1944 noir classicRating: 20/20
Plot: A horny insurance guy meets a dame (I think that's what they were called back then) with gams (I think that's what they were called back then) that don't quit and decides to help her kill her husband in order to impress her.
Sorry to tell you this, but if you don't like this movie, you just don't like movies. True, you could probably say that about every Fred MacMurray movie that doesn't involve him turning into a dog. I remember seeing this for the first
time after knowing MacMurray only for The Shaggy Dog and the Flubber movie and having no idea he could be this cool. I guess we can't give credit to MacMurray for these gems though:
"I couldn't hear my own footsteps. It was the walk of a dead man."
"How could I have known that murder could sometimes smell like honeysuckle?"
"I wanted to see her again. . .without the silly staircase between us."
No, Raymond Chandler gets credit for those. I'll give MacMurray credit and possibly a lifetime achievement award for the way he lights a match though. I dig everything about this movie, from title credits with the approaching shadowy figure to the Stanwyck's terrible wig. A slow-moving train, a hide behind a doorway, excessive perspiration, the A-ha look that Edward G. Robinson has in his eyes throughout the entire movie. Double Indemnity is probably the purest example of noir storytelling, all Venetian blinds and femme fatales and shadows, and although it's reportedly Ass Masterson's 7th favorite movie of all time, it's impossible not to see it as the classic that it is. jHe probably just likes it because none of the characters are happy at the end though. This picture of depravity, greed, and horniness is just perfection.
4 comments:
Exactly. This is one of my all-time favorite films that has it all. Dialogue, acting, plot, and the cinematography are all great, but above all is the constant tension and ominous mood that make it riveting. You are right. This film is way too cool for 1944. Also a 20.
RE: ominous mood
That's the right word. One of the cool things about this is how you know this guy is screwed from the get-go but that screwed-ness contrasts with the confidence he has.
RE: tension
Love the sexual tension, too. This is a raunchy movie for the 40s, even without showing any sex.
Great movie.....my second favorite Noir, just after The Maltese Falcon. I will add my own 20 to yours and Cory's.
need a re-watch.
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