Woman without a conscience
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Woman without a conscience |
| Original title | Double indemnity |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1944 |
| length | 107 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Billy Wilder |
| script | Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler |
| production |
Joseph Sistrom for Paramount Pictures |
| music |
Johnny Mercer , Miklós Rózsa , Victor Schertzinger |
| camera | John F. Seitz |
| cut | Doane Harrison |
| occupation | |
| |
Indemnity is an American film thriller with director of Billy Wilder , who also jointly with Raymond Chandler wrote the screenplay. The film is based on the novel double severance (Double Indemnity) by James M. Cain from the year 1935. Indemnity is considered one of the most important classic film noirs . It premiered on July 3, 1944 in Baltimore.
action
The insurance agent Walter Neff dragged himself into his office to record a confession with a dictation phonograph. He tells the story of an insurance fraud in which he is involved as a murderer:
One day Neff visits Mr. Dietrichson's house to renew a car insurance policy. But only his wife Phyllis is present. Neff is immediately drawn to her. At a second meeting - her husband is not there again - she asks him if she could take out accident insurance for her husband without him finding out. Neff already suspects that Mrs. Dietrichson might have plans to get rid of her husband and openly tells her that he cannot be won over. She later visits him at home and Neff agrees to help her with the murder. He has the idea of staging a train accident, because in such a case the insurance company would pay double the sum, namely 100,000 dollars.
In order to be able to conclude the contract unnoticed, Neff first presents the car insurance policy to Mr. Dietrichson and shortly afterwards an alleged copy. Mr. Dietrichson signs both without knowing that the copy is actually his accident insurance. On this occasion, Neff also meets Phyllis' stepdaughter, Lola Dietrichson, and then drives her to town, where she secretly meets with her friend Nino.
In order to keep the further planning of the murder a secret, Neff and Phyllis only meet in the grocery store and only make phone calls via telephone boxes. Unexpectedly, Mr. Dietrichson breaks his leg when Phyllis has already booked a train trip for him. On the day of his departure, Neff first gets an alibi and then hides in Phyllis' car. The Dietrichson couple get in, and shortly before the finish line, Phyllis honks the horn, whereupon Neff breaks her husband's neck from behind. Neff then pretends to be Dietrichson, gets on the train and goes to the rear platform. There sits a man named Jackson who tries to talk to Neff, but Neff casts him off. In an unnoticed moment he jumps off the train. Phyllis is already waiting for him there and they put Mr. Dietrichson's body on the rails.
After the case became known, Neff's colleague and friend Barton Keyes was tasked with investigating the circumstances. The insurance detective is initially firmly convinced that it was an accident, while Norton, the company's boss, suspects suicide. Neff feels safe until Keyes suddenly has a new guess: murder. One day Lola appears in Neff's office and tells him that Phyllis killed her birth mother in order to be able to marry Mr. Dietrichson. When Keyes asks Neff into his office on another day, he is confronted with a new problem: The man Jackson, who saw him on the platform of the train, wants to testify. He's sure the person on the train was younger than Mr. Dietrichson, but he doesn't recognize Neff. At a secret meeting, Neff explains to Phyllis the gravity of the situation and confronts her with the accusations of her stepdaughter. In the following time Neff also met Lola more often, and she told him that Nino was cheating on her with Phyllis. At the same time, Nino is also the main suspect in the eyes of the investigators, as he is said to have visited Phyllis every day. The desire to get rid of Phyllis is slowly growing in Neff.
The last time he visits Phyllis at home, he wants to kill her. But she too has a plan: She wants to kill Neff first and then her stepdaughter in order to become the sole heir to her dead husband. She shoots Neff first, but doesn't fatally hit him. Suddenly she throws herself in his arms as if she loves him in spite of everything. However, Neff shoots them in cold blood.
