One of the best films ever and probably the best film noir ever. Excellent all around: Legendary director Billy Wilder, score by legendary Miklos Rozsa, gorgeous cinematography, great script, acting! That stone cold look on Barbara Stanwyck's face as her husband is being murdered right next to her is priceless. Thanks for doing these films. Another great film noir to do is Mildred Pierce from 1945 with Joan Crawford.👍
The grocery store set had to be protected by security guards. The movie was filmed during the war when strict rationing was in effect. Every single item on the shelves had to be accounted for and returned to where it came from after the shooting of the scene ended.
For a modern take on film noir, I recommend Body Heat (1981). It was basically an homage to Double Indemnity, but not actually a re-make. It's quite good.
Excellent reaction! This is probably THE quintessential film noir. It’s got all the essentials: LA, shadows, evil femme fatale, men’s hats, voice over, you name it. Billy Wilder directed too. Have you done SUNSET BOULEVARD (1952) yet?
Edward G. Robinson is one of the all time greats. He avoided being typecast as a gangster and went on to play all sorts of parts. The co writer of the screenplay, Raymond Chandler, who was one of the two legendary crime/detective writers of all time-the other being Dashiell Hammett.
Highly recommended: “The Shop Around the Corner” (1940) directed by the incomparable Ernst Lubitsch, who Billy Wilder considered to be the greatest. The story is set in Budapest, but as filming there was impossible in 1939/40, it is all made with Hollywood sets. Nevertheless it is an extremely beloved film and it is all the more heartbreaking to know what was to quickly become known as reality in Europe. Ernst Lubitsch then released “To Be or Not To Be” in 1941, a very dark and sometimes controversial comedy which was set in Poland, but makes a fitting companion piece to “Shop Around the Corner.” Altho Miklós Rózsa was not the composer, he did do the scoring for the composer.
Second this suggestion- my favorite Christmas movie, Lubitsch movie, and one of my favorite films, period. I've show "Shop" to friends and family, and they always love it.
Barbara Stanwyck was one of the greats (as was Edger Robinson). Check out another Stanwyck movie "Sorry Wrong Number". other BW classics: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Seven Days in May Failsafe Night and the City Marty The Manchurian Candidate A Face in the Crowd Babydoll The Best Years of our lives Strangers on a Train Shadow of a Doubt Gaslight Oh in your All About Eve reaction you asked about more Betty Davis movies - check out "The Little Foxes", she is excellent in that one. 2-cents.
Shandor, thank you so much for old movies. These are the movies I watch all the time and the ones I want to see reacted to. : ) The man who plays Keyes is Edward G. Robinson, and he steals the show. No easy feat against the performances of MacMurray and Stanwyck. Sadly, he was never even nominated for an Academy Award. If you want to see another film noir that Robinson stars in that is less famous, I suggest Scarlet Street. My suggestions for more famous film noir are Laura, Mildred Pierce, and Sunset Boulevard.
Great reaction Shandor! Here's another, "Key Largo", 1948 , Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lionel Barrymore, Lauren Bacall and Claire Trevor, directed by John Houston.
This film was based on a novel by James M. Cain, who also wrote The Postman Always Rings Twice, which also became a terrific film noir in 1946 see it! ,! I have read both novels and they are even more twisted than the movies. They were very popular at their time, and still highly regarded today. Edward G. Robinson was a great actor, appearing in many films. His breakout performance was in Little Caesar, the first really big gangster film. Miklos Rosza was one of the greatest film composers ever! Some of his scores were for Spellbound, Ben Hur, and Naked City. You can probably tell that Double Indemnity is one of my favorite films noir! Loved your reaction!
This story was based on a novel by James M. Cain who also wrote the novels for the films The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Mildred Pierce. I found 1981's neo noir Body Heat. It has a similar plot (but more complex) but the writing is better, the dialogue crisper and the lead actress is stunning. Miss Stanwyck is one of the best actresses to NEVER win an Oscar. Her films Ball of Fire, Lady Eve, and of course the Christmas classic--A Christmas in Connecticut. I hope you get the chance to see them all.
