The Double Indemnity Murder

Queens Village was a picture-perfect postcard New York suburb. But in March 1927 the façade of respectability was stripped away to reveal an underside of greed, lust, and crime. Few incidents in crime history have been so notorious as the murder of Albert Snyder by his wife and her lover. Resonant of the footloose Jazz Age, it made persistent headlines and led to a sensational trial. The crime spawned a 1920s Broadway play and inspired the classic noir film of the 1940s, Double Indemnity. This book assesses the entire case, from grisly slaying and shabby cover-up to sharp police work and aftermath. Moreover, it explores sociocultural questions that beg to be answered: what effect does news reportage exert upon high profile cases, and why did such a transparent crime earn such an enduring place in the popular psyche?

More than 50 years after its release, the classic "Double Indemnity" is one of the best films of all time. This facsimile edition contains Wilder and Chandler's original--and quite different--ending, published here for the first time. Jeffrey Meyers's Introduction provides hilarious anecdotes about the turbulent collaboration as well as background information on the film.

A true crime masterpiece, and highly acclaimed 1940s movie 'DOUBLE INDEMNITY is among the finest of all American novels, regardless of genre or style' LA TIMES 'Cain is the master' Tom Wolfe DOUBLE INDEMNITY is the classic tale of an evil woman motivated by greed who corrupts a weak man motivated by lust. Walter Huff is an insurance investigator like any other until the day he meets the beautiful and dangerous Phyllis Nirdlinger and falls under her spell. Together they plot to kill her husband and split the insurance. It'll be the perfect murder . . .

The behind-the-scenes story of the quintessential film noir and cult classic, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity—its true crime origins and crucial impact on film history—is told for the first time in this riveting narrative published for the film's 80th anniversary. From actual murder to magazine fiction to movie, the history of Double Indemnity is as complex as anything that hit the screen during film noir’s classic period. Born of a 1927 tabloid-sensation “crime of the century” that inspired journalist and would-be mystery writer James M. Cain, Hollywood quickly bid on the film rights to Double Indemnity, but throughout the 1930s a strict code of censorship made certain that no studio could green-light a murder melodrama based on real events. Then in 1943, writer and newly minted director Billy Wilder hired hard-boiled novelist Raymond Chandler to help him write a script that would be acceptable to industry censors. Wilder then cajoled a star cast into coming aboard: the incomparable Barbara Stanwyck in her unforgettable turn as the ultimate femme fatale; Fred MacMurray, cast against type as her partner in crime; and Edward G. Robinson as a dogged claims investigator. Besides Chandler, other key collaborators were veteran cinematographer John Seitz, costume designer Edith Head, and composer Miklós Rózsa. The final film became one of the earliest studio noirs to gain critical and commercial success, including being nominated for seven Oscars. It powerfully influenced the burgeoning noir movement, spawned many imitators, and affected the later careers of all its cast and crew. Double Indemnity’s impact on filmmakers and audiences is still felt eight decades after its release.

Collection of extraordinary true cases of murderers who insured their victim then killed them - or attempted to, the successful insurance killer has to fool not only the victim but also doctors, police and the insurance companies.

James M. Cain, virtuoso of the roman noir, gives us a tautly narrated and excruciatingly suspenseful story in Double Indemnity, an X-ray view of guilt, of duplicity, and of the kind of obsessive, loveless love that devastates everything it touches. Walter Huff was an insurance salesman with an unfailing instinct for clients who might be in trouble, and his instinct led him to Phyllis Nirdlinger. Phyllis wanted to buy an accident policy on her husband. Then she wanted her husband to have an accident. Walter wanted Phyllis. To get her, he would arrange the perfect murder and betray everything he had ever lived for.