At the end of the confession, Keyes enters the office. Neff, who refuses to accept his fate, tries to flee, but only makes it to the door with his gunshot wound and collapses. His partner Keyes lights a cigarette for him.
reception
A femme fatale ready for all kinds of outrage and an average guy mutating into a murderous accomplice - such roles were more than unusual in Hollywood's mainstream cinema at the time. This characterization of the main characters also has a special position in connection with the style of film history, which was later referred to as film noir , since the protagonists all act immoral, but the audience can still show a certain sympathy for them. In this respect, woman without a conscience is now considered an outstanding example of film noir. Barbara Stanwyck, whose embodiment of a seductress equipped with criminal energy and considerable manipulative abilities, decisively shaped the role model of the femme fatale, made a significant contribution to this.
background
The novel Double Indemnity by James M. Cain appeared in 1935 and was based on a real case that had happened in 1927: Ruth Snyder persuaded her lover Judd Gray, to murder her husband and make it look like an accident, and then a double the sum insured. However, the murderous couple was convicted shortly after the crime and executed on the electric chair a year later . In English-speaking countries, the book and film title Double Indemnity refers to the sum insured that is paid out twice in the event of accidental death.
Paramount Pictures bought the filming rights for $ 15,000, although the Hays Office was critical of the material and viewed the detailed account of a murder as dangerous to young people. The director was the native Austrian Billy Wilder , who had made his first Hollywood film, The Major and the Girl , just two years earlier . The success of Woman Without a Conscience should give him another career boost. The difficult task for Wilder was to rewrite the plot in such a way that it complied with the censorship rules of the Hays Code , but still remained convincing and exciting. Originally, a conclusion was planned to please the Hays Office, in which Neff was first arrested and then executed in the gas chamber. However, Wilder later decided on a different outcome of the plot, which in his opinion fits better with the character drawings of the main characters.
Wilder usually wrote his scripts with Charles Brackett , but he dropped out of the project because he thought it was too "dirty". Raymond Chandler , one of America's leading crime writers and creator of the detective Philip Marlowe , was hired as Wilder's script partner and worked for the first time on a screenplay for Woman Without a Conscience . He was hired for this in particular because of his ability to deliver dialogue passages for die-hard characters. He had already proven this with his successful novel The Big Sleep ( filmed as Dead Sleeping in 1946). However, the collaboration between Wilder and Chandler on the script was marked by conflicts and Chandler threatened several times to withdraw from the project. Raymond Chandler can also be seen in a cameo in the film : As a man reading a book in front of Keyes' office.
The film budget was relatively high at 980,000 US dollars, and three big Hollywood stars were hired for the leading roles. After Wilder initially wanted to cast Alan Ladd or George Raft for the role of Walter, he finally came up with Fred MacMurray . However, he had only played lighter comedy roles before and was surprised that Wilder wanted to cast him in such an atypical and dark part. MacMurray's breakthrough as a dramatic actor was Woman Without a Conscience . For Barbara Stanwyck , too, it was an unusual thought to play a murderer, although she had played some criminals before. Edward G. Robinson initially wanted to reject his role as Keyes, as he was only supposed to play the third largest role here and saw it as a step backwards, as he was usually first in the opening credits. Robinson agreed after realizing that at over 50, he was more likely to have to play character roles; Wilder also assured him that he should get the same salary as Stanwyck and MacMurray for fewer days of shooting. For Jean Heather as Lola and Byron Barr as Nino Zachetti formed Double Indemnity , the film debut; for Tom Powers as Mr. Dietrichson the first film since 1917.
Billy Wilder came up with the blonde wig Stanwyck wears over the film. With this obviously wrong looking wig he wanted to show the falseness of Phyllis' character in her appearance. In the course of filming, Wilder became increasingly dissatisfied with the blonde wig. Since quite a few scenes had already been shot, it was too late to change the hairstyle by this point.
Reviews
Woman Without a Conscience was a hit with both critics and the box office when it was released. Today it is considered a masterpiece by film critics and one of the standard-setting films of film noir .
