Should you need a movie to explain the concept of film noir, most likely Double Indemnity would be the preferred choice of many, also for defining the perfect dark lady, a Barbara Stanwyck in her more refined role, seductive without being attractive. But who said evil must be beautiful to be luring for the lost souls of the night?
Billy Wilder, already a solid and respected screenwriter in Europe before fleeing the Nazis and land in Hollywood to continue his trade, made the transition to directing only few years and two movies before co-writing, in a tempestuous cooperation with Raymond Chandler, and directing Double Indemnity, based upon a James Cain novel published in 1943 and inspired by a real crime occurred in New York City in 1927.
While formally abiding to the feared Hollywood's Hays Code, Double Indemnity oozes sensuality and perversion, not only for the excellent script, the clever flashback structure, the remarkable cinematography and the majestic use of light and shadows, but above all for the alchemy between the two leading characters. Like two chemicals that alone can be inert and banal, the combination of Walter Neff, the ultimate nice guy, superficially self-confident, to whom Fred MacMurry gives his handsome and reassuring face, and Phyllis Dietrichson, the apparently frustrated housewife, a Barbara Stanwyck that, although not beautiful notwithstanding a kinky ankle bracelet that soon became a fetish, is dangerously sleazy and manipulative, creates an explosive mix of weakness and power, an evil magnetism that none of the characters can escape.
An ineluctable and doomed journey, almost like in a Greek tragedy, where nobody can steer any more his own destiny once the wrong path has been taken, nobody can get off the tram directed to the cemetery, to use the words of Edward G. Robinson, who in this film is able to blend strict logic and sentiment, harshness and delicateness in a memorable performance.
A movie that takes the viewer through the labyrinth of the human souls, uncovering and rummaging into the rottenness that both Phyllis and Walter know they have inside. It is not a coincidence that the whole story never takes place during the day, everything happens at night, a long, dark night without a dawn, a night that no light can brighten.
Billy Wilder, already a solid and respected screenwriter in Europe before fleeing the Nazis and land in Hollywood to continue his trade, made the transition to directing only few years and two movies before co-writing, in a tempestuous cooperation with Raymond Chandler, and directing Double Indemnity, based upon a James Cain novel published in 1943 and inspired by a real crime occurred in New York City in 1927.
While formally abiding to the feared Hollywood's Hays Code, Double Indemnity oozes sensuality and perversion, not only for the excellent script, the clever flashback structure, the remarkable cinematography and the majestic use of light and shadows, but above all for the alchemy between the two leading characters. Like two chemicals that alone can be inert and banal, the combination of Walter Neff, the ultimate nice guy, superficially self-confident, to whom Fred MacMurry gives his handsome and reassuring face, and Phyllis Dietrichson, the apparently frustrated housewife, a Barbara Stanwyck that, although not beautiful notwithstanding a kinky ankle bracelet that soon became a fetish, is dangerously sleazy and manipulative, creates an explosive mix of weakness and power, an evil magnetism that none of the characters can escape.
An ineluctable and doomed journey, almost like in a Greek tragedy, where nobody can steer any more his own destiny once the wrong path has been taken, nobody can get off the tram directed to the cemetery, to use the words of Edward G. Robinson, who in this film is able to blend strict logic and sentiment, harshness and delicateness in a memorable performance.
A movie that takes the viewer through the labyrinth of the human souls, uncovering and rummaging into the rottenness that both Phyllis and Walter know they have inside. It is not a coincidence that the whole story never takes place during the day, everything happens at night, a long, dark night without a dawn, a night that no light can brighten.