Wounded from a gunshot, insurance salesman Walter Neff stumbles into his Los Angeles office. He records a dictaphone confession for claims adjuster Barton Keyes.
A year earlier, Neff flirts with Phyllis Dietrichson during a house call about her husband's automobile insurance. Phyllis asks about getting a policy on her husband's life without his knowledge. Neff deduces she is contemplating murder and wants no part of it. Phyllis visits Neff's apartment. He concocts a plan to murder Mr. Dietrichson and trigger the "double indemnity" clause, increasing the payout.
Neff hides in the back seat of Dietrichson's car while Phyllis drives her husband to a train station. Neff breaks his neck and boards the train posing as Dietrichson. At a prearranged spot, he jumps off the train. Phyllis helps pose Dietrichson's body on the tracks.
The president of Neff's insurance company believes the death was suicide. Keyes scoffs at the idea, but he does find it strange Dietrichson did not file a claim after breaking his leg. He grows to suspect Phyllis. He deduces she had an accomplice who will split the insurance money. The company refuses to pay out the accidental death clause because Dietrichson was unaware of the policy.
Dietrichson's daughter Lola befriends Neff. She thinks her stepmother Phyllis killed her father and his first wife. Neff fears Phyllis will murder her since Dietrichson changed his will in Lola's favor.
Keyes finds a witness who says the man on the train was not Dietrichson. Neff warns Phyllis that pursuing the insurance claim in court risks exposing the murder. He urges Phyllis to lie low while he convinces his boss to pay out the claim. Neff learns that Lola's hotheaded boyfriend Nino has been visiting Phyllis every night since the murder. Trying to prevent Lola's death, Neff confronts Phyllis.
Neff tells Phyllis he knows about her and Nino. He figures her plan was to manipulate Nino into murdering Lola and maybe him. He threatens to kill Phyllis and blame Nino. Phyllis shoots him. He dares her to shoot again. She does not, and he takes her gun. She says she never loved him "until a minute ago, when I couldn't fire that second shot." As they embrace, Neff shoots her twice.
Nino comes to the house. Neff warns him not to go inside. Neff drives to his office and starts recording his confession. Keyes arrives and hears the truth. Neff plans to flee to Mexico but collapses before he can leave the building.
Cast
Original trailer of the film Double Indemnity (1944)1950s trailer for early television broadcasts of the film
Douglas Spencer as Lou Schwartz, Neff's office mate
Production
Background
James M. Cain based his novella on a 1927 murder perpetrated by Ruth Snyder, a married woman from New York City, and her lover Henry Judd Gray.[1] They killed her husband Albert. She colluded with an insurance agent to obtain a $45,000 policy with a double-indemnity clause without Albert's knowledge.
The general low tone and sordid flavor of this story makes it, in our judgment, thoroughly unacceptable for screen presentation before mixed audiences in the theater. I am sure you will agree that it is most important...to avoid what the code calls "the hardening of audiences," especially those who are young and impressionable, to the thought and fact of crime.[2]
In 1943, Cain's novella was anthologized with two others in Three of a Kind. Paramount's Joseph Sistrom thought it was perfect for Billy Wilder. The studio bought the rights for $15,000.[2] Paramount resubmitted the novella to the Hays Office and got an identical response as seven years earlier. Paramount then submitted a partial screenplay to the Hays Office. It was approved with three objections about portraying the disposal of a corpse, the gas chamber execution scene, and the skimpiness of the towel worn by the female lead.[2][3]:54
Cain felt Joseph Breen owed him $10,000 for vetoing the property back in 1936 when he would have received $25,000.[4]
Writing
Keyes is sure something is not right.
