Double Indemnity (novel)

Double Indemnity

Cover of the first separate edition (Avon Books)
Author	James M. Cain
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Hardboiled, psychological thriller, psychological horror
Publication date	1943
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)

Double Indemnity is an influential 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 classic 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 married Phyllis Nirdlinger, who consults him about accident insurance for her husband. In spite of his instinctual decency, and intrigued by the challenge of committing the perfect murder, Walter is seduced into helping the femme fatale kill her husband for the insurance money.

The novel was made for film in 1944. Double Indemnity was directed by Billy Wilder (Chandler collaborated on the screenplay) and starred Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson. In the adaptation, Wilder and Chandler changed the names of the main characters: Walter Huff became Walter Neff, and Phyllis Nirdlinger became Phyllis Dietrichson.

A stage adaptation by David Pichette and R. Hamilton Wright, directed by Kurt Beattie, opened at ACT Theatre in Seattle on October 27, 2011. The same production moved to the San Jose Repertory Theatre and opened on January 18, 2012.

Cain based the novella on a 1927 murder perpetrated by a married woman in Queens, New York, and her lover, whose trial he attended while working as a journalist in New York. In that crime, Ruth Snyder persuaded her boyfriend, Judd Gray, to kill her husband, Albert, after having him take out a big insurance policy with a double indemnity clause. The murderers were quickly identified, arrested and convicted. The front page photo of Snyder's execution in the electric chair at Sing Sing has been called the most famous news photo of the 1920s.