Double Indemnity.

"The most important film noir ever made is Double Indemnity. Don't even attempt a counter argument - there isn't one," declares Eddie Muller, author of several books as well as our primer on film noir, in a new piece up at the main site.

Dave Kehr, undoubtedly aware of such claims, seems determined to let the air out of them a little in his review for the New York Times. Nonetheless, Universal's new double-disc release features "a very good transfer... and it comes with a wealth of supplementary material, including commentaries by Richard Schickel, Lem Dobbs and Nick Redman."

Related: Kevin Jack Hagopian's entry in noir special from Images, where you'll also find an excerpt from Robert Porfirio's 1975 talk with Billy Wilder from Film Noir Reader 3.

Update: Online listening tip. John Powers on NPR.

Updates, 8/23: Looker: "Too many critics say Neff is supposed to be weak-willed, and that MacMurray perfectly embodies weakness. Nice try, but I don't buy it."

At Slant, Dan Callahan calls this a "disappointing disc for a shallow but well-loved film."

Posted by dwhudson at August 22, 2006 5:39 AM