Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson

Director: Douglas Sirk

Summary: Includes the Barbara Stanwyck films DOUBLE INDEMNITY and ALL I DESIRE.

Includes the Barbara Stanwyck films DOUBLE INDEMNITY and ALL I DESIRE. 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 ALL I DESIRE, a star of the stage returns to the small town where her family lives, causing a commotion in the town.

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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

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Release Date:	December 26, 2006
Runtime:	184 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	8241839
Keywords:	Films, Two, Double, Desire, All, I, Drama, Thriller, Discs, Indemnity
Genre:	Drama