I love your appreciation of old movies and of the lighting in them. Those old Hollywood people were masters of lighting, and that is why colorized movies are so bad: they destroy the lighting effects. The other commenters have said almost everything I wanted to say. Just a couple points can be added. First, this movie was a shocking breaking of tradition because it adopted the POV of the killers. Second, MacMurray and Robinson were playing against type, while ironically, Stanwyck unfortunately became typecast due to this movie. MacMurray had been a romantic lead in the 1930s, but was overshadowed in that regard by Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and others. This movie reinvigorated his career. See him in “The Caine Mutiny.” He finished his career in a hugely popular TV sitcom (“My Three Sons") and in Disney movies ("The Absent-Minded Professor"). Similarly, Robinson broke out of his gangster stereotyping and went on to a long career of excellent dramatic roles. Stanwyck, next to Margaret Sullivan, is my favorite actress. She was equally adept at comedy and drama. Capra tells, in his autobiography, how he discovered that Stanwyck would pour all her emotional power into the first take and consequently went downhill on subsequent takes. Therefore, Capra generally avoided rehearsing her! I highly recommend Stanwyck in “Meet John Doe” (a great Christmas movie) and “Ball of Fire” (a comedy opposite Gary Cooper). Because of her noir stereotyping, she switched to TV in the 1950s and 1960s and won two Emmys.
My friend Juliet's father wrote the score for this film. He won 4 Academy Awards. My personal favorites of his film scores are for THE RED HOUSE, BEN -HUR and THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, but his concert work is also amazing. This film was based on the novel by James M. Cain whose stories were often sources for great film noirs like MILDRED PIERCE. And you're right about a Hitchcockian element in that this film has a strong sense of complicity of guilt which is an oft-used undercurrent in Hitchcock films. Great reaction! Your comments are sharp and give me great nostalgia for my film school days. Here's a concert work by Rozsa based on a Hungarian folk theme and orchestrally elaborated with both subtlety and vibrancy. ruclips.net/video/RKz2i0ndZ6s/видео.htmlsi=6trQMvKOKasXgHPp
Robert, what a beautiful piece! I'm going to look into Rosza's other concert work. I love 20th century concert music. Kabelac, Ginastera, Hindemith, Tveitt... so many great neglected modern composers out there.
@@LaurelT1948 he has quite a rich concert repetoire. His Violin Concerto is stunning if you want to check that out and his piece The Vintner's Daughter is also a beautiful theme and variations. And for cinema the Suite from The Red House, Charles Gerhardt conducting the NPO, is truly atmospheric.
A genuine hollywood masterpiece. Billy Wilder is time and time again ranked among the greatest American directors of the 20th century. He co-wrote Double Indemnity with author Raymond Chandler (that's why the dialogue is sizzling and dynamic!) Stanwyck, MacMurray and Edward G Robinson are all in top form as a result of the screenplay. Wilder made two of the major "noirs," this one and Sunset Boulevard (1950). I also consider his classic comedy Some Like It Hot (1959) sort of a Noir, it blends those tropes and styles into the mix.
Co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler. Raymond Chandler was one of the best Mystery writers. His Phillip Marlowe novels are some of the best detective stories ever written. This is a brilliant movie. Much like Wilder's great films.
Fantastic reaction. You appreciate every little detail. The actor who plays Keys is amazing in every movie he is in. If you want to explore more film noirs I would highly recommend Laura (1944) and The Killers (1946).
Yes, I never put it together all the films of his that I so enjoy. In particular, his 1957 Witness for the Prosecution (ignore the remakes) and One, Two, Three. The first one, a brilliant courtroom drama, based on an Agatha Christie story. (I defy you to guess the ending.) The second, one of the zaniest and absolutely the fasted-paced one, starring Jimmy Cagney. Would love to see your reactions to these.
Go ahead and brag! Miklos Rozsa was a gift from Hungary to the American entertainment industry. Your perceptions of Phyllis' expressions are right on target...beautiful and deadly. Barbara Stanwyck resisted doing this movie because she thought it would ruin her image with the public. The film director was Billy Wilder, who always turns in a fantastic job, a gift to America from Austria...try watching "Witness For The Prosecution" which is one of the best films ever done (1957) When I lived in Los Angeles, I enjoyed walking for exercise in the Hollywood Hills around Phyllis' house. There were a lot of skunks there! Keyes was played by Edward G. Robinson, a gift from Romania. Try some of his films, too...he played gangsters early in his career and "Little Caesar" is one of the best (1931).
For some other phenomenal film scores composed by Miklós Rózsa, there are many Oscar winning and other award winning choices that fundamentally helped make the film better: some include: Ben-Hur” The Killers” The Thief of Bagdad” (1940 version), “Lust for Life.” 🎼
Source novel by crime writing giant James M. Cain, screenplay by the great Billy Wilder, additional dialogue by crime writing giant Raymond Chandler. The end result? A giant of a screenplay!
