Double Indemnity

DVD Features:

Disc 1: DOUBLE INDEMNITY

Aspect Ratio: Full Frame - 1.33

Audio:

• Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono - English, Spanish
• Subtitles - English (SDH), French, Spanish - Optional

Disc 2: Bonus Features

Audio:

• Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono - English
• Subtitles - English (SDH), French - Optional

Additional Release Material:

• Audio Commentary - 1. Richard Schicker - Film Historian
                               2. Lem Dobbs - Film Historian/Screenwriter; Nick Redman - Film Historian
• Featurettes - SHADOWS OF SUSPENSE
• Introduction - Robert Osborne
• Trailers - Original Theatrical Trailer

Description by OLDIES.com:

Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray star in this gripping film noir from Academy Award-winning director Billy Wilder. A calculating wife encourages her wealthy husband to sign a double indemnity policy proposed by smitten insurance agent Walter Neff. As the would-be lovers plot the unsuspecting husband's murder, they are pursued by a suspicious claims manager (Edward G. Robinson). It's a race against time to get away with the perfect crime in this heart-pounding Academy Award-nominated masterpiece.

Product Description:

Billy Wilder's classic noir, a familiar brew of lust, larceny, and lethal intentions, stars Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck as a hot-blooded couple. Framed in flashback, the story is told by the dying Walter Neff (MacMurray), beginning with his first meeting with the seductive Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck) 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' unsavory past, but realizes he's now too involved to extricate himself. He's also concerned about his a boss, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), an omniscient insurance investigator who has taken over the case. DOUBLE INDEMNITY is brilliant noir, among the best of the genre, with a byzantine yet utterly plausible plot, stylized hard-boiled dialogue by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, and three terrific performances by Stanwyck, MacMurray, and Robinson.

Plot Keywords:

Betrayal | Classic | Drama | Essential Cinema | Film Noir | Infidelity | Melodrama | Murder | Psychodrama | Recommended | Romance | Suspense | Theatrical Release

Production Notes:

• DOUBLE INDEMNITY was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1992.
• Other films written by novelist Raymond Chandler include AND NOW TOMORROW; THE BLUE DAHLIA, from his own story; and THE UNSEEN.
  
  The story of DOUBLE INDEMNITY was inspired by the notorious Snyder-Gray murder that took place in Queens Village, New York, in the 1920s. Albert Snyder was bludgeoned to death by his wife, Ruth, and her lover, Judd Gray, in order to collect his insurance money.
• Woody Allen considers this to be the greatest movie ever made.

Cast and Crew: