Double Indemnity is a 1943 crime novel, written by American journalist-turned-novelist James M. Cain. It was first published in serial form in Liberty magazine in 1936 and then was one of "three long short tales" in the collection Three of a Kind. The novel later served as the basis for the film of the same name in 1944, adapted for the screen by the novelistRaymond Chandler and directed by Billy Wilder.
Walter Huff, an insurance agent, falls for the married Phyllis Nirdlinger, who consults him about accident insurance for her unsuspecting husband. In spite of his instinctual decency, and intrigued by the challenge of committing the perfect murder, Walter is seduced into helping the femme fatale kill her husband for the insurance money. After killing him in the Nirdlinger car, they stage an accident from the rear platform of a train. But they cannotenjoy their success. The crime backfires on them, and soon afterwards, with the insurance company's claim manager Barton Keyes becoming more and more suspicious of them, he decides to kill her, too "for what she knew about me, and because the world isn't big enough for two people once they've got something like that on each other". With her own distrust mounting, Phyllis also decides to kill her accomplice. One night, he tries to ambush her, but she forestalls him and shoots at him, instead. He survives, though, and the end sees both of them on a steamship heading to Mexico: Keyes has given them an ostensible chance to escape formal justice by booking their passages - without them knowing about the other. With "nothing ahead of" them, they finally decide to jump off the ship and commit suicide.
Adaptations
The novel was made into a film in 1944. Double Indemnity was directed by Billy Wilder and starred Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson. In the adaptation, Wilder and Chandler changed the names of the main characters: Walter Huff became Walter Neff, and Phyllis Nirdlinger became Phyllis Dietrichson. A stage adaptation by David Pichette and R. Hamilton Wright, directed by Kurt Beattie, opened at ACT Theatre in Seattle on October 27, 2011. The same production moved to the San Jose Repertory Theatre and opened on January 18, 2012.