The restrictions imposed by the Hays Code made adapting Double Indemnity a challenge. Wilder's writing partner Charles Brackett helped with the treatment before bowing out due to the sordid material.[5] Wilder characterized their time apart as a kind of adultery, "1944 was 'The Year of Infidelities'...Charlie produced The Uninvited...I don't think he ever forgave me. He always thought I cheated on him with Raymond Chandler." Brackett recalled, "Billy got so despondent at being without me that we did The Lost Weekend, a depressing film about a writer who has trouble writing."[6]
Wilder wanted to work with Cain, but he was working at another studio. Cain claimed he was never asked.[7] Sistrom was an avid reader and admired The Big Sleep. He suggested Raymond Chandler.[5]
Chandler was new to Hollywood and saw it as a golden opportunity. Not realizing that he would be collaborating with Wilder, he demanded $1,000 and at least a week to complete the screenplay. To help guide him in writing a screenplay, Wilder gave Chandler a copy of his screenplay for Hold Back the Dawn. Chandler presented an 80-page draft that Wilder characterized as "useless camera instruction". Wilder put it aside and informed Chandler that they would be working together slowly and meticulously.[2] They did not get along during the next four months. Chandler quit once, submitting a long list of grievances about Wilder to Paramount. Chandler agreed to appear in the film, glancing up from a magazine as Neff walks outside Keyes' office. It is the only professional footage of the writer.[8]
Chandler and Wilder made considerable changes to Cain's story. The double suicide at the end of the novella was not permissible. The Hays Code demanded criminals pay onscreen for their transgressions. The solution was to have the two protagonists mortally wound each other.[9]
Barton Keyes was changed from a fairly clueless colleague into a mentor and antagonist. Fred MacMurray's opening dialogue is very Chandler-esque. He is a corrupt version of Marlowe with a hard-boiled detective's gift for repartee.[5]
Chandler knew Cain's dialogue would not play well onscreen. Wilder disagreed. He hired contract players to read passages of Cain's text aloud. To his astonishment, Chandler was right. Chandler also scouted film locations. He hung around Jerry's Market on Melrose Avenue where Phyllis and Walter discreetly meet to plan the murder. His research instilled a realism about Los Angeles.[10]
Chandler was a recovering alcoholic. Wilder said, "He was in Alcoholics Anonymous...I drove him back into drinking."[2]:129 An embittered Chandler wrote "Writers in Hollywood" for The Atlantic Monthly in November 1945. He seethed, "The first picture I worked on was nominated for an Academy Award...but I was not even invited to the press review held right in the studio."[10]:181 Wilder responded, "How could we? He was under the table drunk..." Wilder's experience with Chandler drew him to The Lost Weekend about an alcoholic writer. Wilder wanted the film "to explain Chandler to himself."[1]Library of America included the screenplay in its second volume of Chandler's work, Later Novels and Other Writings (1995).
Cain was impressed with the screenplay. He said, "It's the only picture I ever saw made from my books that had things in it I wish I had thought of. Wilder's ending was much better than my ending, and his device for letting the guy tell the story by taking out the office dictating machine – I would have done it if I had thought of it."[7]
Casting
Wilder supposedly chose a bad wig for Stanwyck to underscore Phyllis's "sleazy phoniness".
Sistrom and Wilder wanted Barbara Stanwyck to play Phyllis Dietrichson. She was the highest-paid woman in America.[1] Stanwyck was reluctant to play a femme fatale, fearing it would have an adverse effect on her career. She recalled being, "a little afraid after all these years of playing heroines to go into an out-and-out killer." Wilder asked, "Well, are you a mouse or an actress?" She was grateful for his encouragement.[2]:134
Because Walter Neff is a weak and malleable heel, Alan Ladd, James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Gregory Peck, and Fredric March all passed on the role.[2]:134 Wilder scraped "the bottom of the barrel" and approached George Raft. Since Raft did not read scripts, Wilder described the plot. Raft interrupted, "Let's get to the lapel bit...when the guy flashes his lapel, you see his badge, you know he's a detective." Since Neff was not a cop, Raft turned the part down.[11]:117 This was the last in a series of films Raft declined which turned out to be classics.[12] Wilder realized the part needed someone who could play a cynic and a nice guy simultaneously.[2]:134
