Saturday 28 November 2015

Double Indemnity (1944 Billy Wilder)

Wilder on Stanwyck: ""She was just an extraordinary woman. She took the script, loved it, right from the word go...she knew the script, everybody's lines..Never a fault, never a mistake."

And MacMurray ..he said "I can't do that." And I said "Why can't you?" He said "It requires acting!"

MacMurray in the gas chamber was the last scene filmed.. But he decided the film didn't need it. The quieter ending is better - you don't know if it's an ambulance or police siren you're hearing.

'Conversations with Wilder', Cameron Crowe, 1999.

"When Billy and I discussed the music, he had the idea of using a restless string figure (as in the opening of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony) to reflect the conspiratorial aspect of the two lovers against the husband; it was a good idea and I happily accepted it as a basis to work on... we understood each other completely. Enter now the figure of the Musical Director who, when the time of the recording came, made no secret of the fact that he disliked the music intensely. Wilder finally turned to him and snapped, 'You may be surprised to hear that I love it. O.K.?' At this point the musical director disappeared and we didn't see him at the sessions again..."
(The score was one of seven Oscar nominations.)

'Double Life', Miklós Rózsa, 1982.

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