Tag: Fred MacMurray
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Cable Guys: The Elevator Operators of Noir
We don’t see many elevator operators in our daily lives, but in noir they’re as common as neon signs and clouds of Chesterfield smoke. Elevator operators in film noir work in posh skyscrapers and skid row fleabags. They’re anonymous functionaries battling monotony and are nearly invisible extensions of the machinery they operate. Or they can…
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In Noir, Life Insurance Appeals to Profit-Minded Killers
Few noir plots are as coldly logical as insurance murder. Unlike inheritance killings, which require wealth, insurance turns death into an accessible commodity. It democratizes murder. Movie gangsters who kill often say it’s strictly business, nothing personal. But with insurance fraudsters, it’s typically a family affair, and it’s always deeply personal. Here are some noirs…
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Murderous Couples: ‘Body Heat,’ vs. ‘Double Indemnity’
After I moved to L.A. in 2008 I got together with a Meetup group that was going to see a screening of “Double Indemnity” (1944) at the ArcLight Theater in Hollywood. I was chomping at the bit in anticipation of watching one of my all-time favorite films with a group of cinema enthusiasts. I pictured…
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‘Double Indemnity’: Two On a Conveyor Belt Toward Doom
In “Double Indemnity” (1944), housewife Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) and gets him to kill her husband. She’s after a big payout from a policy that Neff sold him under false pretenses. It’s a classic noir — maybe THE classic noir. The story’s got all the right stuff —…