How Is Double Indemnity Related To Film Noir

In 1992, Billy Wilder’s 1944 film Double Indemnity was preserved by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” It is clear that the film has had a major impact in cinema but it was created to protest Los Angeles but suffered many hurdles to complete. However, Double Indemnity would effectively jump start the noir movement and influence cinema to this day. When Double Indemnity was first played in theaters audiences and critics reacted in shock with the movie’s despicableness. However, the making of Double Indemnity had been already forged in the crime-obsessed 1920s to 1940s Los Angeles. The crimes of Guy McAfee, Charlie Crawford and the deaths of Virginia Rappe and Desmond Taylor dominated headlines in Los Angeles prior to Double …show more content…
Noir films began to become increasingly more common in cinema following 1944 with films like Sunset Boulevard, Kiss Me Deadly, and The Big Combo. However, noir wrapped up its reign over Hollywood in 1958 with Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil due to cinema’s increased dependency on color which the darkness and use of venetian blinds impossible. However, noir refused to die and it infected cinema with its tropes to the current era. The flashback that characterized noir is still used to this day including in films like Forrest Gump and Robocop. However, I feel that Double Indemnity’s popularization of an anti-hero, and murder that was believed to be unfilmable would revolutionize entertainment. The emphasis on murder would allow directors to further push boundaries and become more graphic and horrifying leading to the execution of terrifying films like Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. We can further see Double Indemnity’s impacts with the popularization of anti-heroes like Tyler Durden, Hannibal Lecter and television’s Walter White, and Dexter