best film: Double Indemnity from Billy Wilder is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, film noir of all-time and it, along with a few other key films, signifies the beginning of that important genre (and era) in cinema history.
stunning silhouette from the opening titles (you can see them poking through here) of Double Indemnity
the venetian blinds — a rich history in cinema including The Conformist, American Gigolo— never better than here in Wilder’s masterpiece.
most underrated: Laurence Olivier’s Henry V sits at #987 on the TSPDT consensus ranking and I had it sneak into my top 500 so that’s a pretty big difference. Just about everyone acknowledges Olivier’s acting—but the formal decision to start in the theater and then to bring the film outdoors still bowls me over.
Laurence Olivier’s Henry V sits at #987 on the TSPDT consensus ranking and I had it sneak into my top 500 so that’s a pretty big difference. Just about everyone acknowledges Olivier’s acting…
…but the formal decision to start in the theater and then to bring the film outdoors still bowls me over.
most overrated: A Canterbury Tale from Powell and Pressburger. I hope I regret this one the next time I give it a look. A year their first masterpiece, Colonel Blimp, I have to admit I’m befuddled by the extraordinarily high ranking (#323) for A Canterbury Tale.
an admittedly gorgeous shot with the natural light pouring in from the doorway here from A Canterbury Tale
gem I want to spotlight: To Have and Have Not from Howard Hawks. It has all the characteristics of a Hawks film (male comradery/bonding, a strong woman, genre work), a top tier Bogart performance (who is just on an incredible run starting in 1941), and, course, the famous debut of an enchanting and very talented model-turned actor—19-year-old Lauren Bacall
trends and notables:
- Most signify 1944 as the birth of film noir (many of the films have a black pessimism to them but Double Indemnity needs to be on everyone’s Mount Rushmore of the genre)
- We have Eisenstein back in the archives for the first time this decade—once again—if you only know him for his editing the imagery is as strong as anything from 1944
a jaw-dropping foreground/background shot in Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible, Part I
We have Eisenstein back in the archives for the first time this decade—once again—if you only know him for his editing the imagery is as strong as anything from 1944
a detailed design of the frame
- The directing debut for Olivier, Otto Preminger would become of the best directors working for the next 20 years and starts his career here with Laura. Ditto for Douglas Sirk- his best work would come in the 1950’s but the German-born Sirk would make his first archiveable film here in 1944. Robert Wise would also make his archiveable debut – co-directing The Curse of the Cat People
Otto Preminger would become of the best directors working for the next 20 years and starts his career here with Laura
- A young Gene Kelly shows up in Cover Girl for his archiveable debut– same film for the first archiveable film from Shelley Winters, and the great Robert Mitchum is in Thirty Seconds over Tokyo for his first in the archives. Gregory Peck doesn’t take long to become one of the major leading men in Hollywood after his debut in 1944’s The Keys of the Kingdom. I mention her above in the “gem” section and below in the best performance female section but Lauren Bacall’s archiveable debut is in 1944 as well with To Have and Not.
best performance male: The top slot here goes to the stirring performance from Olivier. He’s often regarded as the finest Shakespearian actor of the 20th century and it is easy to see why here. Fred MacMurray as Walter Neff and Edward G. Robinson as his boss, Barton Keyes. Robinson isn’t on screen often but when he is, he dominates Nikolay Cherkasov has to be mentioned here for his work as the titular Czar in Ivan IV and we cannot forget about Bogart—trading barbs with Bacall here in 1946. This is Bogart’s third mention in this category since the beginning of the decade.
Nikolay Cherkasov has to be mentioned here for his work as the titular Czar in Ivan IV— this is one of the better single frames of the 1940’s
best performance female: 1944 is packed with at least four standout performances here. Lauren Bacall couldn’t be better (and never would be) in her debut, Judy Garland gives a top three performance of her career (A Star is Born, The Wizard of Oz) and Gene Tierney does her best work in Laura. Forced to pick though, I do have to give the slight edge to Barbara Stanwyck over the others for playing perhaps the preeminent femme fatale in Double Indemnity. She’s an underrated all-time actress and this is the best performance of her storied career.
