US CRIME CLASSICS
James M. Cain
DOUBLE INDEMNITY (Paramount, 1944). Directed by Billy Wilder. Screenplay by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, from the novel of the same name by James M. Cain. With Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall, Jean Heather, Tom Powers. (107 min, black & white, 35mm print from the BBC Archives Collection).
An insurance salesman is lured into a murder plot by an attractive client. Based on a novel by one hard-boiled author (Cain) and co-written by another (Chandler), this classic film noir has it all: crackling dialogue, a femme fatale (Barbara Stanwyck at her most alluring) weaving her web around a gullible male, doom-laden narration, a clever flashback structure, and superb black & white cinematography emphasizing a claustrophobic ambiance in which the two main characters “have to go on riding together clear to the end of the line.” Double Indemnity is a virtual textbook of the noir style and has been repeatedly included in lists of 100 greatest movies of all time. Selected for the National Film Registry in 1992.
Seating is on a first-come first-serve basis. Doors open at 6:30 pm.