If I had the time....

I'd think about doing a full-length blog post on Double Indemnity, which is airing tonight at 8:00 PM on TCM as part of the salute to Star of the Month Fred MacMurray. That having been said, I'm always a bit loath to do a full-length post on such a famous movie since it's somethign people already know pretty darn well and there's not much that I can add.

All three leads are excellent in their parts. Fred MacMurray plays the insurance man who meets Barbara Stanwyck when he has to meet her husband to discuss the husband's policy; Fred immediately falls hard for Barbara and comes up with a daft plan to bump off the husband and take the money from a new insurance policy. Edward G. Robinson plays the insurance fraud investigator and friend of Fred's who investigates the case because he realizes there's something not right about it. The movie was nominated for several Oscars, but unfortunately in 1944 the Academy had the nonsensical idea that Going My Way might actually be a good movie. There were so many better movies that year, not just Double Indemnity. Ingrid Bergman won the Best Actress Oscar for Gaslight, but then it's not like there was a strong female character in Going My Way. Alfred Hitchcock probably did his best directing work on Lifeboat. And as much as I hate the hagiolatry, Alexander Knox as Wilson is a standout performance.

At any rate, I can strongly recommend Double Indemnity. That will be followed at 10:00 PM by a lesser known movie that definitely deserves a full-length post: There's Always Tomorrow. Oh, look at that: I have already done a full-length post on it.