Double Indemnity

Name: Double Indemnity
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Film-Noir
Released: July 6, 1944
Duration: 107 min
Rating: 95
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Byron Barr, Edward G. Robinson, Fortunio Bonanova, Fred MacMurray

1944

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Universal acclaim based on 18 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 73 Ratings

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8.6

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8.6	User Score Universal acclaim based on 73 Ratings

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Double Indemnity

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Movie Details & Credits

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: July 6, 1944 | Passed

Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Byron Barr, Edward G. Robinson, Fortunio Bonanova, Fred MacMurray, Jean Heather, John Philliber, Porter Hall, Richard Gaines, Tom Powers

Summary: An insurance representative lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions.

Director: Billy Wilder

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Film-Noir

Rating: Passed

Runtime: 107 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Michael Sragow

Double Indemnity is full of tense, gritty pleasures, including one of Robinson's strongest bulldog-style turns. But Stanwyck holds the brassy key to its success. She was that Hollywood rarity -- a thoroughly unsentimental big star. Read full review

100

Staff (Not Credited)

Double Indemnity is the season's nattiest, nastiest, most satisfying melodrama. Read full review

100

Pauline Kael

This shrewd, smoothly tawdry thriller, directed by Billy Wilder, is one of the high points of nineteen-forties films. Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis Dietrichson—a platinum blonde who wears tight white sweaters, an anklet, and sleazy-kinky shoes—is perhaps the best acted and the most fixating of all the slutty, cold-blooded femmes fatales of the film-noir genre. Read full review

100

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

Both a starkly realistic and a carefully stylized masterpiece of murder. Read full review

100

The Guardian Paul Howlett

I love Double Indemnity because it's about a couple who are cheap and greedy, but achieve a kind of tragic heroism; because it has one of the great father-son relationships (although they aren't actually father and son); because it's a thoroughly cynical thriller redeemed by just a fading touch of romance. And it also has a trio of superb performances. Read full review

100

The Telegraph Marc Lee

Film noir is the most intoxicating of Hollywood cocktails, and none is more potent than Double Indemnity...It breaks the rules of filmmaking with breathtaking confidence and is all the more satisfying for Read full review

Bosley Crowther

Such folks as delight in murder stories for their academic elegance alone should find this one steadily diverting, despite its monotonous pace and length...But the very toughness of the picture is also the weakness of its core, and the academic nature of its plotting limits its general appeal. Read full review

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CriticalExtra

Jul 21, 2018

Absolutely astonishing quality of script, direction, production values and some astronomical central acting from Stanwyck, who chews up the sets and her scenes with such skill and professional gravitas that she seems to lamp out of the screen at you, leaving you transfixed, mesmerised andAbsolutely astonishing quality of script, direction, production values and some astronomical central acting from Stanwyck, who chews up the sets and her scenes with such skill and professional gravitas that she seems to lamp out of the screen at you, leaving you transfixed, mesmerised and deeply impressed.
This gem of a noir movie is groundbreaking, with a cut to the marrow script and the actors locking on to the central plot like they had lived it for real. This is the very best any movie can get - any genre. I defy anyone to compare it to any other noir movie ever made. Simply sublime perfection and definitely right up there in the top ten best movies ever made.
Highly Recommended.… Expand