Author: thehorsesheadblog

#506) 7^th Heaven (1927)

OR “The One Without Jessica Biel”

Directed by Frank Borzage

Written by Benjamin Glazer and Katherine Hilliker & H.H. Caldwell. Based on the play by Austin Strong.

Class of 1995

The Plot: In the streets of Paris 1914, down on his luck sewer worker Chico (Charles Farrell) has a chance meeting with Diane (Janet Gaynor), a prostitute running from her abusive sister Nana (Gladys Brockwell). When the police try to arrest Diane, Chico intervenes, claiming she is his wife. To keep up the facade, Diane moves into Chico’s apartment, a seventh story loft closer to the stars than the streets (we almost have a title!). What starts as a temporary arrangement becomes more permanent when Chico and Diane begin to fall for each other. But with the outbreak of the Great War, their newfound love is put to the test.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up offers no superlatives, but does give a rundown of the film’s historical significance. An essay by Fox expert Aubrey Solomon is much more supportive of the film’s artistic triumphs.

But Does It Really?: This is another “minor classic” for the NFR: “7^th Heaven” isn’t the most iconic silent film (it’s not even Janet Gaynor’s best known film from that year), but it holds up well, and gets enough mention among film buffs to get eventual NFR recognition. No argument here for the inclusion of “7^th Heaven”, but I’m not singing its praises either.

Seriously, Oscars?: “7^th Heaven” was released in 1927, therefore making it eleigible for the very first Academy Awards. When the nominations were announced, “7^th Heaven” received a record-breaking five nominations, and went on to win three: Director, Screenplay, and Actress for Janet Gaynor (along with her performance in “Street Angel” and “Sunrise”). Recalling the event years later, Gaynor admitted that while she was thrilled to receive the first Best Actress prize, the Oscars didn’t have the pedigree it does now, and she was more excited to meet Academy president Douglas Fairbanks than to win the award.

Other notes 

• There’s a bit of confusion with the exact spelling of the title. The original 1922 play spells out “Seventh Heaven”, but the film uses the number “7^th Heaven”. Various write-ups over the years use either spelling interchangeably.
• “7^th Heaven” was initially released in May 1927 as a silent film, but when synchronized sound started to become popular, Fox re-released the film in September with a new score and sound effects. This version hit theaters in September 1927, one month before “The Jazz Singer“.
• The new soundtrack includes the song “Diane”, written Erno Rapee and Lew Pollack, which becomes a leitmotif throughout the movie. The song is performed by opera singer Zari Elmassian, making her quite possibly the first woman to be heard in a sound picture.

• “7^th Heaven” was a gamble for Fox Films. In addition to being an expensive film based on a highly-sought after stage property (Mary Pickford attempted to by the rights as well), both of the leads were virtual unknowns. Charles Farrell only had a few credits in small parts prior to being cast as Chico, and while Janet Gaynor had already filmed “Sunrise”, it hadn’t been released yet, so Fox was banking on her untested box office appeal.
• I feel like we lost some artistry when silent pictures started talking. With the silent films I’ve covered on this list, the ones made at the end of the era take the most artistic leaps, resulting in them being more visually appealing and therefore more likely to age well. Once synchronized sound arrived, movies focused on dialogue and music (naturally), and the camera became static. There’s always a few exceptions, but I feel like movies spent most of the ’30s being products, with the artistry taking a backseat.
• The meet-cute of Chico and Diane is important, but is also very reliant on intertitles to preserve much of the play’s dialogue. It’s hard to monologue in a silent film. Also: Chico must have read my notes on repeating your catchphrase throughout your movie, because he keeps referring to himself as “a very remarkable fellow”. Not exactly “Do you feel lucky, punk?“

• Wow, Chico is all over the place. First he has the impulsive idea to pass off Diane as his wife, then makes her feel bad for his decision, then Diane has the idea of staying at his place, and Chico worries that she’ll “take advantage” of him. Pick a lane, Chico!
• Shoutout to cinematographers Ernest Palmer and Joseph A. Valentine (as well as Art Director Harry Oliver) for the impressive shot of the camera following Chico and Diane up the seven flights of stairs to get to his apartment. In a movie that retains too much dialogue, this shot is a visually stunning change of pace.
• I love that the only French any of these Parisians seem to know is “Bon Dieu”.
• Much like Borzage’s previous film “Humoresque“, “7^th Heaven” is an unapologetic melodrama that takes a second act turn and becomes a war movie. The man had a niche.
• Keep in mind that “7^th Heaven” was released only nine years after the end of World War I, so it was still very fresh in people’s minds. It was definitely on Hollywood’s mind; we get this movie the same year as “Wings“, and we’re only a few years away from “All Quiet on the Western Front“. The Great War may have been the first surefire Oscar trope.
• Diane and Chico communicate to each other via film dissolves every day at 11am. It looks like Darth Vader trying to contact Luke at the end of “Empire Strikes Back“.
• [Spoilers] Chico died as he lived: spouting his stupid catchphrase.
• [Actual Spoiler] Turns out this movie has a death fake-out worthy of J.J. Abrams. Chico doesn’t die, but returns home blinded from the war. Ironically, it’s only after the blinding that the self-professed atheist sees the light.

