Double Indemnity

"Richard Schickel study of Billy Wilder's 1944 noir classic Double Indemnity traces in fascinating detail the genesis and realisation of the film: its literary origins in James M. Cain's hard-boiled crime novel, the difficult relations between Wilder and his scriptwriter Raymond Chandler, the casting of a reluctant Fred MacMurray and the late decision to cut from the film the expensively-shot final sequence of Neff's execution. Considering the film in the context of 1940s Hollywood, he argues for its centrality in the emergence of a new movie genre and style that would come to be known as 'film noir'. In his new afterword for this edition, critic James Naremore pays tribute to Schickel's analysis of the film and its contexts, and considers arguments around the film's ending as conceived by Wilder and as eventually screened"-- Provided by publisher.