DOUBLE INDEMNITY

US, 1973, 75 minutes, Colour.
Richard Crenna, Lee J. Cobb, Samantha Eggar, Robert Webber.
Directed by Jack Smight.

There was a bad situation in Hollywood in the 1970s – for Universal Studios and others to remake classic films in about seventy-five minutes (there had also been an even worse habit in the 1950s when classic films were made in a screenplay for under an hour in black and white).

Double Indemnity is one of the classic thrillers of all time. It was based on James M. Cain’s novel and a screenplay by Raymond Chandler. It was directed by Billy Wilder, had one of the best performances by Fred MacMurray? and a great performance by Barbara Stanwyck as a femme fatale. Edward G. Robinson was the investigator.

This time Richard Crenna is effective enough as Walter Neff. Lee J. Cobb is a good investigator. Samantha Eggar is glamorous but is limited as the femme fatale.

The film is the classic of marital betrayal, the femme fatale using the salesman in order to achieve her own ends and get insurance for his death.

The film was directed by Jack Smight who directed a number of television films, although he did have some success with big-screen films like Harper and No Way to Treat a Lady.

1. The quality of the film as a television movie, a re-make of a classic? Its treatment of the classic plot and impact?

2. How interesting as a character study,. crime drama?

3. The importance of the structure; the flashbacks, the tapes, the return to the narration, the build-up of momentum towards resolution, suspense?

4. The portrait of the salesman in himself, at work, the flaw in his character that was corruptible, his wife, attitude towards sexuality, attraction to his client, their playing psychologically with each other, his going back, his knowledge to be in the plan and its execution? Overreaching himself? Was he an evil man? Did he become evil?

5. The evil in the wife, her initial impact, the sexual attraction, her powers of persuasion and the irony of her using him? At her death? An evil and calculating woman?

6. Her husband: how murderable? Her stepdaughter? The irony of the boy friend and his involvement in the plan? His sequences with the stepdaughter?

7. The background of the policy, the implication of a double indemnity, the trick signing, the husband breaking the leg?

8. The portrayal of the crime in its detail, atmosphere, skill and ease in execution? Witnesses?

9. The melodrama of the cover-up, each playing, the part? The irony of the stepdaughter and the exposure of the truth?

10. The revelation of the double cross, the final confrontation and mutual shooting?

11. The background of the boss and his understanding, his hopes for his successor, his backing up the salesman, disappointment and disillusionment?

12. The impact of the final deaths? Themes of evil, greed, corruptibility, selfishness? The kind of society in which this can breed?