Legacy 

• “7^th Heaven” was a huge success, and helped put Fox Film on the map. Shortly after the stock market crash of 1929, the studio received new management, and shortly thereafter merged with Twentieth-Century Pictures to become…a future Disney property.
• Fox continued to pair Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell together in 11 more movies over the next seven years, including a remake of Mary Pickford’s “Tess of the Storm Country”.

• The song “Diane” became a standard that has been covered many times over the years.

• “7^th Heaven” received a sound remake in 1937 starring Simone Simon and James Stewart. But if you want to talk about remakes, look no further than this 1951 episode of Lux Radio Theatre that reunites Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell!

#505) Louisiana Story (1948)

OR “How’s Bayou?”

Directed by Robert J. Flaherty

Written by Robert & Frances H. Flaherty

Class of 1994 

The Plot: After passing off staged footage of the Canadian Arctic as the real thing in “Nanook of the North“, Robert Flaherty returns to give the Louisiana bayou the docu-drama treatment in “Louisiana Story”. While mostly a slice of life about a boy (Joseph Boudreaux) and his pet raccoon, “Louisiana” has an extended subplot about an oil company that builds a rig near the boy’s home. This should mean danger, but it turns out everyone who works on the rig is just the nicest, and the rig itself is a boon to the whole community. Brought to you by your friends at Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey, with no ulterior motives whatsoever.

Why It Matters: The NFR’s write-up is mostly a run-down of the film and its backstory, but does single out the “beautiful and stirring images” Flaherty creates from the “extended nature sequences”.

But Does It Really?: Although Robert Flaherty’s title as “Father of the Documentary” is a bit misleading, his work is definitely worth preserving. Made a quarter century after “Nanook”, “Louisiana Story” is a more evolved version of the man vs. nature story (boy vs. nature?), as well as an important document about a certain era of bayou country that was dying out. A yes for NFR inclusion, but I will admit that “Louisiana Story” may be another one reserved just for film buffs.

Everybody Gets One: Like her husband, Frances Hubbard Flaherty was an artist in her own right. Frances met Robert while she was studying music and poetry at Bryn Mawr, and Robert was working for her father Lucius. Mr. Hubbard disapproved of the relationship, and while the couple had a rocky beginning, they eventually married in 1914. Frances collaborated with Robert on all of his films, “Louisiana” being one of the few in which her contribution is credited.

Wow, That’s Dated: If nothing else, this movie captures a culture that was on its way out; a Cajun culture that, while susceptible to “backwoods” stereotypes, didn’t rely on new technology, or the economy an oil rig ushered into this community.

Seriously, Oscars?: “Louisiana Story” managed to get an Oscar nomination for, appropriately enough, Best Writing, Motion Picture Story. The Flahertys lost the category to post-war drama “The Search”. The film did, however, win the very first BAFTA for Best Documentary, and Virgil Thompson won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his score. To date, Thompson’s is the only film score to win a Pulitzer.

Other notes 

• “Louisiana Story” came to be when Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey commissioned Robert and Frances Flaherty to make a film for them. Standard Oil gave the Flahertys $200,000 with the condition that the film present oil companies as “honest”, “amiable”, “productive and innocuous”. The Flahertys agreed to make the movie on their condition that they receive total creative control, and that all profit went to them, and not Standard Oil.
• The Flahertys spent 14 months in Louisiana’s Petite Anse (“Little Cove”) Bayou, getting a feel for the culture before writing their script. All of the performers in the film were local non-actors, whom the Flahertys chose for their natural charm.
• As befitting a film from the man who brought you “Nanook of the North”, “Louisiana Story” plays more or less like a silent film. Not a lot of dialogue, most of the story is told visually, with any exposition being provided by an off-screen narrator.

