I reread it for our series over the course of a few train commutes - it pulls you in and doesn’t let go. I’m here to tell you that this is the first truly noir read so far in the series, and if you were to only read one - though of course you’re reading them all - make it this one. Its plot, theme, setting, performances, dialogue, cinematography and mise en scene have become a template of a specific kind of noir that might be the most noir kind of noir: a scoundrel of a guy falls for a bored, depraved wife and helps her deal with a husband problem.īut as iconic a film as it is, most people who’ve seen the movie haven’t read the story, which is a shame. At or near the top of everyone’s 10 best list, it’s probably the most beloved, satirizedand analyzed noir. If you were asked to name just one classic film noir, you’d be likely to name this one. I’ll be writing about the latter in my next blog entry, but the focus here is on “Double Indemnity.” The screenplay of the 1944 film version was co-written by director Billy Wilder and crime fiction writer Raymond Chandler, whose novel “Farewell My Lovely” was also adapted for the screen in 1944 as “Murder My Sweet,” the second film in our May double feature. Cain’s 1943 novel is an oasis of artful, stylistic, suspenseful, funny entertainment that is also as heated and bleak as the desert. Not a bad place to write about “Double Indemnity,” the book adapted for the first of our two May films in the ongoing Noir on the Boulevard series.

You should come out here next May because in a single weekend you can see a dozen films - often rarities courtesy of major studio archives - and spend the rest of the time pretending you’re William Holden at the beginning of “Sunset Boulevard.” In its 18th year, it’s my favorite of the Film Noir Foundation fests. This one comes to you from The Stardust Motel in Palm Springs, California, where I’ve been emerging daily from the darkness of the Arthur Lyons Palm Springs Film Noir Festival into the blazing sunshine - a contrast as stark as the photography that gives so many noir films their expressionistic, moody quality.

Double indemnity novel