Double Indemnity (1944); Pitfall (1948)

August 22, 2014 - 7:30 pm

Billy Wilder Theater

Double Indemnity (1944)

Directed by Billy Wilder.

An insurance agent (Fred MacMurray) falls hard for a married woman (Barbara Stanwyck, playing hot), itching to get rid of her husband. Then, he falls even harder, after committing the perfect crime. Raymond Chandler’s adaptation of James M. Cain’s novel passes through the hard-boiled school of two American masters, before director Billy Wilder adds his own Central European Jewish exile view of moral ambiguity.

Paramount Pictures, Inc. Producer: Joseph Sistrom. Based on the novel by James M. Cain. Screenwriter: Raymond Chandler, Billy Wilder. Cinematographer: John Seitz. Cast: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall, Jean Heather.

35mm, b/w, 107 min.

Watch the trailer below:

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive, with funding provided by the AFI/NEA Film Preservation Grants Program.

Pitfall (1948)

Directed by André de Toth.

A claims adjuster for an insurance company (Dick Powell) falls hard for Mona (Lizabeth Scott), who he is supposed to be investigating, and ends up involved in embezzlement and murder. It is the story of a clerk, dreaming to break out of his tired bourgeois existence, as first given form in German expressionist films like Die strasse (1923). However, the noir city has been supplanted by a darker suburbia.

Regal Films, Inc. Producer: Samuel Bischoff. Based on the novel by Jay Dratler. Cinematographer: Harry Wild. Editor: Walter Thompson. Screenwriter: Karl Kamb. Cast: Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt, Raymond Burr, John Litel.

35mm, b/w, 86 min.

Watch the trailer below:

Part of:

Exile Noir

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Double Indemnity (1944); Pitfall (1948)