• I know I bring up thick accents a lot on this blog, but not since “On the Bowery” have I been challenged to understand the English language. Those are some thick Cajun accents. At times it sounds like the actors’ soundtrack is being played backwards a la “Twin Peaks”.
• This film is definitely unique by 1940’s standards: documentary film was still polished propaganda, so the idea of making a docu-drama hybrid with no actors was unheard of.
• Either that’s the new oil rig or the boy just discovered the RKO logo.
• This movie really takes its time showing you the details of oil drills and their employees. There was less drilling in “There Will Be Blood”.

• The gator section of the movie is quite impressive, and as close as this movie gets to an antagonist. Shoutout to editor Helen van Dongen: obviously the boy, the raccoon, and the gator are not all together, but van Dongen succeeds at making it appear that the three are sharing the same space.
• I just watched an alligator chomp down on a great egret, and then later a raccoon. What is it with the NFR and animal snuff films? (Side note: these shot suggests that “Louisiana Story” was filmed in the winter; great egrets tend to fly south for the winter, and Louisiana can get quite humid).
• Everyone who works on that oil rig is so friendly. I guess they have to be when Standard Oil is signing the checks.
• “Louisiana Story” does acknowledge the potential for an oil rig to blow out (using footage from an actual blow out at a different rig). But of course, this destruction is temporary and minimal, and the hardworking men at the rig clean everything up.
• Wait, the raccoon survived? I watched him get eaten by that gator! Not since “E.T.” have I witnessed such a miraculous cinematic resurrection.

Legacy 

• Robert J. Flaherty only made one more documentary: 1950’s “The Titan: Story of Michelangelo” (which was actually just a re-edited version of a 1938 German documentary). Flaherty passed away in 1951 at the age of 67. Frances Flaherty died in 1972 at age 88.

• Despite the continued presence of oil pipelines, Petite Anse (now Avery Island) is home to two different bird sanctuaries, and is on the National Registrar of Historic Places.

• Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey is still around, but you know them better by their current name: Exxon.

• Louisiana has hosted many a film shoot over the years, with such notable titles as “Easy Rider“, “Django Unchained”, and “Beasts of the Southern Wild”.

Further Viewing: The 2008 special “Louisiana Story: The Reverse Angle” was made for a local PBS station in Louisiana, and chronicles the making of the film, as well as its impact on the community. Plus they interview Joseph Boudreaux, who still lives not too far from where the movie was shot.

As the wide-awake nightmare that has been 2020 draws near its alleged end, the National Film Preservation Board is no doubt meeting virtually (“Please un-mute yourself, Mr. Scorsese.”) to discuss which 25 movies will round the NFR up to an even 800. As a law-abiding film buff, I submitted my 50 contenders back in March, which was approximately 10 years ago. My emphasis this year was on movies by women or people of color, or at least movies about women and people of color. That being said, I still left room for my perennial favorites, because mark my words: I will get “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” on this list.

And now, without further ado, my 50 for 2020:

Movies by Female Directors: Big (1988, Penny Marshall), Clueless (1995, Amy Heckerling), Frida (2002, Julie Taymor), The Hurt Locker (2009, Kathryn Bigelow), Lost in Translation (2003, Sofia Coppola), Sleepless in Seattle (1993, Nora Ephron)

Movies by Directors of Color: The Joy Luck Club (1993, Wayne Wang), The Sixth Sense (1999, M. Night Shyamalan), Stir Crazy (1980, Sidney Poitier), Training Day (2001, Antoine Fuqua)

Movie by a Member of the LGBTQ Community: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001, John Cameron Mitchell)

Strong Female Leads: 9 to 5 (1980), An Affair to Remember (1957), Aliens (1986), Anna Christie (1930), Carrie (1976), Erin Brockovich (2000), The Miracle Worker (1962), A Star is Born (1937), Terms of Endearment (1983), Way Down East (1920), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

BIPOC Leads: Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Cabin in the Sky (1943), The Color Purple (1985), Fame (1980), Sounder (1972), Up in Smoke (1978)

Movies Dealing with Race/Racial Issues: The Defiant Ones (1958), Sayonara (1957)

Movies Dealing with LGBTQ Issues: The Boys in the Band (1970), Victor/Victoria (1982)

Disney Movies with a Female Lead: Alice in Wonderland (1951), The Little Mermaid (1989)

This List Needs More Meryl: The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Sophie’s Choice (1982)

I Have a Thing for Ellen Burstyn: Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Movies I Like That Deserve a Chance: A Clockwork Orange (1971), Harvey (1950), It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), When Harry Met Sally (1989)

My Evelyn Beatrice Hall Movie: Grease (1978) (I disapprove of what it says, but I will defend to the death its right to be on this list.)

