Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray star in this gripping film noir from Academy Award-winning director Billy Wilder. A calculating wife encourages her wealthy husband to sign a double indemnity policy proposed by smitten insurance agent Walter Neff. As the would-be lovers plot the unsuspecting husband's murder, they are pursued by a suspicious claims manager (Edward G. Robinson). It's a race against time to get away with the perfect crime in this heart-racing Academy Award-nominated masterpiece. Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall, Jean Heather, Tom Powers, Byron Barr, Richard Gaines, Fortunio Bonanova, John Philliber Directed by: Billy Wilder

This would be frustrating for any film but is downright shameful treatment of a cinema classic. We can only hope someone will spend the time and money necessary to restore the print for a new theater run, as has been done with other older films. Perhaps then, DVD buyers will get the version of this classic they deserve.

133 of 155 found the following review helpful:


Univeral's math 1+0 = 2 DVD set....  Aug 23, 2006 By Richardson "Clarence"
this is a 5 star movie....

this review is of the NEW Universal 2 dvd set.

Typical of Universals crappy Deer Hunter 2 DVD set..we've got a classic movie....with extras that could easily fit on one DVD...but Universal tries to make this into a bigger "ticket" by stretching it out.

The movie....its a classic...I've got the original release on DVD. The EXTRAS are

1) an introduction by Robert Osborne, nothing special and watched once you'll be irritated having to see it again every time you hit PLAY..

2) commentary tracks by the usual suspects (including the king of bloat Richard Schickel) and Universal has two so they put two more extra features on their package for these..

3) a half hour film noir primer , that's been done better on the WB noir sets and again features the same film professors etc that we are growing all too familiar with.

4) a 1 hour and 15 minute TV version from the 70's starring Richard Crenna ...which is the ONLY feature on the second disc.

I'll give Universal a bit of credit...the film itself does seem a bit improved over the initial out of print release...but closer scrutiny of the two would be necessary and I've got a life so I'll leave that to others.

Bottom line....Universal is hard to figure out...they take some multiple classic titles and stuff em onto flipper DVDs (info on both sides) and crank em out cheap..ie the Brando,Wayne,Cooper,Lombard sets....and then they take other films and run the package to two discs for no other reason than to make it "seem" important and packed with extras. They use strange fat cases to make it seem like these are books full of goodies instead of space filling clear plastic...

I think I saw where Universal is now readying a THIRD wave of their classic Monster series on DVD...geez ,how many times do they want us to buy the same things? Can't they get it right the first or second time? I think its obvious that my frustration with Universals crappy DVD releases runs deep. Fortunately they don't have near the number of "must haves" that Warner Brothers (who are first class all the way in their releases , particularly legacy films)or MGM or Columbia have!

its a great movie....if you haven't seen it you are in for a rare treat!

49 of 55 found the following review helpful:


Great film, deplorable DVD  Feb 28, 2000 By Drew Vogel
What a tremendous film! It's just wonderful. Especially Edward G. Robinson. Sadly, it's a bit dated (much of the dialogue looks rather campy by today's standards), but the plot hasn't aged a day. It's still a tense and enthralling film noir masterpiece.

It's a pity the DVD is so very poor. It's really awful. I can't stress this enough. It's very grainy, there are no bonus features at all, and there's no liner notes at all. Extremely shoddy treatment of such a wonderful film. I'd like to see a special edition of this film produced as soon as possible, and done right!

27 of 29 found the following review helpful:


Could Restored 35mm print be on the horizon?  Oct 13, 2005 By W. Lipscomb "Bill from St. Louis"
oops, 5-star is obviously for the movie, not the current very poor presentation on DVD.

But this September the Museum of the Moving Image in NYC screened their newly restored 35mm print of this film. It was stunning gorgeous B&W imagery (think the 2-disc special edition of Casablanca which came out last year). I'll be checking Amazon every few weeks to see if its release has been scheduled!

67 of 79 found the following review helpful:


GREAT FILM - TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DVD TRANSFER  Jun 24, 2004
Do not purchase this DVD release. Its transfer to DVD is truly horrendous.

Wait for some other distributor to release it.

Wonderful film. Totally botched DVD release.

Wait for it...

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