Hello Ou There

There's a scene in Double Indemnity where Fred MacMurray ventures out on the open platform of a moving train. Disguised as the man he just murdered, Mr. Dietrichson, MacMurray's crooked insurance salesman is about to fake a fall from the train and collect double the insurance money. But his plan is interrupted by a chatty fellow passenger. The suspense is deliciously unbearable. You can't wait for MacMurray to send the passenger away on a false errand. You want this murderous antihero to get away with it.

That's what makes Double Indemnity a seminal film noir. It's also likely why the film's director and co-writer Billy Wilder was dubbed a cynic by the Hollywood press. In the wake of his recent death in March 2002, he's being reevaluated in kindlier terms. People Weekly renamed him a subversive. Time magazine film critic Richard Corliss offered up this defence: "Nearly 40 years ago, critic Andrew Sarris wrote, 'Billy Wilder is too cynical to believe even his