is the moral barometer for this film--he possesses intuition about insurance claims, and just like a dog with a bone, he won't let the case go until he's found all the answers. If you are interested in Film Noir, then I recommend watching this classic. It's really an entertaining film--displacedhuman
STRAIGHT DOWN THE LINE....
Few film noirs from the 40's are as somber and dark in tone as this classic adaptation of the James M.Cain novel written for the screen by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler. Wilder's and Chandler's script is sarcastic and loaded with double entendre. As directed by Wilder, "Double Indemnity" is also a sarcastic and ironic look at insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) who makes a fateful last house call on a lapsed car insurance policy. There he encounters Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) a femme fatale lying in wait for the right sucker. That sucker is Neff. One look at her sexy ankle chain and he's hooked. She wants to bump off her aging tightwad husband and collect some loot in the process. So, Neff concocts an accident policy with a double indemnity clause guaranteeing double payment in the event of a fatal accident. No problem. After tricking the man into signing it, Phyllis arranges a train trip for him and Neff finishes the job with a "fall" from said train. No problem. When time comes for Phyllis to collect, BIG problem. That being Neff's inscrutable boss Keyes (Edward G.Robinson) whose stomach ulcer always acts up whenever he detects a ruse. Then Neff discovers Phyllis is even more low-down than she let on. She's murdered before and she's a tramp to boot. The performances in "Double Indemnity" are so natural that it seems almost contemporary. Robinson is superb as Keyes---chomping the cheap cigar and griping about everything. MacMurray is miles away from his good guy image in "My Three Sons" on TV. Stanwyck is sultry and sexy (in a blonde wig) as Phyllis with her lips and eyes glistening with wicked deceit. Miklos Rosza's score is gloom and doom crime drama perfect and keeps you in check that things are bad and will only get worse. This is certainly downbeat film noir---a dark netherworld of LA story with no happy ending but a less entertaining film would be hard to find. My DVD from Image is a good print but I would love to see this reissued in an even better package. It is SO worth it.
GREAT FILM - TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DVD TRANSFER
Do not purchase this DVD release. Its transfer to DVD is truly horrendous.
Even under the heavy censorship of 1946 Hollywood, Lana Turner and John Garfield's libidinous desires burn up the screen in Tay Garnett's adaptation of James M. Cain's torrid crime melodrama. Platinum blond Turner is Cora, a restless sexpot stuck in a roadside diner married to mundane middle-aged fry cook Nick Smith (Cecil Kellaway) when handsome drifter Frank (Garfield) blows her way. It's lust at first sight, a rapacious desire that neither can break off, and before long they're plotting his demise--but in the wicked world of Cain nothing is that easy. Garnett's visual approach is subdued compared to the more expressionistic film noir of the period, but he's at no loss when he films the luminous Turner in her milky-white wardrobe. She radiates repressed sexuality and uncontrollable... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Lana Turner - John Garfield Director(s): Tay Garnett DVD Release Date: Released the 06 January 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.97 Your Price: $17.97YOU SAVE $2!
Buy it
Alan Ladd is razor sharp as Raven, a contract killer who likes cats and kills witnesses. The first 15 minutes of this film is excellent noir. A hit man (Ladd) lives in a shabby hotel, when the smart mouthed maid enters to clean she slaps his kitten aside, prompting Ladd to knock her to the floor, tearing her dress. Ladd then proceeds to his first job in the film and on the way up the stairs en route to the apartment where his soon-to-be victim resides he encounters a girl in leg braces. Ladd is so good, as is the directing, we are not sure if he is going to retrieve the ball that has bounced out of her reach or blow her brains out with his Colt .32 pistol.
Also excellent is the photography, set between San Francisco and Los Angeles, many great shots include a gas works... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Veronica Lake - Alan Ladd Director(s): Frank Tuttle DVD Release Date: Released the 06 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.98 Your Price: $13.48YOU SAVE $1.5!
Buy it
Some boxed sets claim to be definitive, but are haphazardly selected. Not this one. Four of the five titles here can legitimately lay claim to being essentials in the film noir canon, and the fifth, The Set-Up, is a terrific boxing picture with a strong noir atmosphere. If you're a fan of noir--or have no idea what it's all about--this collection is a treat.
Of course, none of these movies were made as "film noir." The term was coined later by French critics to describe the moody, anxious feel of postwar American movies, especially the genre that highlighted duplicitous dames and susceptible men lost in the criminal jungle. Indeed, the title The Asphalt Jungle conveys the edgy urban arena of these pictures. That film is John Huston's masterly 1950 account of a heist,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): James Whitmore DVD Release Date: Released the 06 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $49.92 Your Price: $39.94YOU SAVE $9.98!
Buy it
Ranking No. 21 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films, this 1940 classic is a bit dated in its noble sentimentality, but it remains a luminous example of Hollywood classicism from the peerless director of mythic Americana, John Ford. Adapted by Nunnally Johnson from John Steinbeck's classic novel, the film tells a simple story about Oklahoma farmers leaving the depression-era dustbowl for the promised land of California, but it's the story's emotional resonance and theme of human perseverance that makes the movie so richly and timelessly rewarding. It's all about the humble Joad family's cross-country trek to escape the economic devastation of their ruined farmland, beginning when Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) returns from a four-year prison term to discover... More Info about this DVD Director(s): John Ford DVD Release Date: Released the 06 April 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.98 Your Price: $10.99YOU SAVE $3.99!
Buy it
A certified film noir classic, Criss Cross embraces the genre's darkness with an uncompromising tale of doomed lovers and multilayered betrayal. Reuniting with director Robert Siodmak after their success with The Killers, Burt Lancaster plays a love-struck loser who seals his fate when he returns to Los Angeles to find his ex-wife (Yvonne DeCarlo) eager to rekindle their love against all better judgment. She encourages their torrid affair but marries a mobster (Dan Duryea); to deflect suspicion, Lancaster lures Duryea into an armored-truck robbery, creating a vortex of greed and passion from which he cannot escape. Featuring the brief screen debut of Tony Curtis, Criss Cross is a stylish masterpiece of clashing fates and fatal attractions; Franz Planer's... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Burt Lancaster - Yvonne De Carlo Director(s): Robert Siodmak DVD Release Date: Released the 06 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.98 Your Price: $13.48YOU SAVE $1.5!
Buy it
