Double Indemnity

The great advantage of consuming films in the privacy of my own home is that I only watch what catches my imagination, often meaning those films that come recommended by those I respect.

Film noir is a genre I like. Back in the day I wrote an essay on film noir that attracted (by a not inconsiderable margin) the lowest mark of my undergraduate efforts. I still hold to the view that I was done down but there is little academic support for this opinion. Oh well, I've got over it. Just.

Double Indemnity is an exemplar of the noir species. Shadows and cigarette smoke envelop the pervasive immorality. Barbara Stanwyck is alluringly evil, and she is closely followed in the acting stakes by Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson. The crackling script is by director Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler - the latter, I never tire of telling people, an alumnus of the same school as P.G. Wodehouse. They must have had some bloody good teachers at Dulwich College.

This is a genuinely great and engrossing film - 9/10.