
Stars:
Fred MacMurray,
Barbara Stanwyck,
Edward G. Robinson,
Ray Milland,
Phillip Terry
Director:
Billy Wilder
Summary: Includes the Billy Wilder films DOUBLE INDEMNITY, THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR, THE LOST WEEKEND, and A FOREIGN AFFAIR.
Includes the Billy Wilder films DOUBLE INDEMNITY, THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR, THE LOST WEEKEND, and A FOREIGN AFFAIR. In DOUBLE INDEMNITY, the story is told by the dying Walter Neff, beginning with his first meeting with the seductive Phyllis Dietrichson during a routine renewal of her husband's car insurance. After some flirtation she arranges a meeting without her husband, where she asks about an accident policy to be bought without her husband's knowledge. Although repulsed by the implications of her suggestions, his obsession with Phyllis leads Neff to contemplate the possibility of finding a way to kill her husband while making his death look like an accident. After she comes to his apartment, the insurance salesman finally agrees to become involved in the murder, and the two of them begin methodically working out the details. After they dispose of Dietrichson, Neff learns more than he wanted about Phyllis' unsavoury past, but realises he's now too involved to extricate himself. He's also concerned about his a boss, an omniscient insurance investigator who has taken over the case. In THE LOST WEEKEND, Don shares an apartment in New York City in the 1940s with his brother Wick who has his hands full trying to deal with his brother's drinking problem. One night, Don encourages his brother to take his girlfriend Helen St. James to hear some music only so that he can be out from under their watchful eyes. Taking the money left for the maid, he goes out to buy some liquor, stashing one bottle in the chandelier. When he goes to the bar the next day, Nat, the owner berates him for treating his girlfriend badly and warns him that he's on a path toward death. Don returns to the apartment to try to work on his novel 'The Bottle' but consumed by self-doubt, goes to another bar, and steals a woman's purse to buy a drink. As the weekend wears on, his spiral downward continues apace.