It’s one of the iconic noirs, tightly scripted and luminously shot. Wilder composes Cains seemingly amoral characters into a late WW2 canvas, where the old rules of formality are barely holding together. After the horrors in Europe, here is a world where it’s dog eat dog, a Los Angeles that has dark, not sunny edges, so look sharp. He had difficulty casting the film, as there were not too many redeeming aspects to the leads as written, and effectively talked the two stars into playing against type. It’s a part of the films strength that he did.

Stanwyck was not a natural femme fatale, but a blonde wig with an attitude works wonders and at first sight she’s enough to tempt MacMurray to abandon any semblance of propriety and jump on board the train to nowhere.

Wilder starts the film at the end, with MacMurray’s Walter Neff working out how he got there, and then filling us and the Robinson character (Keyes) in on the way. Edward G is really the 3rd part of the love triangle, not Stanwycks oafish husband. He has real respect and regard for Walter, bordering on love, making his blindness to the ultimate betrayal even more keenly felt.
Walter has idlly daydreamed about the what ‘inside’ information could bring him, and the allure of Stanwycks’ Phyllis forces him to bump into the reality of stepping across the legal divide.

Keyes is sure of the dark heart of most men, weak men, and obviously doesn’t count Walter amongst their number. Keyes is a numbers man, he knows the odds inside out, in fact he wrote the book. Walter is smart enough to think he can beat the system if he puts his mind to it, even if Keyes, who he admires, is part of the system.

Double Indemnity is a film about blind spots. Walter has a blind spot with Phyllis, and it makes him uncertain enough to second guess his choices. Keyes has a blind spot with Walter, and overlooks him as a potential suspect. As the scheme unravels, Walters blind spot lifts and he doesn’t like what he sees, but he’s on that train, all the way to the end of the line.
Wilder shows us a man who thought he could beat the odds, an Adam to Stanwyck’s Eve. Walter gets what he has coming, and takes it like a man at last.

It’s an old story, but when told with wit and verve, it still has a powerful bite.