Fred MacMurray was accustomed to playing "happy-go-lucky good guys" in light comedies. In 1943, he was the highest-paid actor in Hollywood.[13] When Wilder approached him about the role, MacMurray said, "You're making the mistake of your life!" He felt he lacked the skill for a serious part.[3]:61 Wilder pestered MacMurray about it until he wore the actor down. MacMurray felt Paramount would never let him play a "wrong" role, because the studio carefully crafted his image. Paramount let him take the unsavory role hoping to teach him a lesson during negotiations for his contract renewal.[6]:202–3 MacMurray's success in the role came as a surprise to both studio and actor. He "never dreamed it would be the best picture I ever made."[11]:118
Edward G. Robinson was reluctant to step down to the third lead as Barton Keyes. Robinson admitted "At my age, it was time to begin thinking of character roles, to slide into middle and old age with the same grace as that marvelous actor Lewis Stone". It helped that he drew the same salary as the two leads for fewer shooting days.[2]:135
Wilder filmed the original ending where Keyes watches Neff die in the gas chamber. The director decided to end the film on the scene with the two men in their office, because "You couldn't have a more meaningful scene between two men...The story was between the two guys. I knew it...So we just took out the scene in the gas chamber."[10]:180 Chandler objected to the change, but it removed Joseph Breen's biggest remaining objection to the picture.[2]:137–8[11]:118 Sound and footage of the scene are lost, but production stills exist.[14]
John F. Seitz was the premier director of photography at Paramount, having worked since the silent era. Seitz was nominated for an Academy Award for Wilder's Five Graves to Cairo (1943). The director praised Seitz's willingness to experiment.[2]:124 They gave the film a look reminiscent of German expressionism with dramatic deployment of light and shadows.[2]:126 Wilder recalled, "Sometimes the rushes were so dark that you couldn't see anything. He went to the limits of what could be done."[6]:206 The bright Southern California exteriors contrasted with gloomy interiors to suggest what lurks just beneath the facade.[1] The effect was heightened by dirtying up the set with overturned ashtrays and aluminum particles blown into the air to simulate dust.[3]:63
Use of "venetian blind" lighting became a stock-in-trade film noir look.
Seitz used "venetian blind" lighting to simulate prison bars trapping the characters.[15] Barbara Stanwyck reflected, "for an actress, let me tell you the way those sets were lit, the house, Walter's apartment, those dark shadows, those slices of harsh light at strange angles – all that helped my performance. The way Billy staged it and John Seitz lit it, it was all one sensational mood."[9]
For Neff's office at Pacific All Risk, Wilder and set designer Hal Pereira conspired to create a little in-house joke by copying the corporate headquarters of Paramount Pictures in New York City.[6]:207
Stanwyck wears a blonde wig "to complement her anklet...and to make her look as sleazy as possible."[2]:135 People told Wilder the wig looked fake. Paramount production head Buddy DeSylva was overheard saying, "We hired Barbara Stanwyck, and here we get George Washington."[2]:135 Wilder insisted, "It's meant to show that she's a phony character and that all of her emotions are fraudulent". A week into filming, Wilder realized the wig was a mistake, one he considered the biggest in his career. There was too much completed footage to change Stanwyck's hair at that point.[1][3]:62
Edith Head designed Barbara Stanwyck's costumes.[16]:77 Her designs focus on bias-cut gowns, blouses with wide sleeves, and the waistline. Shoulder pads were the style of the 1940s, but they also accentuated the femme fatale's power. In Stanwyck's death scene, her platinum blonde wig and white jumpsuit contrast entirely with Neff's dark suit creating a chiaroscuro effect. They are the main source of light in the film's darkest scene.[16]:75
When Phyllis and Walter dump the corpse on the tracks, they were supposed to get in their car and drive away. The crew shot the scene as written. As Wilder left the exterior location, his car would not start. He ordered the crew back and reshot the scene with Phyllis struggling to start her car. Wilder insisted MacMurray turn the ignition so slowly that the actor protested, but the result was one of the more suspenseful scenes in the film.[10]:175–6[11]:116
Wilder managed to bring the whole production in under budget at $927,262 despite $370,000 in salaries for just four people: $100,000 each for MacMurray, Stanwyck, and Robinson; $44,000 for Wilder's writing plus $26,000 for his directing.[6]:211 Wilder considered Double Indemnity his best film because it had so few scripting and shooting errors.[17] He marked two high points in his career as Cain's praise for Double Indemnity and Agatha Christie's compliments about his adaptation of Witness for the Prosecution.[4]
Wilder liked Miklós Rózsa's work on his previous film enough to hire him for Double Indemnity, which was only his second movie score. Wilder suggested a restless string figure to reflect the conspiratorial activities of Walter and Phyllis. He had in mind the opening of Franz Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, which is heard onscreen in the scene at the Hollywood Bowl. Rózsa liked the idea, and Wilder was enthusiastic about the score as it took shape.[6]:210–11[18]:119