You’re right. It sounds like a novel because the writer was crime novelist Raymond Chandler. I think he collaborated with Directer Billy Wilder on the script. McMurrays snappy dialogue is like Bogart’s in The Maltese Fountain, also by Chandler.
The author of the novel on which it is based in James M. Cain and he appears in a quick cameo shot as a guy sitting in the hallway outside the insurance offices. Another writer of mysteries/detective stories noir-type “thrillers” is Raymond Chandler who worked with Wilder on the script but the two had a lot of conflicts during the writing process. But the presence of both those authors did increase the depth of the script.
Watching these old movies with you on Sunday mornings is a tad nostalgic for me. When I was a kid every Sunday morning there'd be an old b&w movie that was either Shirley Temple, Ma and Pa Kettle, The Marx Brothers, Tarzan, or a couple others. When the list was done they'd start it over again. Since you like the noir style I'm wondering if you've seen Bound (1996), with Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, and Joe Pantonliano. It was the first movie from the Wachowskis (The Matrix). It's a great crime thriller.
Double Indemnity is a tremendous noir film. Two similar films are: China Moon (Ed Harris, Madeline Stowe, Benesio Del Toro) and Body Heat (William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna).
Fred MacMurray, a B List romcom actor til then (busy but not great) was very reluctant to challenge his image as a matinee idol by doing something so dark and murdery. Billy Wilder really had to talk him into it. For fun, I recommend finding MacMurray’s tribute to Wilder at Wilder’s AFI Lifetime Achievement ceremony. Mac and Wilder scored again with The Apartment 20 years later.
I was watching this for the 2nd time recently and then I thought Edward G. Robinson’s investigator reminded me of "Columbo”. Or vice versa. He was obsessed with his cases, smoked a cigar, and was unkempt enough for his boss to mention it. Just like Columbo who was too preoccupied with solving crimes to concern himself with such things.
I'm really enjoying your reactions to these wonderful old films. May I please recommend two of my favorites? The Good Earth (1937, with Paul Muni), and Stanley Kramer's Inherit The Wind (1960, with Spencer Tracy). Thank you!
I think you may be my favorite film reactors on RUclips. Great choice of movies and great reactions. What country are you based out of, just out of curiosity?
Could you react to The Night of the Hunter (1955)? It's one of the greatest films in cinematic history and I wish more people would react to on it here ;)
For more A-list film noir-ish movies, watch “Mildred Pierce” and “The postman Always Rings Twice”. Big stars, lush production, based on novels by James M. Cain, who authored the novel from which this film was adapted.
How did Neff break the guy's neck, and why can't an autopsy tell the difference between how he died and falling from a train? No finger bruises on the neck? Postmortem lividity (blood settling under gravity causing bruising where the body contacts the ground) shows when a dead body has been moved. Still a great movie.
That scene in the supermarket at around 24:00 has a symbolic nod to a kind of proto-feminist message - the woman complains that what she wants is out of reach and she has to get a man - Neff - to reach it for her.
Before some perfectionists jump in and start arguing, yes, there are several films that came out before this - and some are called proto-noir, some are competitively labeled the “first noir”, etc. But this one is acknowledged as the first fully noirish film, with many themes, stylistic choices, lighting design, music, characters, situations, twists, dialogue style, etc that would be found forever after in films considered noir. Since “Noir” as a style is a label assigned many years afterwards, and no one who created these films was deliberately trying to adhere to a specific style (since the elements we associate today with noir were never pre-designed and most were spontaneously created as a result of low budgets, wartime scarcities and censorship) and genres as they are defined today didn’t really exist then, it is sufficient to say that this film ranks as perfection in all categories and it is fitting that most film historians are happy to say this is the first “noir.”
For years and years, Hollywood had this annoying habit (at least to me) of having the hero and heroine fall INSTANTLY head-over-heels obsessively in love on first meeting, often before the first handshake.
Shandor!!!! Please screen 1963s :" A Boy Ten Feet Tall"...a little boy is orphaned in Israel and walks the length of Africa to reach his Aunt Jane in Capetown...along the way he meets diamond poacher Edward G Robinson...along the way he becomes a man...keep a paper towel handy...this is for men what all those Garbo and Bette Davis pictures are for women...this makes Field of dreams weak!!!
