1944 signaled a high-water mark for film noir with the release of Double Indemnity. The film codified elements that we now think of as genre tropes: the detective delivering backstory via voiceover, the shadows of Venetian blinds on the wall. But, really, Double Indemnity is Barbara Stanwyck’s film; her Phyllis Dietrichson, the femme fatale to end all femme fatales, seduces a detective and gets him to help her bump off her husband. If there was ever a role Stanwyck was going to win a competitive... Read this story
