Double Indemnity (1944)

Walter Neff is the top selling insurance agent at his firm, which also employs a crack claims adjuster who always sees through attempted fraud. But when Neff meets Phyllis, his good sense goes out the window and he's soon embroiled in a scheme to get her out of her marriage and into a pile of money.

It's one of those stories that starts at the end and then flashes back to fill in the details, so we're aware from the outset that the plan doesn't work out for Walter and Phyllis. But, boy, it's good fun watching it go wrong. It did take a little bit to get used to Fred MacMurray as a hard-boiled type delivering worldly quips every time he opened his mouth, but he makes it work.

Definitely a noir touchstone.

B+