Love Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry for Picking Your Mom’s Least Favorite Movie: Love Story (1970) (Side note to Mom: If you’re still griping about this movie 50 years later, isn’t that enough of a legacy?)

Getting the Ball Rolling on 2010: The Social Network (2010)

The Grab Bag: Around the World in 80 Days (1956), Gladiator (2000), The Little Colonel (1935), The Sheik (1921)

And as Always, Because I Dare You, NFR. I Double-Dog Dare You: Song of the South (1946)

BONUS PREDICTION: If there is any historical footage of the 1918 flu pandemic, I’m predicting it will make the 2020 roster for obvious reasons.

Longtime readers may recall that ZERO of my 2019 submissions made the cut, so if I can get one of these movies on the NFR, I’ll be happy.

Happy Viewing,

Tony

#504) The Black Pirate (1926)

OR “Who Do You Think You Arrrr?”

Directed by Albert Parker

Written by Jack Cunningham and Elton Thomas (aka Douglas Fairbanks)

Class of 1993 

The Plot: In the Golden Age of Piracy, a band of pirates capture, loot, and blow up a ship. One of the survivors (Douglas Fairbanks) vows vengeance for his father, who dies as a result of the raid. Posing as The Black Pirate, the man challenges the Pirate Captain (Anders Randolf) to a swordfight, and after an easy win, becomes the pirates’ new leader. While looting another ship, The Black Pirate decides to hold the ship hostage, including the Princess Isobel (Billie Dove), for a ransom. There’s plenty of adventure and romance to be found in this movie, all of it in revolutionary two-strip Technicolor!

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film a “swashbuckling tour-de-force” and praises the two-strip Technicolor process. There’s also an essay by Douglas Fairbanks expert/SF Silent Film Festival board member Tracey Goessel.

But Does It Really?: I…guess. “The Black Pirate” is a brisk, enjoyable old-fashioned pirate movie, though this is one of four Douglas Fairbanks movies on the list, which seems a bit much. If nothing else, “The Black Pirate” is a showcase for early two-strip technicolor, and a chance to see what early filmmakers could do with that new technology. My question: If you’re going to include a classic swashbuckler on the NFR, where’s “Captain Blood”?

Everybody Gets One: At first glance, leading lady Billie Dove is your standard silent film ingénue who left the business to raise a family, but there’s a lot more to Dove’s story, including a stint in the Ziegfeld Follies and a broken engagement to Howard Hughes! Billie Dove’s lasting legacy, however, comes from a fan. At some point in the early ’30s, aspiring singer Eleanora Fagan took Billie’s first name as a tribute to the actor, and combined it with her biological father’s last name to become Billie Holiday. And now you know the rest of the story!

Wow, That’s Dated: More a question than a statement: Does this movie take place somewhere in the Spanish Main? If that’s the case, is everyone in this movie guilty of cultural appropriation? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Other notes 

• As previously mentioned, “The Black Pirate” is notable for its early use of two-strip Technicolor (Take that, Kodachrome!). Despite their excitement towards filming in color, Fairbanks et al did not want to use color simply as a gimmick. The production was inspired by the paintings of Howard Pyle and Carl Oscar Borg, and created a muted palette of colors throughout the film.
• Apparently Douglas Fairbanks was a good guy to work for; many of the cast appear in his other three NFR entries. Sam De Grasse even plays a similar bad guy to the one he played in “Wild and Woolly” nine years earlier!
• The Pirate Captain is giving me a real Yul Brynner vibe. Must be the shaved head.
• Douglas Fairbanks stunts are never not impressive. The man had an agility that bordered on superhuman. Fun Fact: Fairbanks’ swimming coach for this movie was Johnny Weissmuller, Olympic swimmer and future movie Tarzan.