the famous debut of an enchanting and very talented model-turned actor—19-year-old Lauren Bacall
top 10
- Double Indemnity
- To Have and Have Not
- Ivan the Terrible, Part I
- Meet Me in St. Louis
- Henry V
- Laura
- Arsenic and Old Lace
- A Canterbury Tale
- The Woman in the Window
- National Velvet
from Lang’s The Woman in the Window
Minnelli’s first foray into color here in Meet Me in St. Louis— one of the best of the early adapters to experiment and flourish in color’s rich possibilities
Archives, Directors, and Grades
| A Canterbury Tale- Powell & Pressburger | R/HR |
| Arsenic and Old Lace- Capra | HR |
| Bluebeard- Ulmer | R |
| Cover Girl- C. Vidor | R |
| Double Indemnity- Wilder | MP |
| Gaslight- Cukor | R |
| Going My Way– McCarey | R |
| Hail the Conquering Hero- P. Sturges | R |
| Henry V- Olivier | MS |
| Ivan the Terrible, Part I- Eisenstein | MS |
| Laura- Preminger | MS |
| Lifeboat- Hitchcock | R |
| Meet Me In St. Louis- Minnelli | MS |
| Mrs. Parkington- Garnett | R |
| Murder, My Sweet- Dmytryk | R |
| National Velvet- C. Brown | HR |
| None But the Lonely Heart- Odets | R |
| Passage to Marseille- Curtiz | R |
| Phantom Lady- Siodmak | R |
| Since You Went Away- Cromwell | R |
| Summer Storm- Sirk | R |
| The Curse of the Cat People – Wise, von Fritsch | R |
| The Keys of the Kingdom- Stahl | R |
| The Mask of Dimitrios- Negulesco | R |
| The Seventh Cross– Zinnemann | R |
| Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo- Leroy | R |
| To Have and Have Not- Hawks | MS |
| The Woman in the Window- Lang | |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-See- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
Okay, since you mention Double Indemnity, there is no mention for the protagonist? Fred MacMurray or Edward G. Robinson, don’t you think they act good?
@Aldo- yes– great call– when I update this page (which won’t be long) it’ll probably include both- they’re excellent here.
Great work but greatest noir of all time? What about Touch of evil. Isn’t that a masterpiece if ever there was one
Yeah sure, i also had that doubt, but i think it refers to the greatest pure noir.
Script only, the best noir by writing, i hope i have explained to you.
I mean Touch of evil is the best, but the qualities that make it a masterpiece go beyond being a noir, unlike this.
@D.WGriffith and @Aldo – Interesting thoughts, just watched Double Indemnity for about the 10th time. Touch of Evil (1958) and Double Indemnity (1944) are probably my 2 favorite Noirs of all time along with Chinatown (1974) although that one is technically a Neo Noir. I’ve heard some people say Touch of Evil is better directed, what exactly does that mean? What are the metrics to consider how well a film is directed?
I don’t have the article at the moment, Drake and Graham discussed it before, but from what i know, a quintessential noir must have these characteristics.
-Femme Fatale (primordial) touch of evil does not have
-Tragic ending
-Narrator voice-off
-Using flashbacks
-Protagonists of ambiguous morals
Another excellent noir that meets these characteristics is Out of the past, take a look if you haven’t already.
As for Touch of evil, it does not collect all the tropes of a noir,
I have been visiting your site for some time now and I am a big admirer of your passion towards films.a few questions-
1.do you want to be a filmmaker?
2.what are your five (or more)favorite thrillers?
3.is fanny and alexander tv version a significant improvement over the theatrical version and should I see it even if I have seen the theatrical version.
@Hitchscorstanricosawa- thanks for visiting the site and the comment here.
1. I do not want to be a filmmaker– never have- have always preferred watching, reading up on history/criticism
2. movie thrillers— hmm– genres are tough– is Rear Window a thriller? North By Northwest? Jaws? Silence of the Lambs? sorry- here’s my overall list of top 500 you can check it out and search for thrillers http://thecinemaarchives.com/2019/04/10/the-best-500-films-of-all-time/ The Manchurian Candidate is a thriller I would think.
3. I would see both if possible. I have seen both and revisit the theatrical version more often though
Love the name, Hitch-scor-stan-rico-sawa.
Major spoilers for Laura ahead so if you haven’t seen the film yet, don’t read this!
What are your thoughts on a mention for Clifton Webb in Laura? I think he is virtually on par with Tierney and barely ahead of Dana Andrews (who I think is very good and perhaps worthy of a mention as well but I’ll hold out on only one for now) for the best performance in the film. We explore so much of his lengthy friendship with Laura through his conversational scenes with Andrews and he perfectly conveys the desire, which will never be anything more than that, that he holds for her. It’s so excellent seeing the ways his character changes throughout the film and over the course of his time with her as he is at first a very loyal friend but later on we see him attempt to manipulate her into loving him instead of those she loves more, and when he’s with Andrews, we start to see a similar divide as they grow farther apart and less trusting of eachother throughout the film. This culminates in the final scene as his hostility towards Andrews boils to 100 degrees Celsius as he realizes Laura loves Andrews now too, attempting to push her off of him as he had for her other suitors yet falling short again. He does a voiceover throughout much of the film, and we begin the film with that voiceover as he describes his initial involvement in the case, hear it again in the flashback scenes of him meeting Laura and much of their lives they spent together, and in the final scene as he gives his ending speech about the power of love and the drive it gives an individual, such as himself in this instance as he attempts to kill Laura. The final words are his, goodbye Laura, goodbye my love, and he’s quite excellent in this last scene as he’s lost everything and realizes Laura will not come back to him this time, and as a man with nothing to lose, trying to kill her will cost him nothing.
I just think it’s a really great, villainous performance that slowly unfurls itself over time and should be listed as one of the best male performances of the year. He’s really good in this, and I think the film actually explores his character and the way he changes over the course of the film than either Laura or Detective McPherson.