Your reaction was very good. . .BUT. . .I really don't understand why guys your age have this ridiculous attitude about the past. You wondered how people in 1944 would react to this story. And you said, "It was 1944." SO WHAT???? Do you REALLY believe that people back then would be shocked by a dark "murder" story? That was the age of film noir, the age of the pulp murder mystery magazines, a time when the WORLD was at WAR. . .And you think people back then might not be able to handle this story idea? REALLY?? I just hate how younger people today seem to think that people who lived before them were somehow fragile, and unable to handle the tough side of life. or stories about that. These people had been through the Great Depression, and were still living through World War II. . .and you think they might not have been able to handle this story??? Think again. By the way, the author of the book this film was based on wrote dark mysteries. . .And they were available in stores all over and bought by the people you think might have had trouble handling this film. Like I said, think again!
![Shandor reacts to ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) - FIRST TIME WATCHING!!! [READ DESCRIPTION!]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bn7q7_JDtRE/mqdefault.jpg)
One of the best films ever and probably the best film noir ever. Excellent all around: Legendary director Billy Wilder, score by legendary Miklos Rozsa, gorgeous cinematography, great script, acting! That stone cold look on Barbara Stanwyck's face as her husband is being murdered right next to her is priceless. Thanks for doing these films. Another great film noir to do is Mildred Pierce from 1945 with Joan Crawford.👍
The grocery store set had to be protected by security guards. The movie was filmed during the war when strict rationing was in effect. Every single item on the shelves had to be accounted for and returned to where it came from after the shooting of the scene ended.
For a modern take on film noir, I recommend Body Heat (1981). It was basically an homage to Double Indemnity, but not actually a re-make. It's quite good.
80 years on and the movie is still amazing.
Excellent reaction! This is probably THE quintessential film noir. It’s got all the essentials: LA, shadows, evil femme fatale, men’s hats, voice over, you name it. Billy Wilder directed too. Have you done SUNSET BOULEVARD (1952) yet?
Edward G. Robinson is one of the all time greats. He avoided being typecast as a gangster and went on to play all sorts of parts.
The co writer of the screenplay, Raymond Chandler, who was one of the two legendary crime/detective writers of all time-the other being Dashiell Hammett.
Ah, Barbara Stanwyck! One of the all-time greats. Make sure you watch Baby Face, one of the great pre-code films.
And Palm Beach Story
@@arturocostantino623 That one's not pre-code but another great film. And also The Lady Eve, of course.
Highly recommended: “The Shop Around the Corner” (1940) directed by the incomparable Ernst Lubitsch, who Billy Wilder considered to be the greatest. The story is set in Budapest, but as filming there was impossible in 1939/40, it is all made with Hollywood sets. Nevertheless it is an extremely beloved film and it is all the more heartbreaking to know what was to quickly become known as reality in Europe.
Ernst Lubitsch then released “To Be or Not To Be” in 1941, a very dark and sometimes controversial comedy which was set in Poland, but makes a fitting companion piece to “Shop Around the Corner.” Altho Miklós Rózsa was not the composer, he did do the scoring for the composer.
Second this suggestion- my favorite Christmas movie, Lubitsch movie, and one of my favorite films, period. I've show "Shop" to friends and family, and they always love it.
Barbara Stanwyck was one of the greats (as was Edger Robinson).
Check out another Stanwyck movie "Sorry Wrong Number".
other BW classics:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Seven Days in May
Failsafe
Night and the City
Marty
The Manchurian Candidate
A Face in the Crowd
Babydoll
The Best Years of our lives
Strangers on a Train
Shadow of a Doubt
Gaslight
Oh in your All About Eve reaction you asked about more Betty Davis movies - check out "The Little Foxes", she is excellent in that one.
2-cents.
Shandor, thank you so much for old movies. These are the movies I watch all the time and the ones I want to see reacted to. : )
The man who plays Keyes is Edward G. Robinson, and he steals the show. No easy feat against the performances of MacMurray and Stanwyck. Sadly, he was never even nominated for an Academy Award.
If you want to see another film noir that Robinson stars in that is less famous, I suggest Scarlet Street.
My suggestions for more famous film noir are Laura, Mildred Pierce, and Sunset Boulevard.
Barbara Stanwyck is my all time favorite actress.
Great reaction Shandor! Here's another, "Key Largo", 1948 , Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lionel Barrymore, Lauren Bacall and Claire Trevor, directed by John Houston.
