‘Perdition’ and insurance law | Legal

Punishment (Double Indemnity), Directed by Billy Wilder in 1944, the film is based on a play by JM Cain. It was adapted for the screen by Wilder himself and another great crime novelist, Raymond Chandler. It tells the story of Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), an insurance agent who lets an oil magnate Phillys Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) be tricked by his wife into insuring her husband with an accident policy and then murdering him. , simulates a fall from a train and thus collects insurance compensation. Problems for the couple arise when Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), Neff’s partner in the investigation of the accident, begins investigating the accident because his insurance policy includes a double indemnity clause for such accidents.

The movie is iconic along with two other memorable films from 1944: lauraby Otto Preminger and The woman in the picture (The woman in the window)by Fritz Lang. This would later stylistically qualify as film noir or film noir. All characteristic elements film noir available in torment of hell and black and white expressionist photography by other directors during the ’40s and ’50s, deadly womana kind of suffering in the hero (an ordinary man who lets himself be tricked into planning the crime), night shadows, dark and claustrophobic frames, the smoke from the protagonists’ cigarettes and cigars, the city in the filmed natural setting…

Wilder weaves an excellent story with memorable dialogues between the three main actors, which led JM Cain to state that the film was much better than his own story.

The movie is narrated with voice over. closed the hero speaking into the dictaphone to tell the story at length flashback I killed him for money and a woman. I didn’t get the money. Edward G. Robinson brings to life the accident investigator, a character who “steals” the scene from the other actors every time he appears. With extraordinary intelligence and instinct (“the little dwarf he carries inside”)) He always finds himself with added authority over anyone else in detecting fraud, and is also described to us as the “conscience” of Walter Neff, whom he admires and wishes for a more stable future. he was from a father he will try

From a legal point of view, all elements of the insurance contract are included in the film and can be displayed through the film. Number of insured and insured, torment of hell coincidence; the beneficiary who has the right to be autonomous and independent from the insured; how the contract was perfected and documented; offer and insurance policy and insurance premium; the insured’s obligation not to aggravate the risk or the indemnity obligation of the insurer, which also has the power to investigate the causes of the accident. All of this is reflected in the 107-minute film duration. torment of hellbut in such an interesting and entertaining way that it luckily becomes an impromptu insurance law session for film and law buffs.

All in all, a classic cinematic masterpiece, with the perfect combination of a millimeter script, masterful performances, outstanding photography and music by Miklós Rózsa, that made the film a reference classic, but at the same time and 75 years later. Since its premiere, it has had an astonishing modernity and has inspired many works of the world. do not go Then.

Jose Luis Luceño Olivaprofessor at Loyola Masters