Film director Billy Wilder left his native Austria to evade the Nazis and, after emigrating to the United States, became a the quintessential American director. He started out as a screenwriter for Ernst Lubisch and others later began directing with The Front Page, which was later refilmed as His Girl Friday.
double indemnity (1944) was Wilder’s third goal first stylistically serious film, and is credited with the birth of film noir, literally “night movie.” This term describes a visual style and moods of a type of dramatic film, usually a crime film, that is much grittier and more realistic than most films before this era.
film noir it was filmed primarily at night or in dark interiors; there’s a lot of use of shadows, dimly lit edges, light from venetian blinds simulating bars through characters that can be directed to reality, and backlit smoke. Indemnity uses cigars and cigarettes, the characters smoke when they get tense, or even to relax after sex.
film noir It has its origins in 1930s detective stories, often called pulp fiction because of the cheap paper it was printed on; these were sleazy stories with sex, violence, and sleazy characters. Even the heroes were common folk with street wisdom, often with a harsh upbringing, and at best only one parent.
Returning soldiers from World War II and a movie audience that had survived the Great Depression demanded more adult films in subject matter, theme, and style. Wilder was impressed by author John Kain’s pulp novel of “Double Indemnity”, the same author of the novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, but it was deemed impossible to film due to the Hayes Code, the autocracy of censorship. The script went through years of rewrites and enforcement before filming was allowed in 1944. The Hayes Code first suppressed sex in movies, then violence, then socialism, and was used to judge over 28,000 works of art! !
Wilder then had a hard time playing the lead roles, two murderous adulterers. He wanted Barbara Stanwyck all along, but finally had to challenge her to accept the role of her that she broke the image of her, asking him “are you an actress or a mouse?” After several refusals from actors, including George Raft, who had a knack for turning down breakout roles like Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, he convinced Fred McMurray to break the screen image of him in light rom-coms to try something serious. . Her first scene with Stanwyck, when he meets her at her house and she’s in a towel in her bathroom, utilizes her comedic chops along with some fantastic dialogue and timing.
Wilder also coaxed lead actor Edward G. Robinson into taking on a non-stellar character role, meaty enough for at least two major speeches that Robinson absolutely nailed. Crime novelist Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye) was hired for his realistic dialogue, which is very evident here, especially in the opening scenes between Stanwyck and McMurray. However, Chandler was an introvert and Wilder was an extrovert, so they did not get along and never worked together again. Ironically, they were nominated for an Academy Award together for their screenplay. Wilder later used Chandler as a model for his Best Picture winner, The Lost Weekend, about a serious alcoholic who is destroying his life.
Double Indemnity was nominated for these 7 Academy Awards (but won none, as Going My Way won Image and seven in total):
- BEST FILM – Paramount
- DIRECTOR – Billy Wilder
- ACTRESS – Barbara Stanwyck
- CINEMATOGRAPHY (Black and White) – John Seitz
- MUSIC (Musical score of a drama or comedy) – Miklos Rozsa
- WRITING (Screenplay) – Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler
- SOUND RECORDING – Loren L. Ryder, Sound Director
Other film noir classics: From the Past, The Night of the Hunter, Panic in the Streets, DOA, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Deep Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, The Third Man, The Touch of Evil, The Lady from Shanghai
Modern film noir: Wait Until Dark, Diva (France), Chinatown, Shoot the Pianist (France), Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Blood Simple, Body Heat, House of Games and The Silence of the Lambs.
The style is also clearly evident in parts of other classic movies like In the Heat of the Night, The Godfather, Mean Streets, Batman, The Hustler, The Departed, and No Country for Old Men.
Billy Wilder filmography Includes: Stalag 17, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, The Spirit of St. Louis, Witness for the Prosecution, Sabrina, The Seven Year Itch, The Fortune Cookie. Wilder was nominated for 21 Academy Awards, 12 for writing, 8 for directing, and won six. He won for directing, producing and writing The Apartment; for directing The Lost Weekend; and for writing Lost Weekend and Sunset Boulevard.