Films/DVD Asylum

The best film noir ever, but a victim of the Production Code. Warning - spoilers

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This Post Has Been Edited by the Author

In Reply to: RE: "Double Indemnity:" Fred McMurray, who would become famous years later posted by tinear on February 01, 2014 at 11:10:39

The Raymond Chandler novel has Fred and Barbara killing each other in a suicide pact at the end, but the Code prohibited an ending like that because it deprived the police of the opportunity to catch and punish them. Being punished for crime is not good enough - the cops and courts have to do the punishing.

Then the ending filmed by Billy Wilder, in which you see Fred in the gas chamber, was also knocked back by the Code people, so he had to change it to something less confronting. Despite all these interferences, it's still the best film noir ever made. It looks phenomenal on Blu-Ray (at the moment it's only on region B, but a region A is coming out soon).

Follow Ups:

RE: The best film noir ever, but a victim of the Production Code. Warning - spoilers - volunteer 17:39:29 02/01/14 (1)
- That's the big question - Doug Flynn 22:32:13 02/02/14 (0)
RE: The best film noir ever, but a victim of the Production Code. Warning - spoilers - dancingseamonkey 16:46:33 02/01/14 (3)
- the novel was written by James M. Cain... - tunenut 20:48:49 02/01/14 (2)
  - Righto! Cain and Chandler, could it get any better? nt - tinear 10:32:20 02/02/14 (1)
    - Yes - Cain, Chandler AND Billy Wilder ! (nt) - Doug Flynn 12:29:30 02/02/14 (0)
I'd put it into the top 10, though Stanwyck's a good argument for a higher rating… nt - tinear 14:06:05 02/01/14 (0)