Paramount's music director Louis Lipstone reprimanded Rózsa for writing "Carnegie Hall music". Rózsa mistook this as a compliment. Lipstone suggested he listen to Madame Curie to learn how to properly score a film. He felt Rózsa's music was more appropriate for The Battle of Russia.[6]:210–11[18]:121 He expected Paramount's artistic director Buddy DeSylva to agree. When DeSylva heard the music, his only note was that there should be more of it.[18]:122 The score was nominated for an Academy Award, and the success brought Rózsa more studio work.[18]:122
Locations
Exteriors of the Dietrichson house in the film were shot at a 3200-square foot, Spanish Colonial Revival house built in 1927. The house is located at 6301 Quebec Drive in the Beachwood Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles. On a Paramount soundstage, the production team copied the interior of the house, including the spiral staircase.[19]
The Southern Pacific Railroad Station in Burbank was used in the film with a prop sign for Glendale. The site now hosts the Burbank Metrolink.[20] Walter Neff's apartment building was at 1825 N. Kingsley Drive in Hollywood, and the Hollywood & Western Building also appears in the film.[21]
Release
Double Indemnity's first theatrical engagement was at the Keith's in Baltimore, on July 3, 1944.[22] The film opened nationwide on July 6, 1944.[23] It was an immediate hit with audiences, despite a campaign by singer Kate Smith imploring the public to stay away on moral grounds.[6]:213 James M. Cain recalled, "there was a little trouble caused by this fat girl, Kate Smith, who carried on a propaganda asking people to stay away from the picture. Her advertisement probably put a million dollars on its gross."[7]
When Double Indemnity was released, David O. Selznick's was promoting Since You Went Away with trade magazine ads that claimed its title had become "the four most important words uttered in motion picture history since Gone with the Wind." Wilder riposted with an ad of his own claiming Double Indemnity were the two most important words uttered in motion picture history since Broken Blossoms. Selznick was not amused and threatened to stop advertising in any of the trades if they continued to run Wilder's ads.[6]:212–3
Reception
Reviews
Reviews were largely positive, though the content made some uncomfortable. While some critics found the story implausible and disturbing, others praised it as an original thriller. In The New York Times, Bosley Crowther called the picture "Steadily diverting, despite its monotonous pace and length." He complained that the two lead characters "lack the attractiveness to render their fate of emotional consequence", but also felt the movie possessed a "realism reminiscent of the bite of past French films".[2]:139
New York Herald Tribune's Howard Barnes wrote it was "one of the most vital and arresting films of the year", praising Wilder's "magnificent direction and a whale of a script". Variety felt it "sets a new standard for screen treatment in its category".[2]:139
Radio host and Hearst paper columnist Louella Parsons said, "Double Indemnity is the finest picture of its kind ever made, and I make that flat statement without any fear of getting indigestion later from eating my words."[4]
The Brooklyn Eagle was highly complimentary, "Besides MacMurray, who shows up as a top flight dramatic actor in a role that is a new type for him, and Miss Stanwyck, who has never given a more striking performance, 'Double Indemnity' has a third standout star, Edward G. Robinson, in his best role in many a film....By the way, there's no need to warn the teenagers away from this one; they wouldn't skip it in any case, and besides, 'Double Indemnity' makes it beautifully clear that murder doesn't pay—and certainly the insurance company doesn't, without sharp investigation."[24]
The film's critical reputation has only grown over the years. In 1977, Leslie Halliwell raved, "Brilliantly filmed and incisively written, perfectly capturing the decayed Los Angeles atmosphere of a Chandler novel, but using a simpler story and more substantial characters."[25] In a 1998 review for his "Great Films" series, Roger Ebert wrote, "The photography by John F. Seitz helped develop the noir style of sharp-edged shadows and shots, strange angles and lonely Edward Hopper settings."[26]
In Empire, Rob Fraser enthused, "Film noir at its finest, a template of the genre, etc. Billy Wilder in full swing, Barbara Stanwyck's finest hour, and Fred MacMurray makes a great chump."[27]
Filmed and released during the dark days of World War II, the film was not popular with the Academy. Wilder went to the awards ceremony expecting to win. The studio had been backing its other big hit of the year, Leo McCarey's Going My Way, and their employees were expected to vote for the studio favorite. As Double Indemnity kept losing during the awards show, it became evident that there would be a Going My Way sweep. When McCarey was named Best Director, a bitter Wilder tripped him on his way to accept the award.[2]:140 After the ceremony, Wilder yelled so everyone could hear him, "What the hell does the Academy Award mean, for God's sake? After all – Luise Rainer won it two times. Luise Rainer!"[11]:123