This film was based on a novel by James M. Cain, who also wrote The Postman Always Rings Twice, which also became a terrific film noir in 1946 see it! ,! I have read both novels and they are even more twisted than the movies. They were very popular at their time, and still highly regarded today. Edward G. Robinson was a great actor, appearing in many films. His breakout performance was in Little Caesar, the first really big gangster film. Miklos Rosza was one of the greatest film composers ever! Some of his scores were for Spellbound, Ben Hur, and Naked City. You can probably tell that Double Indemnity is one of my favorite films noir! Loved your reaction!
This story was based on a novel by James M. Cain who also wrote the novels for the films The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Mildred Pierce. I found 1981's neo noir Body Heat. It has a similar plot (but more complex) but the writing is better, the dialogue crisper and the lead actress is stunning. Miss Stanwyck is one of the best actresses to NEVER win an Oscar. Her films Ball of Fire, Lady Eve, and of course the Christmas classic--A Christmas in Connecticut. I hope you get the chance to see them all.
I love your appreciation of old movies and of the lighting in them. Those old Hollywood people were masters of lighting, and that is why colorized movies are so bad: they destroy the lighting effects.
The other commenters have said almost everything I wanted to say. Just a couple points can be added. First, this movie was a shocking breaking of tradition because it adopted the POV of the killers.
Second, MacMurray and Robinson were playing against type, while ironically, Stanwyck unfortunately became typecast due to this movie. MacMurray had been a romantic lead in the 1930s, but was overshadowed in that regard by Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and others. This movie reinvigorated his career. See him in “The Caine Mutiny.” He finished his career in a hugely popular TV sitcom (“My Three Sons") and in Disney movies ("The Absent-Minded Professor"). Similarly, Robinson broke out of his gangster stereotyping and went on to a long career of excellent dramatic roles.
Stanwyck, next to Margaret Sullivan, is my favorite actress. She was equally adept at comedy and drama. Capra tells, in his autobiography, how he discovered that Stanwyck would pour all her emotional power into the first take and consequently went downhill on subsequent takes. Therefore, Capra generally avoided rehearsing her! I highly recommend Stanwyck in “Meet John Doe” (a great Christmas movie) and “Ball of Fire” (a comedy opposite Gary Cooper). Because of her noir stereotyping, she switched to TV in the 1950s and 1960s and won two Emmys.
Great reaction!!! If you like the music of Miklós Rózsa, check out Ben Hur (1959), El Cid (1961) and King of Kings (1961).
My friend Juliet's father wrote the score for this film. He won 4 Academy Awards. My personal favorites of his film scores are for THE RED HOUSE, BEN -HUR and THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, but his concert work is also amazing. This film was based on the novel by James M. Cain whose stories were often sources for great film noirs like MILDRED PIERCE. And you're right about a Hitchcockian element in that this film has a strong sense of complicity of guilt which is an oft-used undercurrent in Hitchcock films.
Great reaction! Your comments are sharp and give me great nostalgia for my film school days. Here's a concert work by Rozsa based on a Hungarian folk theme and orchestrally elaborated with both subtlety and vibrancy.
ruclips.net/video/RKz2i0ndZ6s/видео.htmlsi=6trQMvKOKasXgHPp
Robert, what a beautiful piece! I'm going to look into Rosza's other concert work. I love 20th century concert music. Kabelac, Ginastera, Hindemith, Tveitt... so many great neglected modern composers out there.
@@LaurelT1948 he has quite a rich concert repetoire. His Violin Concerto is stunning if you want to check that out and his piece The Vintner's Daughter is also a beautiful theme and variations. And for cinema the Suite from The Red House, Charles Gerhardt conducting the NPO, is truly atmospheric.
@@robertjewell9727 I’ll certainly check this out, especially the violin concerto! Thanks.
A genuine hollywood masterpiece. Billy Wilder is time and time again ranked among the greatest American directors of the 20th century. He co-wrote Double Indemnity with author Raymond Chandler (that's why the dialogue is sizzling and dynamic!) Stanwyck, MacMurray and Edward G Robinson are all in top form as a result of the screenplay.
Wilder made two of the major "noirs," this one and Sunset Boulevard (1950). I also consider his classic comedy Some Like It Hot (1959) sort of a Noir, it blends those tropes and styles into the mix.
