Edward G Robinson is perhaps the best movie star ever !

One of the masterful grand daddies of Film Noir. The first of many great masterpieces to follow from one of Hollywood's greatest talents, Billy Wilder. This film became a blue-print for many new fresh ideas in Hollywood film making. The script was written by Wilder & Raymond Chandler & crackled with sharp double on-tundra quips deliciously delivered by both the lead actors Fred MacMurray & Barbara Stanwyck. As the story goes no one else wanted to play the roles in this seedy morally corrupt caper. But as fate would have it both Stanwyck & MacMurray were perfect for the parts & did some of their very best work on screen. I would also be remiss in not mentioning the great Edward G. Robinson's performance as Keyes, the claims manager who is the detective in this noir classic. What is really fascinating is the uniquely nuanced relationships amongst the leads. Particularly Robinson's & MacMurrays characters who clearly respect & care very much for one another. Perhaps they love each other as colleagues & friends. And what is the real story between Stanwyck's & MacMurray? Do they love each other? It seems not, right up to the final scene when thay are together. We never will really know. Brilliant stuff! Along with the legendary photography of one John Seitz who really developed the noir style with this picture. With it's high contrast scenes, to it's sharp edged shadows & interesting angles & composition Seitz helped create a look that is a classic & has been copied countless times in films to follow. The film is unique & brilliant in it's detail. It's brilliant in its cold characters, it's more realistic portrayal of the personal frailties & greed of our species. It stripped back the layers of naivety & reveled a much more cynical & raw realism that was certainly cutting edge when the film was released to an appreciative audience in 1944. Like many of the great films one viewing is not enough to fully appreciate this films brilliance & artistry. Double indemnity is surely one of the great Hollywood films of all time.

(Two disc set) ** (1944) Billy Wilder's (and Raymond Chandler's) noir masterpiece, based on James M. Cain's pulp novel, that epitomizes the genre (and effectively then legitimized it from its previously seedy reputation). The likeable Fred MacMurray (he had a 'good' face) is razor sharp, cool as a cucumber... (I counted 28 "baby"s from him! lol). Barbara Stanwyck's femme fatale, and her far-away eyes, is hypnotic, sultry... (except for that straw hat on her head that was supposed to be a wig). Edward G. Robinson was on fire as the omnipotent (obsessive/compulsive) insurance claims manager, delivering rapid fire debate. Devious scheming/double crossing; malevolent lighting/photography/score... "Perfect. Straight down the line." FIVE STARS. ** (1973) A Steven Bochco made for TV remake. Atrocious. Un-stylized, run of the mill, tele-crap. An insult to the original. You 'botched' it, Mr. Bochco.

Very well done movie I would recommend this movie for all to see. No fast forwarding on this one.

Double Indemnity, one of the best film noirs ever made, received seven Oscars - Stanwyck, best actress; Billy Wilder, best director, and Miklos Rozsa, music. Look at how Wilder uses the venetian blind shadows to imprison Stanwyck and MacMurray as Edward G. Robinson closes in on them and their little murder plot. Are the stripes prison bars or are they the stripes of their prison outfits? If you like MacMurray as a bad guy, see also "The Caine Mutiny."

Somehow I've never seen this until now (and no, I don't know how either). Great stuff with more twists than an early-'60s sock hop! Fred McMurray and Barbara Stanwyck as you've *never* seen them before or since. Some claim it's the best work they ever did, some claim it's the best noir ever done; I'd claim lack of knowledge on the former and a difference of opinion on the latter. Still, pretty awesome and honestly little way of knowing a-forehand how it'll all finish up.

An all time classic, what more need be said? Apart from the leads, Edward G. Robinson deserves high praise for his pitch-perfect performance as the claims manager, Keyes.

I strongly recommend 'Body Heat', with Kathleen Turner and William Hurt, as a contemporary counterpart to this. The remade version of this, included in the disc pack, is inferior and almost unwatchable.

If you can get over the dad from "My Three Sons" being a bad-guy, it's a pretty good flick.

When insurance man, Walter Neff mets with sunbathing beauty Phyllis Dietrichson he can't keep his eyes or his hands off of her. But she turns out to be a real man eater in a movie that grabs you from the first scene. And with Edward G. Robinson as Neff's boss, you are sure to be totally entralled with a story of greed and murder.