BBC: "100 Greatest American Films", #35 (2015).[40]
Variety: "The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time" (2022).[41]
Time Out: "100 Best Movies of All Time That You Should Watch Immediately" (2023).[42]
Film noir
Double Indemnity is a seminal example of the film noirgenre. It is often compared with Wilder's other acclaimed film noir Sunset Boulevard (1950). Both narrative structures begin and end in the present. Both protagonists narrate the plot as a flashback. Film scholar Robert Sklar explains, "[T]he unusual juxtaposition of temporalities gives the spectator a premonition of what will occur/has occurred in the flashback story...Besides Double Indemnity and Detour, voice-over is a key aspect of Mildred Pierce, Gilda, The Lady from Shanghai, and Out of the Past...as well as many others."[43] Critic and writer Wendy Lesser notes that the narrator of Sunset Boulevard is dead before he begins narrating, but in Double Indemnity, "the voice-over has a different meaning. It is not the voice of a dead man...it is...the voice of an already doomed man."[44]
Wilder was oblivious to film noir. He claimed, "I never heard that expression film noir when I made Double Indemnity...I just made pictures I would have liked to see. When I was lucky, it coincided with the taste of the audience. With Double Indemnity, I was lucky."[45]
Adaptations
The Screen Guild Theater twice adapted Double Indemnity as a radio drama. Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck reprised their roles in the first broadcast on March 5, 1945. Stanwyck appeared again on the February 16, 1950 version, this time opposite Robert Taylor.[46]
Double Indemnity is parodied in 1993's Fatal Instinct. The hero's wife conspires to have him shot on a moving train and fall into a lake so that she can collect on his insurance, which has a "triple indemnity" rider. Carol Burnett parodied the film as "Double Calamity" on her TV show.
Imitators
After the success of Double Indemnity, imitators were rampant. In 1945, Producers Releasing Corporation, one of the B movie studios of Hollywood's Poverty Row, financed Single Indemnity starring Ann Savage and Hugh Beaumont. Marketed as Apology for Murder, Paramount was not fooled by the title change and obtained an injunction against the film's release that still remains in effect.[49]
So many imitations flooded the market that Cain believed he deserved credit and remuneration. Cain was also disaffected about the extortionate practices of the film studios which could pay writers thousands of dollars for a copyright and earn millions from the resulting movie. He led a movement within the Screen Writers Guild to create the American Author's Authority, a union that would own its members' works, negotiate better subsidiary deals, and protect against copyright infringement. The AAA never got off the ground, partially due to the growing momentum of the Red Scare.[50]
The Lost Weekend is a 1945 American drama film noir directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman. It was based on Charles R. Jackson's 1944 novel of the same name about an alcoholic writer. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It also shared the Grand Prix at the first Cannes Film Festival, making it one of only three films—the other two being Marty (1955) and Parasite (2019)—to win both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the highest award at Cannes.
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress, model and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career she was known for her strong, realistic screen presence and versatility. She was a favorite of directors, including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang, and Frank Capra, and made 85 films in 38 years before turning to television.
Billy Wilder was an Austrian-born filmmaker and screenwriter. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Hollywood cinema. He received seven Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or and two Golden Globe Awards.
Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 American black comedy film noir directed by Billy Wilder and co-written by Wilder and Charles Brackett. It was named after a major street that runs through Hollywood.
Frederick Martin MacMurray was an American actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films and a successful television series in a career that spanned nearly a half-century. His career as a major film leading man began in 1935, but his most renowned role was in Billy Wilder's film noir Double Indemnity. From 1959 to 1973, MacMurray appeared in numerous Disney films, including The Shaggy Dog, The Absent-Minded Professor, Follow Me, Boys!, and The Happiest Millionaire. He starred as Steve Douglas in the television series My Three Sons.