Co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler. Raymond Chandler was one of the best Mystery writers. His Phillip Marlowe novels are some of the best detective stories ever written. This is a brilliant movie. Much like Wilder's great films.
I agree with your assessment of Chandler.
For me B/W pictures n movies are incredible and reveal more of people than color.
However, if u want a super, color modern film noir: BODY HEAT!!!
Fantastic reaction. You appreciate every little detail. The actor who plays Keys is amazing in every movie he is in. If you want to explore more film noirs I would highly recommend Laura (1944) and The Killers (1946).
Great suggestions. Mildred Pierce is pretty twisted too.
@@jamesharper3933 Mildred Pierce would be a great one to watch as well. Love that one.
When Wilder offered the part to MacMurray, MacMurray stated, "You got the wrong guy, I do comedies."
Billy Wilder is one of the greats, whether he is a writer “Ninotchka” or a director/writer “The Apartment” “Sunset Blvd” “Some Like It Hot.”
Yes, I never put it together all the films of his that I so enjoy. In particular, his 1957 Witness for the Prosecution (ignore the remakes) and One, Two, Three. The first one, a brilliant courtroom drama, based on an Agatha Christie story. (I defy you to guess the ending.) The second, one of the zaniest and absolutely the fasted-paced one, starring Jimmy Cagney. Would love to see your reactions to these.
Fred MacMurray was mostly in Paramount comedies, but he was always good in them.
Another masterpiece from the great Billy Wilder!!!! 🤩
You recognized another brilliant, classic film!
Go ahead and brag! Miklos Rozsa was a gift from Hungary to the American entertainment industry. Your perceptions of Phyllis' expressions are right on target...beautiful and deadly. Barbara Stanwyck resisted doing this movie because she thought it would ruin her image with the public. The film director was Billy Wilder, who always turns in a fantastic job, a gift to America from Austria...try watching "Witness For The Prosecution" which is one of the best films ever done (1957) When I lived in Los Angeles, I enjoyed walking for exercise in the Hollywood Hills around Phyllis' house. There were a lot of skunks there! Keyes was played by Edward G. Robinson, a gift from Romania. Try some of his films, too...he played gangsters early in his career and "Little Caesar" is one of the best (1931).
For some other phenomenal film scores composed by Miklós Rózsa, there are many Oscar winning and other award winning choices that fundamentally helped make the film better:
some include: Ben-Hur” The Killers” The Thief of Bagdad” (1940 version), “Lust for Life.” 🎼
Source novel by crime writing giant James M. Cain, screenplay by the great Billy Wilder, additional dialogue by crime writing giant Raymond Chandler. The end result? A giant of a screenplay!
You’re right. It sounds like a novel because the writer was crime novelist Raymond Chandler. I think he collaborated with Directer Billy Wilder on the script. McMurrays snappy dialogue is like Bogart’s in The Maltese Fountain, also by Chandler.
13:16 I believe that's a Chandler line, "You're not smarter. You're just a little taller."
The author of the novel on which it is based in James M. Cain and he appears in a quick cameo shot as a guy sitting in the hallway outside the insurance offices. Another writer of mysteries/detective stories noir-type “thrillers” is Raymond Chandler who worked with Wilder on the script but the two had a lot of conflicts during the writing process. But the presence of both those authors did increase the depth of the script.
If you like Edward G. Robinson, he made another noir with Joan Bennett called "Scarlet Street" that you would probably enjoy.
Watching these old movies with you on Sunday mornings is a tad nostalgic for me. When I was a kid every Sunday morning there'd be an old b&w movie that was either Shirley Temple, Ma and Pa Kettle, The Marx Brothers, Tarzan, or a couple others. When the list was done they'd start it over again.
Since you like the noir style I'm wondering if you've seen Bound (1996), with Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, and Joe Pantonliano. It was the first movie from the Wachowskis (The Matrix). It's a great crime thriller.
Double Indemnity is a tremendous noir film. Two similar films are: China Moon (Ed Harris, Madeline Stowe, Benesio Del Toro) and Body Heat (William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna).
If you like Film Noir (and I know you like Edward G. Robinson in THIS film), check out “Scarlet Street,” 1945. Right up your alley.
Fred MacMurray, a B List romcom actor til then (busy but not great) was very reluctant to challenge his image as a matinee idol by doing something so dark and murdery. Billy Wilder really had to talk him into it. For fun, I recommend finding MacMurray’s tribute to Wilder at Wilder’s AFI Lifetime Achievement ceremony.
