Double Indemnity (1944)
The first of Take-up’s Monday Night Noir series, So Cool So Cruel, at the Parkway was Double Indemnity, one of the best early film noirs. The style or genre of noir is American, and got its name from the series of French translations, Serie Noire, of American writers such as Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich, and Dashiell Hammett.
Fred MacMurray’s slick insurance salesman is seduced by the sultry Barbara Stanwyck into plotting her husband’s demise. Some of Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler’s excellent dialogue is so dated that the audience can’t help but laugh, which is too bad, because we miss the next zinger. MacMurray’s sexual banter with Stanwyck is exhilarating, but more intriguing are his interactions with his co-worker, the claims investigator he’s trying to fool. Terms like love and close friends are tossed about as if they’re ironic, yet with an emphasis that points to something more real.
If you plan to check out other films in the So Cool So Cruel series, go early. The lines for tickets and popcorn were long and labyrinthine. The movies and theater I recommend, but the popcorn–not so much.
January 21, 2008 The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
January 28, 2008 Underworld U.S.A. (1961)
February 4, 2008 Our Man In Havana (1959)
February 11, 2008 Night and the City (1950)