Particularize Containing Books Double Indemnity
| Title | : | Double Indemnity |
| Author | : | James M. Cain |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 115 pages |
| Published | : | May 14th 1989 by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (first published 1936) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Mystery. Noir. Crime. Classics. Thriller |
James M. Cain
Paperback | Pages: 115 pages Rating: 4.11 | 18129 Users | 1066 Reviews
Chronicle As Books Double Indemnity
“I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman.”One of the great Noir lines of all time. Cain wrote it. Raymond Chandler used it in the movie. I could stop my review right here because that line sums up the movie perfectly.
But I can't. I love writing about books.
Walter Huff met a woman. A married woman, a woman Huff would be willing to turn himself inside out if that would insure her love. Her name is Phyllis and she has a thought, not even a plan, just a thought of what she would like to do about her husband.
Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck
Much has been made of Phyllis being a femme fatale, maybe even one of the most viperous examples in history. It has been a while since I've seen the movie and maybe Stanwyck does portray Phyllis much more deviously manipulative than what I found the book Phyllis to be. Now I'm not saying she is an angel I'm just saying she ran into a guy that even surprised himself with what he was willing to do with the hope of getting the girl.
Huff has made a career out of reading people and when he meets Phyllis she asks him a handful of suggestive questions and the guy is already formulating a full blown plan for insurance fraud. He has been in the insurance game for a long time and he knows about every angle ever thought up by anyone to try and pull one over on an insurance company. He is uniquely qualified to formulate the perfect scam.
I don't like insurance. Life insurance they are betting I live. I'm betting I die. It is kind of crazy if you give it much thought. Car insurance they are betting I don't get in an accident. I'm betting that I do. The industry has convinced us to bet against ourselves and pay for the privilege. And yet, even though I'm aware of the situation, I pay thousands of dollars of insurance premiums every year to insure one disaster doesn't sink the ship. Walter Huff would love stopping by to see me.
Huff is so intent on the details of this insurance rip-off that he never learns much about Phyllis. He doesn't even really seem to care about why she would be interested in killing her husband. She is the bunny and he is the greyhound running around the track. There is no hesitation about Huff. He leaps at the chance to help Phyllis get the insurance money. I'm not sure what was more important to him pulling off the perfect swindle (my vote)or winning the girl.
James M. Cain
Crisp, wonderful writing with pitch perfect dialogue. My recommendation is read the book and then watch the movie, a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. At least 18 films have been made from James M. Cain novels and stories. Besides this novel he wrote two other novels that are not only considered noir fiction classics, but also translated well to film, The Postman Always Rings Twiceand Mildred Pierce. In college I took a film and novel class and Mildred Pierce was one of the books/movies on the syllabus. One of the most enjoyable classes I ever took. I love the combination of two different art forms. I generally like the book better because there is usually more depth to the characters and more subplots can be incorporated into the flow of the novel. Film is restricted by length, but when they get it right they really get it right. I try, as best I can, to judge books and movies from books on separate scales. Even a movie that butchers the original source material can be a great movie. In the case of James M. Cain because he wrote such great dialogue Hollywood did not have to deviate far from his original intentions. Highly recommended!
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Mention Books Supposing Double Indemnity
| Original Title: | Double Indemnity |
| ISBN: | 0679723226 (ISBN13: 9780679723226) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Walter Huff, Phyllis Nirdlinger, Barton Keyes |
Rating Containing Books Double Indemnity
Ratings: 4.11 From 18129 Users | 1066 ReviewsNotice Containing Books Double Indemnity
Double Indemnity is the second book I read of James M. Cain. I was initially worried going into Double Indemnity as found a few scenarios sounded almost identical to what I read The Postman Always Rings Twice - where the wife of a rich business man teams up with her lover to plot her husbands murder. But fortunately the likeness ended there. Their affair and the characters were nothing like what was in Postman. They were a well-educated couple - a nurse and insurance broker - that were in aI recently watched the multi-Oscar nominated Billy Wilder film classic from 1944 which remains one of my favourite films of all time ( Wilder scripted with Raymond Chandler). So had to read again on impulse over one night while the rain was lashing down outside, I settled down to be once again captured by Cain's moody masterpiece.This is simply put, quintessential noir. Dark, menacing, seductive and taut as wire, this short novel from James M. Cain really packs a nasty punch.Insurance
To be honest with you, this book wasn't even on my radar. I was having lunch with someone when we got around to talking about my love for Crime Mystery Fiction and they suggested this as their favorite of those type books. Lo and behold, they have a copy of it and I read it that very day. At only a little over 100 pages, it's easy to read and the fast-pace of it makes it all fly by. Oh, and not to mention that it really is that good! Double Indemnity is about an insurance salesman who meets a
The novel begins with first person narrator Walter Huff reflecting back on the sequence of events that started when he remembered a renewal over in Hollywoodland. We read: "That was how I came to this House of Death, that you've been reading about in the papers. It didn't look like a House of Death when I saw it. It was just a Spanish house, like all the rest of them in California." This sense of foreboding hangs over each and every sentence. Alert: my review contains what could be considered
I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hard-boiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called. I merely try to write as the character would write, and I never forget that the average man, from the fields, the streets, the bars, the offices, and even the gutters of his country, has acquired a vividness of speech that goes beyond anything I could invent, and that if I stick to this heritage, this logos of the American countryside, I shall attain a maximum of effectiveness with very
Double indemnity , James Mallahan CainDouble 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 novelist Raymond Chandler and directed by Billy Wilder. Walter Huff, an insurance agent, falls for the
BkC12) DOUBLE INDEMNITY by James M. Cain: I liked the book better than the movie.I don't think I agree with myself on this one. I like both book and movie, and the movie version is a wonderful treat available free on YouTube. I'll put the two on a par.Rating: 4.875* of fiveThe Book Report: Yet again I feel like a fool offering a summary of a story doubtless extremely well-known: Young wife of older, boring man seeks life insurance for the coot from desperately smitten insurance agent. His lust
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