"That's a honey of an anklet you're wearing, Mrs. Dietrichson."
Double Indemnity is the dazzling, quintessential film noir whose enormous popular success and seven Oscar nominations catapulted Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment) into the very top tier of Hollywood's writer-directors. Adapted from a novella by James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice), co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye), Double Indemnity remains the hardest-boiled of delectations.
Insurance hawker Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) gets seduced by some other man's wife: a bored, sex-starved Barbara Stanwyck done up in lorry-grille wig and a pair of lips like wine grapes smashed in candle-wax. She wants to off her better half and collect on his policy, but spitfire claims-adjuster Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) smells a rat or at least the cheap perfume all over that Dietrichson file.
Neff himself ties up the twisting plot in a neat bow: "We were talking about automobile insurance, only you were thinking about murder. And I was thinking about that anklet."
"Nominated for seven Oscars at the 1945 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (Billy Wilder), Best Actress (Barbara Stanwyck), Best Screenplay (Wilder and Raymond Chandler), Best Cinematography (John F. Seitz), Best Score (Miklós Rózsa), Best Sound Recording (Loren Ryder). The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity for the first time anywhere in the world on Blu-ray, in a standard edition and a limited edition steelbook.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY ONLY
• Exclusive new high-definition restoration, officially licensed from Universal Pictures
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing-impaired
• Audio commentary by film historian Nick Redman and screenwriter Lem Dobbs
• Shadows of Suspense — a 2006 documentary featuring film historians, directors, and authors discussing the making of Double Indemnity
• 1945 Screen Guild Theater radio adaptation of Double Indemnity, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray
• The original theatrical trailer
• 36-PAGE BOOKLET featuring a 1976 interview by John Allyn with Billy Wilder; an extract from a 1976 interview with James M. Cain comparing his original serial with Wilder’s film adaptation; documentation of novelist and Double Indemnity co-screenwriter Raymond Chandler’s attitude toward working within the Hollywood studio system; an extract from the original screenplay depicting the excised “death chamber” ending; a note on the restoration; and rare archival imagery
The Lost Weekend
Directed by Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot), this gut-wrenching adaptation of Charles Jackson's The Lost Weekend horrified its studio, was rejected by test audiences, and was lobbied by temperance groups, yet went on to huge success and became the awards sensation of its year.
Ray Milland stars as Don Birnam, a New York author struggling with years of alcoholism and writer's block. Trying to keep him on the path to rehabilitation are his straight-laced brother Wick (Philip Terry) and devoted long-time girlfriend Helen (Jane Wyman). When Don absconds from a country excursion, he embarks on a four-day binge, spiralling towards rock bottom.
Winner of the Grand Prix at the first ever Cannes Film Festival, as well as Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Screenplay, this brutal noir provided one of cinema's first in-depth studies of addiction. Crackling with rapier dialogue, vivid performances, and Wilder's superlative direction, The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present The Lost Weekend for the first time anywhere in the world on Blu-ray. Released in the UK in a standard edition & limited edition steelbook.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY ONLY
• New high-definition master, officially licensed from Universal Pictures
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
• Exclusive new video introduction by director Alex Cox
• The three-part 1992 BBC Arena programme Billy, How Did You Do It? directed by Gisela Grischow and Volker Schlöndorff, featuring Schlöndorff in conversation with Billy Wilder
• The 1946 Screen Guild Theater radio adaptation of The Lost Weekend – starring Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, and Frankie Faylen
• The original theatrical trailer
• 36-PAGE BOOKLET featuring a new essay on the film by critic and filmmaker David Cairns; a reproduction of the famous hallucination sequence in three forms: an excerpt from Charles R. Jackson’s novel, an excerpt from Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder’s screenplay, and a presentation of actual frames from the corresponding scene in the film; a vintage public service advertisement by Seagram’s about The Lost Weekend and the broader social dilemma of alcoholism; and rare archival imagery
