Sunday 2 May 2010

(500) Films of Empire - Day 228

133 - Double Indemnity - 5 stars
The pinnacle of the film noir genre in my humble opinion.
Lauren Bacall might smoulder more but no one can beat Barbara Stanwyck to the title of Queen Femme Fatale. She is flirtatious, manipulative and bad to the bone.
She wraps insurance salesman Fred MacMurray around her little finger in a plot to knock off her husband and collect on his life insurance. Their scheme starts to unravel due to MacMurray's boss, a scene-stealing Edward G. Robinson.
Powered by some razor-sharp dialogue, it is a testament to the script by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, told through a flashback confession, that even right at the end I wasn't exactly sure how it would all turn out.
A must see when we screen it at The Belmont this June.

Days remaining - 137 Films remaining - 166

No comments:

Post a Comment