• I was ready to write a whole critique questioning why the pirates would blow up a perfectly good ship instead of keeping it, but then the Pirate King brings up the same point. Doug gets it.
• That is future Oscar winner Donald Crisp as the Scottish pirate MacTavish, complete with stereotypical kilt and tam o’shanter. Apparently, Crisp also directed the first few days of this film before having a falling out with Fairbanks and being replaced with Albert Parker. And yet he’s still in the movie?
• What I enjoyed the most about “The Black Pirate” was that it contains so many pirate movie tropes that you never see anymore. There’s buried treasure and sword fights, and even a scene where the Black Pirate walks the plank! You always hear about these tropes, but it’s fun to actually see them in a movie!
• Whoa, enough with the under-cranking on that horse riding scene! If that horse goes any faster it will travel back in time a la Superman.
• Also impressive for a silent film: tracking shots! The camera actually moves with the characters in a few instances, including an impressive (by 1926 standards) shot of the camera backing up as the Pirate Lieutenant walks towards it.
• Another impressive shot: Fairbanks seemingly being lifted up through the various decks by his crew, with the camera following with Fairbanks the entire time. Cinematographer Henry Sharp was having some fun that day.
• I also enjoy the fact that the Pirate King avoids stairs and ladders by simply leaping to his destination. He’s the Super Mario of the ’20s!
• When The Pirate King passionately kisses Princess Isobel at the end, that’s not Billie Dove in the shot, but rather Douglas Fairbanks’ real-life wife Mary Pickford! Some say this was done as an in-joke, others say it’s because Pickford wouldn’t let her husband kiss another woman on camera. Either way, it’s a rare chance to see America’s Sweetheart in color. There are also publicity photos that still exist showing Pickford in Dove’s costume and wig.
• Okay, we settled all the plot lines; shouldn’t this be over by now? Do we need the extended comic relief bit from MacTavish? And is the rocking of the boat supposed to be a metaphor?

Legacy 

• “The Black Pirate” was a success with audiences, and marked the apex of Douglas Fairbanks’ career. Fairbanks never quite made the transition from silent to sound, and his health began to deteriorate after a lifetime of smoking. After years of decline, Douglas Fairbanks died in 1939 of a heart attack at age 56. Two months later, Fairbanks posthumously received a lifetime achievement Academy Award for his “unique and outstanding contribution…to the international development of the motion picture”.

• Although the film’s use of two-strip Technicolor was a well-received breakthrough, the fact that the film was literally two strips cemented together proved a challenge to most projectionists. A black-and-white version of the film was also available, but the color version would reappear in the ’70s following a restoration. Technicolor would perfect the single strip two-color process in 1928, with the more common three-color single strip arriving a year later.
• I’d love to talk about this movie’s legacy of great pirate movies, but when you think about it, how many great pirate movies are there really? The first “Pirates of the Caribbean”? “Treasure Island”? ….”Muppet Treasure Island”?

#503) Double Indemnity (1944)

OR “You’re in Good Hands with…Murder!”

Directed by Billy Wilder

Written by Wilder & Raymond Chandler. Based on the novel by James M. Cain.

Class of 1992 

The Plot: While making a routine house call, insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) meets Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), the seductive wife of Neff’s client (Tom Powers). During their conversation/flirtation, Phyllis asks about taking out a policy on Mr. Dietrichson without his knowledge, which Walter knows means murder. Initially reluctant, Walter eventually helps Phyllis devise the perfect murder, including an activation of the “double indemnity” clause: double the payout if Dietrichson dies under unlikely circumstances (such as falling off a train). The plan works perfectly, but Walter’s boss Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) isn’t convinced it was an accident. What follows is some prime film noir.

Why It Matters: The NFR praises this movie to the hilt, citing Wilder’s “cynical sensibility” and “snappy dialogue”, the performances of Stanwyck, MacMurray, and Robinson (“some of their best”), and John Seitz’s “hard-edged” cinematography. An essay by film critic Matt Zoller Seitz (no relation to John) continues the love-fest.

But Does It Really?: “Indemnity” takes a while to crack its very ’40s outer shell, but once you get past the jargon and fast-talking, there’s a wonderfully structured piece of film noir at its core. Perhaps it’s my love of Wilder’s later fare like “Sunset Boulevard” and “The Apartment” that cloud my judgment on “Indemnity”: I enjoyed it, but I still think Wilder’s best work was ahead of him. Regardless, “Double Indemnity” may be filmdom’s quintessential film noir entry, with a strong enough legacy to be an NFR no-brainer.

Everybody Gets One: After reading “The Big Sleep“, “Indemnity” producer Joseph Sistrom recommended that author Raymond Chandler collaborate with Billy Wilder on the “Indemnity” screenplay, after Wilder’s usual partner Charles Brackett dropped out due to his dislike of the subject matter. Although Chandler and Wilder did not get along, Wilder admits that most of the film’s best lines were written by Chandler. And shout out to silent film star Tom Powers as Mr. Dietrichson, aka “the vic”.

