Product Description

A salesman & a blonde kill her husband & get away with it until the insurance investigator becomes obsessed with the case. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 08/22/2006 Starring: Fred Macmurray Edward G Robinson Run time: 107 minutes Rating: Nr

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7038 in DVD
• Brand: Universal Studios
• Released on: 2006-08-22
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Full Screen, Special Edition, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 107 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
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

On the DVD
If there's anything you ever wanted to know about Double Indemnity or film noir, you're likely to find it in these special features: two feature commentaries; an in-depth documentary; and an introduction by Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies to put the movie into context. Osborne's introduction of Indemnity, "by far one of the best film noir dramas ever made," succinctly sets the background, noting how many pieces of this delicate film puzzle almost never came together, and some of the issues will seem almost quaint to modern viewers (the producers had difficulty casting actors in 1944 who were willing to be in a movie with a plot centered on adultery and murder), which is key to understanding the edge this movie had upon its release. If you've never seen the movie before, you may want to watch the 37-minute documentary Shadows of Suspense first to pique your interest. Shadows does an excellent job of showing why and how noir came to be, and how Indemnity is at the vortex of that movement, illustrating the dramatic history of the film itself and the numerous obstacles that had to be overcome to get it onto the screen. "If I had one movie to explain to people what noir is, it's Double Indemnity" states author Eddie Muller at the start of Shadows. Muller also states that noir is Hollywood's only organic artistic movement, making Indemnity a movie that is a symbol of a watershed era in American film. The two commentary tracks-–the first by film historian Richard Schickel, the second by screenwriter Lem Dobbs and film historian Nick Redman together-–go in-depth beyond the points raised in Osborne's introduction to flesh out the characters in the movie, as well as the characters behind the scenes like director Billy Wilder and co-writer Raymond Chandler. Taken together, the two commentary tracks could make a decent film-school lecture session. The second disc contains the forgettable 1973 television movie version of Double Indemnity starring Richard Crenna and Samantha Eggar. This 75-minute long version may only be interesting as a comparison to the original, proving the old adage that "they just don't make 'em like they used to." --Daniel Vancini

Customer Reviews

A classic film but an appallingly bad DVD transfer.
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.

Great film, deplorable 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!

Univeral's math 1+0 = 2 DVD set....
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!