Double Indemnity
(1944)
Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (John F. Seitz)
Academy Award for Best Director (Billy Wilder)
Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic or Comedy Score (Miklós Rózsa)
Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing
Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (Raymond Chandler, Billy Wilder)Award details: (details at IMDb)
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Double Indemnity is a 1944 American film noir, directed by Billy Wilder, co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. The screenplay was based on James M. Cain's 1943 novella of the same name, which originally appeared as an eight-part serial in Liberty magazine. The film stars Fred MacMurray as an insurance salesman, Barbara Stanwyck as a provocative housewife who wishes her husband were dead, and Edward G. Robinson as a claims adjuster whose job is to find phoney claims. The term "double indemnity" refers to a clause in certain life insurance policies that doubles the payout in cases when death is caused by certain accidental means. Praised by many critics when first released, Double Indemnity was nominated for seven Academy Awards but did not win any. Widely regarded as a classic, it is often cited as a paradigmatic film noir and as having set the standard for the films that followed in that genre. Deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the U.S. Library of Congress in 1992, Double Indemnity was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.