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Film · Paramount · 1944

Pass it on

Double Indemnity

46Watch it awake.

It's a confession and a sales pitch for the crime, both, and I felt both.

The review

He tells it into a dictaphone, so the plan has already failed, and I leaned toward the scheme anyway. MacMurray's insurance man and Stanwyck's wife mean to kill the husband and collect. Adult. Not a family film. I won't describe the killing. The policy is the trap, which is his own work closing on him.

The confession tells the truth. The cleverness is still the pleasure the film also bills. Both sit there, and I won't call the second one a side effect. Watch with another adult and mark the minute you want them to get away with it. That want is the part that recruits. The bill arrives. It does not erase the fun already sold.

Journal

Keep Double Indemnity in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 46. Yours can differ.

The glance

Household and Piety and Courage and Temperance and Stewardship are the thin ones.

Is a marriage, a parent, or a child a real life here, or just a prop?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

Anatomy of a Murder

58 instead of 46

Anatomy of a Murder is still a crime film, and it scores 58 instead of 46. What you gain is temperance: The frankness was a shock in 1959.

The eight

7
Industry
He knows policies well enough to make one the weapon and the trap.
3
Household
A wife and a husband, and the marriage is what the plan spends.
4
Piety
The confession is conscience after the fact. It stops nothing in time.
4
Courage
They stake a life for the payout, not for anyone they meant to keep.
6
Republic
The policy is the contract they meant to cheat, and it traps them.
2
Temperance
The clever steps invite you to enjoy the next one while he confesses.
8
Truth
He confesses the lie into a machine, and the policy bills them.
3
Stewardship
What's left is the fun of a scheme the confession already condemned.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · Double Indemnity · 46IMDb

Live HistoricSee what matters.

Film · United Artists · 1964

Pass it on

A Hard Day's Night

46Watch it awake.

Watch it awake, or put it on for the songs and the work. Nobody is asked to become worse.

The review

They have a television appearance to make, a train to catch, and an afternoon in which the city wants pieces of them. The jokes are at the expense of managers, advertisers, and anyone who needs the boys to stand still and be a product. The songs are the work, performed as work. Nobody is asked to betray a friend. Nobody is asked to be cruel to a girl. For a phenomenon as large as this one, that is a remarkable restraint, and I will credit it.

A family can put it on. The limit is that it is a day, not a life, and a day of fame is a thin diet if it becomes the only picture of adulthood in the house. Watch the studio session and ask who in the room was doing a job seriously. Include them. The screaming outside is the decade. The work inside is the part worth keeping. A very large cultural fact of 1964. The fact is not a reason. The songs and the decency are.

Journal

Keep A Hard Day's Night in the record.