Double Indemnity; 1944; Studio: Paramount Pictures; Director: Billy Wilder; Cast: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson. Praised by numerous film journalists as one of the greatest movies of all time, Double Indemnity is considered a masterpiece of film noir with its dark, suspenseful plot, morally ambiguous protagonist, powerful female foil, and groundbreaking voiceover narration. In contrast to Detour, Double Indemnity was cast with two of the biggest Hollywood stars of the time, Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck, and enjoyed a relatively large production budget. Like many films noir, Double Indemnity begins at the end, with insurance salesman Walter Neff dictating a confession memo to his boss, Barton Keyes. Using plot devices of flashback and voiceover, Neff tells the story of how an unexpected meeting with a client’s beautiful wife leads him down a path of deception and murder. Double Indemnity was based on a 1927 novel of the same name by James M. Cain, the father of American hardboiled crime fiction, who also wrote The Postman Always Rings Twice. Studios competed for the rights to Cain’s novel in the 1930s until the Hays Office deemed it unacceptable for audiences. Finally in 1943, Paramount bought the rights and toned down the screenplay, ultimately gaining Hays Code approval. Director Billy Wilder considered the film to be one of his finest and was pleased with the high praise given it by author Cain. Double Indemnity was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Barbara Stanwyck, who was uncertain about taking the part of a femme fatale because it was such a departure from her usual heroine roles. The obviously artificial wig she wore throughout the film was hated by studio executives but has since become iconic as a telling mark of her character, enriching the movie with symbolism. Though the film did not take home any Oscars, it was a huge box office hit and spawned a multitude of copycat pictures. Many of the film’s aesthetics became conventions of the genre, including its “venetian blind” lighting, first-person narration, and non-linear narrative, inspiring other directors and creating the blueprint for the films noir that followed.