Wow, That’s Dated: Umm, everything? This plot hinges on such antiquated things as door-to-door insurance salesmen, dictaphones, and trains as a common mode of transportation. Also that $50,000 insurance claim would be over $900,000 today! Don’t give me any ideas, modern inflation.

Seriously, Oscars?: A hit with audiences and most critics, “Double Indemnity” received seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Unfortunately, “Indemnity” was the only Best Picture nominee to go home empty-handed, losing in most categories to future NFR entry (and fellow Paramount release) “Going My Way“. Billy Wilder was especially irked by these losses, but rallied the next year when he took home two Oscars for “The Lost Weekend“.

Other notes 

• If this blog has taught me anything, it’s that the insurance business in the ’40s was the most exciting and dangerous business ever. Sabotage! Passion! Murder!
• Full disclosure: Years ago, I tried and failed to watch “Double Indemnity”, giving up about 10 minutes in. I think what was throwing me was Fred MacMurray’s delivery. Don’t get me wrong, he’s very good in this, but he is coming in hot with the ’40s jargon and Wilder one-liners. Once you get used to it, however, the plot kicks in and the tempo slows to a more comprehensible speed.

• Also not helping this film: the fact that every film noir element of this movie has been spoofed to death over the last 75 years.
• Whoa, the chemistry between MacMurray and Stanwyck is palpable. I can still feel it, and they’ve both been dead for 30 years!

• Oh Edward G. Robinson, what a fun, reliable supporting actor you became. Robinson was initially reluctant to play the third lead, but came around once he realized he was at the age to “start thinking of character roles”. It also helped that Robinson was getting paid the same amount as MacMurray and Stanwyck for less work.

• This is another movie that would need a major overhaul if a modern remake was attempted. Walter’s plan to pose as Mr. Dietrichson would immediately fall apart if photo ID was required. Plus he’d have to deal with smart phones and security cameras. Side Note: Would it be ironic if Walter had broken his leg from jumping off the train?
• The first half of the movie is watching Walter and Phyllis form this airtight murder plot and pull it off. The second half is seeing them try to get away with it, with Keyes serving as an accidental ’40s-style Columbo. Keyes’ monologue about suicide rates in America is a wonderful moment of him not only standing up to his boss about his work, but also inadvertently letting Phyllis off the hook.

• The scene where Phyllis is hiding behind Walter’s door is suspenseful to be sure, except for the fact that no apartment door would ever open outward towards a hallway. Speaking of massive oversights, how did no one notice that Fred MacMurray is wearing his wedding ring during most of the movie?

• As the plot starts to unravel in the third act, I really started to appreciate Barbara Stanwyck’s performance. Phyllis starts out as cold and calculating, and as the film progresses you see lovely shades of vulnerability and just plain evil. Typical of the era, the Oscars opted to give Best Actress to someone playing a victim (Ingrid Bergman in “Gaslight“) rather than to flawed, dimensional character.

• [Spoilers] MacMurray gets the Clark Gable prize for best reaction to being shot: “You can do better than that, baby.”
• The novel’s ending involved Walter and Phyllis committing suicide on a steamship bound for Mexico. The Code prohibited suicide as a plot resolution, so Wilder and Chandler completely rewrote the ending. Amazingly, the new one works; quite the feat considering Wilder cut the last part of this new ending after previews. Even James Cain preferred the new ending to the one he had written!

Legacy 

• Looking back on his career, Billy Wilder called “Double Indemnity” one of his best films. Author James Cain was quite pleased with the film as well, watching it six times in its initial run!
• Although Wilder never worked with Raymond Chandler again, he used Chandler’s alcoholism and writer’s block as inspiration to tackle his next movie: “The Lost Weekend”.

• “Double Indemnity” has been officially remade twice. A 1954 episode of “Lux Video Theatre” earned Frank Lovejoy an Emmy nomination for playing Walter. A 1973 TV movie saw Richard Crenna, Samantha Eggar, and Lee J. Cobb in the leads. After its initial airing, Billy Wilder called Barbara Stanwyck at home and sighed “they just didn’t get it right”.

• As for unofficial remakes, see “Body Heat”.

• James Cain would see two more of his novels become classic movies in the next two years: “Mildred Pierce” and “The Postman Always Rings Twice”.

• “Double Indemnity” is featured extensively in “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid”, with Steve Martin filling in for Barbara Stanwyck.

• And finally, “Double Indemnity” is considered by some to be the template for all film noir that came after it, though Wilder always stated that he was not consciously trying to emulate any genre, and hadn’t even heard the term “film noir” until after the film’s release.