Double Indemnity - AI COLORIZED - Film Noir - Starring Barbara Stanwyck & Fred MacMurray

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IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a restored and creatively edited remaster of the original film, it has been colorized, upscaled, tone and color graded, denoised and image sharpened by AFLIX using proprietary technologies and software systems, therefore AFLIX holds all intellectual property over this version. Consequently, it cannot be shared, copied or distributed without ALFIX agreement and permission.

Double Indemnity is a 1944 American film noir directed by Billy Wilder and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. Wilder and Raymond Chandler adapted the screenplay from James M. Cain's novel of the same name, which ran as an eight-part serial in Liberty magazine in 1936.

The film stars Fred MacMurray as insurance salesman Walter Neff, who plots with a woman (Barbara Stanwyck) to kill her husband in order to claim a life insurance payment, arousing the suspicion of claims manager Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson). The title refers to a "double indemnity" clause which doubles life insurance payouts when death occurs in a statistically rare manner.

The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards. Widely regarded as a classic, it is often cited as having set the standard for film noir and as one of the greatest films of all time.

Plot

Fred MacMurray as Walter Neff and Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson
Wounded from a gunshot, insurance salesman Walter Neff stumbles into his Los Angeles office. He records a dictaphone confession for claims manager Barton Keyes.

One year earlier, Neff flirts with Phyllis Dietrichson during a house call about her husband's automobile insurance. Phyllis asks about getting a policy on Mr. Dietrichson's life without his knowledge; deducing that she is contemplating murder, Neff wants no part of it but is fascinated with her. Later, Phyllis visits his apartment, where he concocts a plan to make Dietrichson sign a life insurance policy without realizing it, murder him, and frame it as an accident in order to trigger the policy's double indemnity clause.

Neff has Dietrichson sign the policy by convincing him that it is a copy of his automotive insurance renewal, but Dietrichson unexpectedly breaks his leg before the murder can take place, delaying the scheme. Neff hides in the back seat of Phyllis' car while she drives Dietrichson to a train station. Neff breaks his neck and boards the train posing as the crippled Dietrichson. He jumps off the back of the train at a pre-arranged spot, where Phyllis helps him pose Dietrichson's body on the tracks.

Neff's boss believes the death was a suicide. Keyes scoffs at the idea, which he considers statistically implausible, but does find it strange that Dietrichson did not file a claim after breaking his leg. He begins to suspect that Phyllis and an accomplice had him murdered. Reasoning that Dietrichson was not aware of the policy due to his not filing a claim on the broken leg, the company refuses to pay out. Meanwhile, Phyllis' stepdaughter Lola befriends Neff. She tells him that she saw Phyllis trying on mourning clothes several days before Dietrichson's death, and that she also suspects that Phyllis had killed her mother in order to marry Dietrichson. She now fears that Phyllis plans to kill her next.

Keyes finds a witness who says that the man he saw on the train was not Dietrichson. Neff warns Phyllis that pursuing the insurance claim in court risks exposing the murder, and insists that they should not see each other until the investigation ends. Neff learns that Nino, Lola's ex-boyfriend, has been visiting Phyllis every night since the murder, and that Keyes suspects Nino of being her accomplice. Fearing for Lola's life, Neff goes to confront Phyllis.

Neff tells Phyllis that he suspects her plan was to manipulate Nino into murdering Lola, and threatens to kill her. Phyllis shoots him, but when he comes closer and dares her to shoot again, she does not; she says that she never loved him "until a minute ago, when I couldn't fire that second shot." As they embrace, Neff shoots her twice with her gun. As Neff leaves, he sees Nino walk up to the house; he convinces him to call Lola and make up with her.

Neff finishes recording his confession and looks up to see Keyes watching him. Telling Keyes that he plans to flee to Mexico, he walks out of the office but collapses in the doorway. Keyes calls for an ambulance and the police, and the two wait for them to arrive.

Cast
Fred MacMurray as Walter Neff
Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson
Edward G. Robinson as Barton Keyes
Porter Hall as Jackson
Jean Heather as Lola Dietrichson
Tom Powers as Dietrichson
Byron Barr as Nino Zachetti
Richard Gaines as Norton
Fortunio Bonanova as Sam Gorlopis, truck driver
John Philliber as Joe Pete, elevator operator

Uncredited
Raymond Chandler as man reading outside Keyes' office as Neff exits
Bess Flowers as Norton's secretary
Betty Farrington as Nettie, Dietrichson's maid
Teala Loring as Pacific All-Risk Insurance telephone operator
Sam McDaniel as Charlie, Garage Attendant
Miriam Nelson as Keyes' secretary
Douglas Spencer as Lou Schwartz, Neff's office mate
Norma Varden as the secretary who lets Mrs Dietrich into the insurance office