DOUBLE INDEMNITY Screens April 12th at The Tivoli – ‘Classics in the Loop’

“Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money – and a woman – and I didn’t get the money and I didn’t get the woman. Pretty, isn’t it?”

DOUBLE INDEMNITY screens Wednesday April 12th at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar in ‘The Loop’) as the second installment of their new ‘Classics in the Loop’ Crime & Noir film series. The movie starts at 7pm and admission is $7. It will be on The Tivoli’s big screen.

Cold-blooded, brutal, and stylishly directed by Billy Wilder, DOUBLE INDEMNITY is a prime example of The Film Noir genre and remains highly influential in its look, attitude and story. The 1944 crime drama set the pattern for that distinctive post-war genre: a shadowy, nighttime urban world of deception and betrayal usually distinguished by its “hard-boiled” dialogue, corrupt characters and the obligatory femme fatale who preys on the primal urges of an ordinary Joe hungry for sex and easy wealth. Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces insurance agent Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) into murdering her husband to collect his accident policy. The murder goes as planned, but after the couple’s passion cools, each becomes suspicious of the other’s motives. The plan is further complicated when Neff’s boss Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), a brilliant insurance investigator, takes over the investigation. Told in flashbacks from Neff’s perspective, the film moves with ruthless determinism as each character meets what seems to be a preordained fate. Movie veterans Stanwyck, MacMurray, and Robinson give some of their best performances, and Wilder’s cynical sensibility finds a perfect match in the story’s unsentimental perspective and dark sense of humor. DOUBLE INDEMNITY ranks with the classics of mainstream Hollywood.

Here’s the rest of the line-up for the ‘CLASSICS IN THE LOOP’ film series:
April 19th – DARK PASSAGE – 1947
April 26th – SUNSET BOULEVARD – 1950
May 3rd – THE THIRD MAN – 1949
May 10th – TOUCH OF EVIL – 1958
May 17th – CHINATOWN – 1974
May 24th – BLOOD SIMPLE – 1984

Look for continued coverage of the ‘CLASSICS IN THE LOOP’ film series here at We Are movie Geeks.