Double Indemnity (1973) (TV)

Director:

Jack Smight

Writers:

James M. Cain (novel)
Raymond Chandler (1944 screenplay) ...

Release Date:

13 October 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Thriller | Drama

Plot:

A scheming wife lures an insurance investigator into helping murder her husband and then declare it an accident. The investigator's boss, not knowing his man is involved in it, suspects murder and sets out to prove it.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Investigator | Insurance | Cuckolded Husband | Train

Cast

Richard Crenna	...	Walter Neff
Lee J. Cobb	...	Barton Keyes
Samantha Eggar	...	Phyllis Dietrickson
Robert Webber	...	Edward Norton
Arch Johnson	...	Dietrickson
Kathleen Cody	...	Lola Dietrickson
John Fiedler	...	Jackson
John Elerick	...	Donald Franklin
Gene Dynarski	...	Sam Bonventura
Joan Pringle	...	Neff's Secretary
Ken Renard	...	Porter
Arnold F. Turner	...	Redcap
Rand Brooks	...	Conductor
Joyce Cunning	...	Norton's Secretary
Tom Curtis	...	Charlie

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Groverton Productions

Movie Connections:

Version of Eruption (1977)

Not Horrible, But The Original Is Still Far Better

It was hard to watch this film and be totally fair and objective since I am a big fan the original 1944 movie. That, to me and many others, is one of the greatest film noirs ever made. Realizing this is simply a shortened made-for-TV film and that most people had trashed it, I didn't expect much, but you can't help but compare this with the '44 film. Scene after scene, I found myself comparing what I was looking at it, and remembering how it played out with Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson and others. Now I was seeing these famous actors playing their famous roles replaced by Richard Crenna, Samantha Eggar and Lee J. Cobb.

When it was all over, I found it wasn't as bad as I had expected but it's no match for the 1944 original. The two main areas in which this made-for-TV film wasn't as good were (1) the electricity between the two leads was missing and (2) being only 90 minutes, they rushed the story with hardly time to develop the plot, characters and chemistry between those leads. Crenna and Eggar were flat, and simply no match for MacMurray and Stanwyck as "Walter Neff" and "Phyllis Dietrichson," respectively.

Where this re-make held its own was in the other characters, such as "Barton Keyes" and "Edward Norton." Cobb was terrific as Keyes and Robert Webber as Norton, head of the insurance company. It also was somewhat interesting to see the time frame changed, so the houses, cars, telephones, dictating machines, etc., were all early '70s instead of mid '40s. Otherwise, the storyline was very similar, just rushed.

However, one viewing was enough and I will happily go back to the original version for the rest of my viewings of this classic story and film.