Double Indemnity

Double Indemnity is a 1944 film noir It stars Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson. The movie was adapted by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler from the novella Three of a Kind by James M. Cain that first appeared in 1935 in abridged, 8-part serial form in Liberty Magazine. It was directed by Wilder. The story was based on a 1927 crime perpetrated by a married Queens woman and her lover. Ruth (Brown) Snyder persuaded her boyfriend to kill her husband, after having her spouse take out a big insurance policy - with a double-indemnity clause. The murderers were quickly identified and arrested. 1

Plot

The film tells the story of an insurance salesman (MacMurray) who finds himself entwined in a plot to kill a woman's husband. A tenacious investigator (Robinson) thinks it's foul play and may suspect his co-worker and the recently widowed femme fatale.

Related Topics:
Insurance - Femme fatale

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The title of the film is a reference to a frequently-found provision in many life insurance policies in which an amount twice the amount which would normally be paid to the beneficiary becomes payable in the event of the accidental death of the insured. An alternate ending was shot for the film (to appease censors) featuring killer MacMurray going to the electric chair. This footage is lost but stills of the scene still exist.

Related Topics:
Life insurance - Accident

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