1944 was a big year for Edward G. Robinson, he was terrific in Double Indemnity (as noted) and was the star of Lang’s Woman in the Window which I think is somewhat of an overlooked gem. This may be partly because Robinson arguably outdoes this performance the following year again working with Lang, this time in Scarlet Street. He is in some ways the heart of Double Indemnity, though it is Barbara Stanwyck who gives the films finest performance (possibly the greatest female performance in any noir). He manages to make an insurance investigator seem like a rock star job ha and as noted dominates every scene he’s in.
Minor spoiler
Perhaps the best scene in Double Indemnity is when Phyllis (Stanwyck) is hiding behind the door and Keyes (Robinson) is discussing his theories about the case with Neff (MacMurray). You get the suspense of her potential discovery, Chandler and Wilder’s brilliant dialogue, and Robinson’s electric acting in perfect synchronization.
What is your grade for Woman in the Window (1944)?
@James Trapp- I do not currently have a grade for The Woman in the Window
I don’t like McMurray in Double Indemnity. I find him really dull. It’s just like Ryan O’Neal in Barry Lyndon. You can like him if you want but he’s practically a stand in.
@Drake, do you agree or am I wrong and I’m missing something. I wanna see a version with William Holden.
Both Stanwyck and Robinson are far better.
@M*A*S*H – I’m interested in what Drake says but given that it’s one of my 10 favorite films ever I’ll throw in my unsolicited opinion ha.
McMurray definitely gives the 3rd best performance
1. Stanwyck’s performance is the golden standard for femme fatales, I don’t think she’s anywhere near the
most attractive (just my personal opinion) but she embodies every aspect of a femme fatale
2. Robinson is so commanding in every scene, he’s a unique character with his own pecularities like the
running joke about his “little man” in his stomach and always looking for matches/lighter for his cigar
3. McMurray does solid work here and is the narrative vehicle. He is the classic Noir male, smart enough to
come up with a near full proof plan to pull off the murder but not smart enough (or too distracted) to realize
he’s the one being played. You could argue it’s not his lack of intelligence that does him in but rather that he
is just too weak willed to resist the plan. Holden would be great, I will give you that he is far more
replaceable than the other two but I think he succeeds in what Wilder is going for. Ebert has an interesting
take on the relationship between McMurray and Stanwyck:
“the enigma that keeps it new, is what these two people really think of one another. They strut through the routine of a noir murder plot, with the tough talk and the cold sex play. But they never seem to really like each other all that much, and they don’t seem that crazy about the money, either. What are they after?”
Later in the review Ebert compares the murder to a one night stand. I like the comparison as it does seem to have an element of a “thrill kill” to it. When people think of thrill kills they usually think of a leopold and loeb scenario where it is presented as almost like a sort of scientific experiment (think Hitchcock’s Rope) I don’t think that’s what is going on here but I agree with Ebert that it does seem that this is not just about the money.
@MASH – I would not go as far as dull– he does give one of the best performances of 1944- but I’m with James Trapp that he gives the third best performance in the film.
On the contrary, a “stand in” would be someone who could be easily replaced by someone superior, and I cannot think of any actor around in 1944 that I’m confident could better convey Walter Neff’s layered personality of superficial intelligence and inflated self-confidence that serves as a mask for virtual enslavement to his sexual/financial aspirations. Holden was beyond doubt a great actor but, somewhat overrated looks notwithstanding, primarily embodied the everyman in his screen persona, and I don’t think he would have been able to exhibit the level of egotism and rapid-fire wit that MacMurray does so beautifully. As for Bogart: an interesting hypothetical, and I certainly wouldn’t put it beyond him (he was more than capable of shedding his public persona for certain characters) but I think the main reason MacMurray is so effective in this role is because he is not Humphrey Bogart, but knows exactly how to portray a character who believes that he is. Walter Neff is not the world-weary insouciant badass he perceives himself as, and the problem is that Bogart was that kind of person both in real life (at least according to all accounts of him) and, in most cases, on the screen as well.
@Drake and @James Trapp- you are right he’s not bad. But i STRONGLY believe William Holden in this role would become Stanwyck’s equal.
@M*A*S*H- I’d like to see the film with Holden in that role. But maybe not the 1944 version of Holden. Probably the 1954 version of him.
@Drake- William Holden out of Sunset Blvd.
@Drake- Would you like to see Humphrey Bogart in that role. The is flat out mouth watering for me.
@M*A*S*H- I would definitely like to see that movie. Maybe Wilder was going for an actor with more natural naivete than Bogart- just a guess.
@M*A*S*H – I am curious, have you seen Body Heat? Its a 1981 film directed by Lawrence Kasdan starring William Hurt and Kathleen Turner. Very similar premise and characters. Of course the Double Indemity plot has been done a number of times such as The Postman Always Rings Twice (there’s a few versions)
But I’ve come to view Body Heat as the best of these types of films (After Double Indemnity itself obviously). If you have Criterion Channel it is leaving at the end of the month. William Hurt and Kathleen Turner are both phenomenal. I think you would really like it