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Blackout

Wilder referred to Double Indemnity as having “the fewest mistakes” of his films “because it was taut and moved in the staccato manner of Cains style.”⁴⁶ The tight pace of the film was effectively enhanced by the strict ra-tioning of film stock, tighter budgets, and scarcity of set materials (and even talent), all of which accelerated shooting schedules. Wilder and Sistrom ran a tight ship. The total production cost for Double Indemnity was $927,262.86 —well under their $980,000 budget, even though they exceeded their forty-two-day shooting Schedule by nine days.⁴⁷ James Cain called Wilder’s adap-tation of his novel “one of the finest pictures ever madę ... There are situ-ations in that movie that can make your hands wet, you get so nervous ... I tell you, it is just beautiful.” Yet the author noted that the film “violates practically all the rules imposed by the Hays Office.”⁴⁸ Wilder’s noir stylis-tics certainly provided a dark, efficient, imaginative way to subvert the stric-tures of the Production Codę. Casting even created ingenious ambiguity by casting all three prominent stars—comedic Fred MacMurray as Neff, Barbara StanWyck as Phyllis, even former gangster Edward G. Robinson as the insurance claims examiner Keyes—against type. A third of the film’s over-all production budget, roughly $300,000, was allocated to star salaries (at $100,000 apiece), securing these players—almost half the film’s $725,000 direct cost.⁴⁹ The screen couple’s deadly illicit affair was promoted, and compensating morał values were embedded in the film’s advertising as the studio’s publicity slogans clamored: “You can’t kiss away a Murder!” and “From the Moment they met it was Murder!” Double Indemnity wns “Para-mounts terrific drama of an unholy love and an almost perfect crime.”⁵⁰ Affer previewing in April, Double Indemnity was released in Los Angeles in August 1944 (opening in New York in September 1944) to nearly unan-imous critical accolades and box-office revenues. Reviewers agreed—it was a sordid smash. As Philip Scheuer stated in August 1944, “Wilder deliber-ately set out to ‘out-Hitch Hitch,’” citing Alfred Hitchcocka wire to Wilder: “Since ‘Double Indemnity,’ the two most important words in motion pictures are Billy Wilder.” In an August 6,1944, Los Angeles Times article, “Film History Madę by‘Double Indemnity,’” Scheuer noted the Codę taboos that Double Indemnity overrides: “It details the actual commission of a crime ... of passion ... But it never tries to whitewash the criminals.” He adds, “Like the great French cinemas, it is adult,” evocative of film noir.⁵¹ Wilder and Chandler’s “sordid” adaptation garnered popularity and seven Acad-emy Award nominations. Barbara Stanwyck’s deadly cool performance as cold-blooded femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson won her an Oscar nomina-tion for Best Actress.⁵² Soon a prominent wartime red-meat trend spread through Hollywood like wildfire, capitalizing on Paramounts feat in ob-

Censorship and the “Red Meat” Crime Cycle

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“From the Moment they met it was Murder!" Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMur-ray in Double Indemnity.

Paramount, 1944.

taining a seal of approval despite the “Iow tonę and sordid flavor” of Double Indemnity.⁵³ Successfully maneuvering around the Production Codę to produce a visually and thematically bleaker wartime-postwar American cin-ema, filmmakers launched a series of film noir productions intended to simulate the unique style of Double Indemnity and replicate its box-office returns.⁵⁴ Hollywood crime and romance proliferated. The critical and fi-nancial success of Double Indemnity encouraged other stylistically “black” 1940S films,raisingexpectations for hard-boiledadaptations.⁵⁵ Wilders film certainly invigorated RKO’s interest in one of its shelved properties, Chan-dlers Farewell, My Lovely.

Adapting Chandler: RKOs Murder, My Sweet On June 3,1941, as Orson Welles produced Citizen Kane and Alfred Hitchcock completed Suspicion, and after Joseph Breen had left the PCA to head production at RKO, the studio purchased the screen rights to Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled novel Farewell, My Lovely for a mere $2,000. Fol-lowing Boris Ingsters impressive noirdebut Strangeron the ThirdFloorthe