DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)

"I couldn't hear my own footsteps.  It was the walk of a dead man."

Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) has a pretty swell life.  He has a cush job as an insurance salesman (semiannual sales record..twice in a row!), he has a cozy apartment and a nice car.  Then his life is turned completely upside-down when he's introduced to Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck).  An outwardly beautiful woman with the soul of a bull shark.  From the very second they lay eyes on each other, it's fireworks!  I love that first scene with them alone together.  There's so much rapid fire double entendres and shit-talking going back and forth, that I couldn't do anything but sit there grinning like a fool, jealous of the brilliant dialogue written by screenwriters Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler.

Anyway, without him even knowing it, from that very first meeting, Phyllis has her claws sunk into Walter's soul and he's doomed.  He tries to play it cool, but then, when she finally admits that she not only wants his help in murdering her husband, but in also setting up an expensive accident insurance policy on him, Walter topples like a house of cards.  He sacrifices his entire life over some sex...but then again, isn't that the short history of humanity?

DOUBLE INDEMNITY is considered a landmark in American cinema and justifiably so.  At the time it came out, there was pretty much nothing like it in regards to the way it looked (darkness everywhere; dust in the air; the shadows of the Venetian blinds going across Walter to look like prison bars, etc.) and the absolute sordid behavior of the lead characters, especially Phyllis Dietrichson.  She's evil through and through.  Just look at her face while her husband is being brutally murdered.  That subtle look of gratification that goes beyond sexual pleasure and into malevolence is extremely disturbing.  And that's really saying a lot about the acting abilities of Barbara Stanwyck (at least to me, because I think that she is the most beautiful woman to ever grace the silver screen).  She's gorgeous, but at the same time completely repulsive.

Fast pace, venomous dialogue, perfect acting, interesting Los Angeles locations, deep shadows, psychosexual themes, costume design by Edith Head, a Raymond Chandler sighting, extremely influential photography that is still being copied today.  Plus...it has the immortal line "They know more tricks than a carload of monkeys." Holy shit!  Hahaha!

I could go on for hours about DOUBLE INDEMNITY, but I'll just cut it short and say that it is required viewing by every classic movie fan.

Fun fact: Edward G. Robinson was was the original singer for Alice in Chain's song "Rooster". "You know he ain't gonna die...yeah, seeeeeee!" True story.

Raymond Chandler (seated)

THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955)

Publishing executive Tom Ewell has a very active imagination.  So when his wife and kid go on a summer vacation, leaving him in NYC as a "summer bachelor" his imagination goes wild thinking about all of the woman who are just dying at the chance to sleep with him.  His mind then goes into ludicrous speed when perky Marilyn Monroe moves in upstairs.  Can't really say that I blame him though cause Marilyn is about as adorable, cute and sexy as I can ever remember seeing her.

THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH could have gone all kinds of directions, but since this was 1955 it goes the safe route and ends up being kinda disappointing.  Writer/Director Billy Wilder later called the film "a nothing picture" because of the censorship that prevented him from having Ewell's character sleeping with Marilyn, but I still like it.  Yeah, if it would have been made a decade later the subject of adultery wouldn't have been forbidden, but it wouldn't have featured Marilyn either.  And Marilyn is, far and away, the highlight of this movie.  Sadly though she doesn't have near the screentime that Ewell does.  His overactive imagination is humorous, but after a while it starts to wear thin.

Multiple fantasy scenes, 50's fashions, Robert Strauss cheesing it up as usual, Donald MacBride yelling the word "hootenanny", Morticia Addams dressed up as a horny nurse, references to RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and a small reference to homosexuals ("...and two guys on the top, interior decorators or something.") that somehow slipped through the cracks.  Worth a watch for classic movie fans and if you happen to get bored during the non-Marilyn scenes you can pass the time trying to figure out where little Ricky's bedroom is in that cramped apartment.