Product Details

• Actors: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Byron Barr, Porter Hall
• Directors: Billy Wilder
• Writers: Billy Wilder, James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler
• Producers: Buddy G. DeSylva, Joseph Sistrom
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: March 1, 1992
• Run Time: 107 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (185 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1558807780
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #148,291 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Director Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard) and writer Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep) adapted James M. Cain's hard-boiled novel into this wildly thrilling story of insurance man Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), who schemes the perfect murder with the beautiful dame Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck): kill Dietrichson's husband and make off with the insurance money. But, of course, in these plots things never quite go as planned, and Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) is the wily insurance investigator who must sort things out. From the opening scene you know Neff is doomed, as the story is told in flashback; yet, to the film's credit, this doesn't diminish any of the tension of the movie. This early film noir flick is wonderfully campy by today's standards, and the dialogue is snappy ("I thought you were smarter than the rest, Walter. But I was wrong. You're not smarter, just a little taller"), filled with lots of "dame"s and "baby"s. Stanwyck is the ultimate femme fatale, and MacMurray, despite a career largely defined by roles as a softy (notably in the TV series My Three Sons and the movie The Shaggy Dog), is convincingly cast against type as the hapless, love-struck sap. --Jenny Brown

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

198 of 216 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A classic film but an appallingly bad DVD transfer., October 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Double Indemnity (DVD)

Double Indemnity is obviously a classic film but this DVD transfer is appalling. Almost every scene is incredibly grainy, the source print is obviously not in very good conditon (perhaps needing to be refurbished), and to top it off, there are no deluxe features and the extra packaging is rather inadequate(with no information booklet or history of the movie).

This would be frustrating for any film but is downright shameful treatment of a cinema classic. We can only hope someone will spend the time and money necessary to restore the print for a new theater run, as has been done with other older films. Perhaps then, DVD buyers will get the version of this classic they deserve.

129 of 151 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Univeral's math 1+0 = 2 DVD set...., August 22, 2006

By 

Richardson "Clarence" (Sunny California USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Double Indemnity (Universal Legacy Series) (DVD)

this is a 5 star movie....
this review is of the NEW Universal 2 dvd set.

Typical of Universals crappy Deer Hunter 2 DVD set..we've got a classic movie....with extras that could easily fit on one DVD...but Universal tries to make this into a bigger "ticket" by stretching it out.
The movie....its a classic...I've got the original release on DVD. The EXTRAS are
1) an introduction by Robert Osborne, nothing special and watched once you'll be irritated having to see it again every time you hit PLAY..
2) commentary tracks by the usual suspects (including the king of bloat Richard Schickel) and Universal has two so they put two more extra features on their package for these..
3) a half hour film noir primer , that's been done better on the WB noir sets and again features the same film professors etc that we are growing all too familiar with.
4) a 1 hour and 15 minute TV version from the 70's starring Richard Crenna ...which is the ONLY feature on the second disc.

I'll give Universal a bit of credit...the film itself does seem a bit improved over the initial out of print release...but closer scrutiny of the two would be necessary and I've got a life so I'll leave that to others.

Bottom line....Universal is hard to figure out...they take some multiple classic titles and stuff em onto flipper DVDs (info on both sides) and crank em out cheap..ie the Brando,Wayne,Cooper,Lombard sets....and then they take other films and run the package to two discs for no other reason than to make it "seem" important and packed with extras. They use strange fat cases to make it seem like these are books full of goodies instead of space filling clear plastic...

I think I saw where Universal is now readying a THIRD wave of their classic Monster series on DVD...geez ,how many times do they want us to buy the same things? Can't they get it right the first or second time? I think its obvious that my frustration with Universals crappy DVD releases runs deep. Fortunately they don't have near the number of "must haves" that Warner Brothers (who are first class all the way in their releases , particularly legacy films)or MGM or Columbia have!

its a great movie....if you haven't seen it you are in for a rare treat!

47 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great film, deplorable DVD, February 28, 2000

By 

Drew Vogel (Collingswood, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Double Indemnity (DVD)

What a tremendous film! It's just wonderful. Especially Edward G. Robinson. Sadly, it's a bit dated (much of the dialogue looks rather campy by today's standards), but the plot hasn't aged a day. It's still a tense and enthralling film noir masterpiece.

It's a pity the DVD is so very poor. It's really awful. I can't stress this enough. It's very grainy, there are no bonus features at all, and there's no liner notes at all. Extremely shoddy treatment of such a wonderful film. I'd like to see a special edition of this film produced as soon as possible, and done right!