The Best Movie Of Each Year From 1925-2025
82. 1944 - Double Indemnity
Honourable Mentions: Gaslight, Laura, The Uninvited
One of the most iconic Film Noirs of all time, Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity is every bit the sleek, sexy and ironically punitive classic it's made out to be, featuring perhaps the greatest femme fatale put to screen in Barbara Stanwyck's Phyllis Dietrichson, who enlists the help of a horned-up insurance salesman, Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), to kill her husband and pocket the proceeds of a lucrative life insurance policy.
Edward G. Robinson is the intrepid investigator out to spoil the ruse, with MacMurray's Neff spiralling as his scheme frays apart. Raymond Chandler's prose was fertile ground for Hollywood, and while many of the author's works would be adapted as films in the ensuing years, none quite match the inky salaciousness of Wilder's first attempt.