Product Details

• Actors: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
• Directors: Billy Wilder
• Producers: Joseph Sistrom
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MCA Home video, Inc.
• Run Time: 107 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000J5M9SW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #420,424 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Murder's never perfect, usually comes apart at the seams sooner or later and when two people are involved it's usually sooner.", September 21, 2010

By 

Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Double Indemnity, Gene Shalit's Critic's Choice, Black & White (VHS Tape)

MCA's Gene Shalit series videotapes are fine quality full screen dubs recorded in SP mode that have a clean HiFi soundtrack.


As adapted by Raymond Chandler and Billy Wider from James M. Cain's serialized 1935 novella which was based on the Ruth Snyder case, DOUBLE INDEMNITY was nominated for seven Oscars. (Snyder and her lover were found guilty. A famous candid photo of Snyder's 1928 electrocution appeared in the NY Daily News.)

Chandler's simile and adjective-laden flashback narration lends a period feel here, more so than costumes and automobiles. (Cameo: the author is seen reading a paperback at the insurance co. office.)

In a textbook film noir ably directed by Wilder, insurance man Walter Neff (MacMurray), for the love of unhappily married Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck), eliminates her huband (Powers) by committing what he thinks is the perfect murder. But soon after the inquest results in a suicide ruling, Walter's boss, actuarial expert Barton Keyes (Robinson), figures out to the last detail how and why the crime was committed. The only unsolved detail: *who* helped Phyllis kill Mr. D. for a hundred grand payoff on a two-week-old accident policy the deceased had no idea even existed.

Despite occasionally corny dialogue and Stanwyck's gosh-awful George Washington fright wig, "Double Indemnity" is the sort of film that stands up well to repeated viewings. Most highly recommended!


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(8.6) Double Indemnity (1944) - Fred MacMurray/Barbara Stanwyck/Edward G. Robinson/Porter Hall/Jean Heather/Tom Powers/Byron Barr