This Deep Focus discussion in our Hollywood Classics series is led by Hannah Jack (writer for Turner Classic Movies). Recorded on July 19, 2022. Double Indemnity sets the gold standard for film noir. Insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred McMurray) is slowly reeled in by femme fatale Phyllis Dietrich (Barbara Stanwyck) as they plot to kill her husband and collect on his life insurance. In voiceover throughout the film, Neff narrates his fall from the promising protégé of claims adjuster Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) to a sinister and lovesick insurance fraudster. Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler co-wrote the tightly-constructed script for this classic tale of cynical lovers out to make their way in the world — at whatever cost.