Mac and Wilder scored again with The Apartment 20 years later.
I was watching this for the 2nd time recently and then I thought Edward G. Robinson’s investigator reminded me of "Columbo”. Or vice versa. He was obsessed with his cases, smoked a cigar, and was unkempt enough for his boss to mention it. Just like Columbo who was too preoccupied with solving crimes to concern himself with such things.
My fav. movie of all time, bar none.
I'm really enjoying your reactions to these wonderful old films. May I please recommend two of my favorites? The Good Earth (1937, with Paul Muni), and Stanley Kramer's Inherit The Wind (1960, with Spencer Tracy). Thank you!
I think you may be my favorite film reactors on RUclips. Great choice of movies and great reactions.
What country are you based out of, just out of curiosity?
Could you react to The Night of the Hunter (1955)? It's one of the greatest films in cinematic history and I wish more people would react to on it here ;)
For more A-list film noir-ish movies, watch “Mildred Pierce” and “The postman Always Rings Twice”. Big stars, lush production, based on novels by James M. Cain, who authored the novel from which this film was adapted.
You have to watch The Asphalt Jungle! One of the best noir-heist movies ever made in my opinion. I think you would like the cinematography and ending.
I second the recommendation to do Key Largo (1948). Bogart and Edward G Robinson together!
Barbara Stanwyck's own favourite of her films was "Stella Dallas" - totally different from this film
How did Neff break the guy's neck, and why can't an autopsy tell the difference between how he died and falling from a train? No finger bruises on the neck? Postmortem lividity (blood settling under gravity causing bruising where the body contacts the ground) shows when a dead body has been moved. Still a great movie.
29:39 Neff in the gas chamber was cut out, but you can find stills of the scene.
film noir at its best
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8:48 Yes, Miklós Rózsa was a genius.
If you enjoyed this , then you will also love to watching Strangers on a Train.
That scene in the supermarket at around 24:00 has a symbolic nod to a kind of proto-feminist message - the woman complains that what she wants is out of reach and she has to get a man - Neff - to reach it for her.
This is the first film noir😊
Before some perfectionists jump in and start arguing, yes, there are several films that came out before this - and some are called proto-noir, some are competitively labeled the “first noir”, etc. But this one is acknowledged as the first fully noirish film, with many themes, stylistic choices, lighting design, music, characters, situations, twists, dialogue style, etc that would be found forever after in films considered noir. Since “Noir” as a style is a label assigned many years afterwards, and no one who created these films was deliberately trying to adhere to a specific style (since the elements we associate today with noir were never pre-designed and most were spontaneously created as a result of low budgets, wartime scarcities and censorship) and genres as they are defined today didn’t really exist then, it is sufficient to say that this film ranks as perfection in all categories and it is fitting that most film historians are happy to say this is the first “noir.”
For years and years, Hollywood had this annoying habit (at least to me) of having the hero and heroine fall INSTANTLY head-over-heels obsessively in love on first meeting, often before the first handshake.
Have you ever seen the ultimate film noir Kiss Me, Deadly (1955)?
Barbara Stanwyck's blonde wig does not fit her in terms of her look, which was done on purpose to make her look "cheap."
Shandor!!!! Please screen 1963s :" A Boy Ten Feet Tall"...a little boy is orphaned in Israel and walks the length of Africa to reach his Aunt Jane in Capetown...along the way he meets diamond poacher Edward G Robinson...along the way he becomes a man...keep a paper towel handy...this is for men what all those Garbo and Bette Davis pictures are for women...this makes Field of dreams weak!!!
Your reaction was very good. . .BUT. . .I really don't understand why guys your age have this ridiculous attitude about the past. You wondered how people in 1944 would react to this story. And you said, "It was 1944." SO WHAT???? Do you REALLY believe that people back then would be shocked by a dark "murder" story? That was the age of film noir, the age of the pulp murder mystery magazines, a time when the WORLD was at WAR. . .And you think people back then might not be able to handle this story idea? REALLY?? I just hate how younger people today seem to think that people who lived before them were somehow fragile, and unable to handle the tough side of life. or stories about that. These people had been through the Great Depression, and were still living through World War II. . .and you think they might not have been able to handle this story??? Think again. By the way, the author of the book this film was based on wrote dark mysteries. . .And they were available in stores all over and bought by the people you think might have had trouble handling this film. Like I said, think again!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Indemnity_(novel)