“Psychological crime drama with precise depiction of people and intensely increased tension. Typical example of American film noir. "
synchronization
The German dubbed version was created in 1950 at Elite Film Synchron in Berlin under the direction of Ernst Schröder. Some role names have been changed for the German dubbed version. Keyes became "Kirst", Nino Zachetti was renamed "Tino Zachett". Hellmuth Karasek reports in his biography Billy Wilder - a close-up view that Wilder made fun of the German title: “Woman without a conscience? That applies to almost every woman ”.
| role | actor | German Dubbing voice |
|---|---|---|
| Walter Neff | Fred MacMurray | Ernst Wilhelm Borchert |
| Phyllis Dietrichson | Barbara Stanwyck | Elisabeth Ried |
| Barton Keyes (Ger .: Kirst) | Edward G. Robinson | Alfred Balthoff |
| Lola Dietrichson | Jean Heather | Gina Presgott |
| Mr. Dietrichson | Tom Powers | Alfred Haase |
| Nettie | Betty Farrington | Elf tailors |
Awards
Woman without a Conscience was nominated in seven categories at the Academy Awards in 1945 : Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Lead Actress (Barbara Stanwyck), Best Film Music - Drama / Comedy, Best Camera / Black and White and Best Sound . This film could not win in any category. He had to give up in particular in three categories of the comedy The Path to Happiness . Barbara Stanwyck had to let Ingrid Bergman go for her lead in Lady Alquist's House .
In 1992, Woman Without Conscience was included in the National Film Registry , a directory of American films that are considered particularly worth preserving.
In the top lists compiled by the American Film Institute , Woman Without a Conscience is represented several times: in 38th place (1998 edition) and 29th place (2007 edition) of the 100 best American films of all time , 24th of the 100 best American thrillers and ranked 8 of the top 50 villains (Phyllis Dietrichson).
Remakes and references
In 1954, as part of the fifth season of the Lux Video Theater (1950-1959), the material was filmed again for television. In the episode entitled Double Indemnity, which aired on December 16, 1954 in the United States, Laraine Day and Frank Lovejoy acted in the lead roles.
In 1973, Cain's novel was filmed a second time for television by director Jack Smight . In Double Indemnity , Samantha Eggar as Phyllis Dietrichson , Richard Crenna as Walter Neff and Lee J. Cobb as Barton Keyes starred . The 75-minute TV film, which was shown on US television on October 13, 1973 , could not build on the great success of Billy Wilder's original.
A woman without a conscience has been referred to in numerous films, including The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1971) , Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) and Brian De Palmas Femme Fatale (2002). Excerpts have also been incorporated into the film noir homage Tote Wear No Checks (1982). Lawrence Kasdan's thriller Hot Blood - Cold Blood (1981) has strong references .
media
literature
- James M. Cain: Double Severance Pay . Munich: Goldmann, 2001. ISBN 3-442-05910-0
- Paul Duncan, Jürgen Müller (Eds.): Film Noir, 100 All-Time Favorites , Taschen GmbH, Cologne 2014. ISBN 978-3-8365-4353-8 , pp. 118-123
- David W. McCullough: City sleuths and tough guys . Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989. ISBN 0-395-51318-9 (Eng. Edition)
- Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler, Jeffrey Meyers: Double Indemnity . Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, ISBN 0-520-21848-5 (English edition)
- Billy Wilder, Robert Horton: Billy Wilder: interviews . Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001. ISBN 1-57806-443-0 (English edition)
- Billy Wilder, Malcolm Kirtley: Double Indemnity . London: York Press, 2000. ISBN 0-582-43196-4 (English edition)
DVD / BluRay release
- Hollywood highlights: Woman without a conscience (Double Indemnity), Universum Film GmbH, 2008 (DVD), 2013 (BluRay)
Web links
- Indemnity in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Woman without a conscience in the German dubbing file
- Indemnity at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for a woman without a conscience . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2007 (PDF; test number: 10 97D DVD).
- ↑ Release Info , IMDB (accessed September 3, 2019).
- ↑ Article on the murder case
- ^ Lally, Kevin (1996). Wilder Times: The Life of Billy Wilder. New York: Henry Holt and Company. pp. 125-126. ISBN 978-0-8050-3119-5 .
- ↑ IMDb Trivia
- ↑ IMDb Trivia
- ↑ Raymond Chandler at Aveleyman
- ↑ "Double Indemnity" at TCM
- ^ "Double Indemnity" at the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ Billy Wilder on Barbara Stanwyck's 'Double Indemnity' wig, her wonderful brain, casting Fred MacMurray
- ↑ "Double Indemnity" at TCM
- ↑ "Woman Without a Conscience" by Rotten Tomatoes
- ↑ "Woman without a conscience" at two thousand and one
- ^ "Woman without a conscience" in the German dubbing index
- ↑ Quoted at two thousand and one