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is a 1982 American neo-noir mystery comedy film directed, co-written by, and co-starring Carl Reiner and co-written by and starring Steve Martin. Co-starring Rachel Ward, the film is both a parody of and a homage to film noir and the pulp detective films of the 1940s. The title refers to Martin's character telling a story about a woman obsessed with plaid in a scene that was ultimately cut from the film.
Stichomythia is a technique in verse drama in which sequences of single alternating lines, or half-lines (hemistichomythia) or two-line speeches (distichomythia) are given to alternating characters. It typically features repetition and antithesis. The term originated in the theatre of Ancient Greece, though many dramatists since have used the technique. Etymologically it derives from the Greek stikhos + muthos.
Miklós Rózsa was a Hungarian-American composer trained in Germany (1925–1931) and active in France (1931–1935), the United Kingdom (1935–1940), and the United States (1940–1995), with extensive sojourns in Italy from 1953 onward. Best known for his nearly one hundred film scores, he nevertheless maintained a steadfast allegiance to absolute concert music throughout what he called his "double life".
Ace in the Hole, also known as The Big Carnival, is a 1951 American drama film directed by Billy Wilder. The film stars Kirk Douglas as a cynical, disgraced reporter who stops at nothing to try to regain a job on a major newspaper. The film co-stars Jan Sterling and features Robert Arthur and Porter Hall.
Thomas McCreery Powers was an American actor in theatre, films, radio and television. A veteran of the Broadway stage, notably in plays by George Bernard Shaw, he created the role of Charles Marsden in Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude. He succeeded Orson Welles in the role of Brutus in the Mercury Theatre's debut production, Caesar. In films, he was a star of Vitagraph Pictures and later became best known for his role as the victim of scheming wife Barbara Stanwyck and crooked insurance salesman Fred MacMurray in the film noir classic Double Indemnity (1944).
The Brasher Doubloon is a 1947 American crime film noir directed by John Brahm and starring George Montgomery and Nancy Guild. It is based on the 1942 novel The High Window by Raymond Chandler.
Phyllis Dietrichson is a fictional character in the book and two film adaptations of James M. Cain's novella Double Indemnity. For the 1944 film of the same name, Barbara Stanwyck was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. The character is considered one of the best femme fatale roles in film noir history. The character was ranked as the #8 film villain of the first 100 years of American cinema by the American Film Institute in the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains.
Double Indemnity is a 1943 crime novel by American journalist-turned-novelist James M. Cain. It was first published in serial form in Liberty magazine in 1936 and later republished as one of "three long short tales" in the collection Three of a Kind.
The Scarlet Hour is a 1956 American film noir crime film directed and produced by Michael Curtiz, and starring Carol Ohmart, Tom Tryon, and Jody Lawrance. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures. Curtiz had previously directed such noted films as Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and White Christmas. The screenplay was based on the story "The Kiss Off" by Frank Tashlin. The song "Never Let Me Go", written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, is performed by Nat King Cole. UCLA has an original 16 mm copy of the film in its Film and Television Archive.
Double indemnity is a clause or provision in a life insurance or accident policy.
Louis R. Lipstone was head of Paramount Pictures music department from 1939 to 1954.
The depictions of women in film noir come in a range of archetypes and stock characters, including the alluring femme fatale. A femme fatale, is a prevalent and indicating theme to the style of film noir.
Double Indemnity is a 1973 American made-for-television crime film directed by Jack Smight and starring Richard Crenna, Lee J. Cobb, Robert Webber and Samantha Eggar. It was a remake of Double Indemnity (1944) based on the film rather than the original novel.
Three of a Kind is a collection of three novellas by James M. Cain, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1943. Each originally appeared as serials in magazines during the 1930s. The collection includes Double Indemnity, first published in 1936 as a serial for Liberty magazine; Career in C Major, originally entitled "Two Can Sing" when it appeared in The American Magazine in 1938; and The Embezzler, appearing in Liberty as "Money and the Woman", also in 1938.
Jealous Woman is a mystery novel by James M. Cain published in 1950 by Avon.
↑ Pelizzon, V. Penelope; West, Nancy M. (2005). "Multiple Indemnity: Film Noir, James M. Cain, and Adaptations of a Tabloid Case". Narrative. 13 (3): 211–237. ISSN1063-3685. JSTOR20079649.
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