Adapted from the James M. Cain novel, Double Indemnity stands as a film noir classic without peer: a tense and chilling mixture of seduction, vanity, greed and murder. It tells the story of Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), a greedy and gullible insurance salesman lured into a murder-for-insurance plot by seductive femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck). The murder goes as planned, but after the couple's passion cools, each becomes suspicious of the other's motives. The veteran leads give sterling performances, and Wilder's cynical sensibility finds a perfect match in the story's unsentimental perspective.

A new print c/o bfi.