If you like your dialogue hardboiled, your lighting shadowy, and your femmes fatales preposterously evil, then look no further: Billy Wilder's 1944 adaptation of James M Cain's insurance-scam novella.
Doorstepping salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) becomes the archetypal schnook caught in a man-trap of greed and gullibility after knocking on the door of Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck, leading with her fringe); his ability to anticipate the moves of accident investigators is the secret weapon in their attempt to off her husband and score a $50,000 payday simultaneously.
Despite their exquisitely constructed exchanges (much of which was supplied by scriptwriter Raymond Chandler), it's Edward G Robinson, as the bulldog sniffer-out of phoney claims Barton Keyes, who really grabs the eye now. His powerhouse, cigar-chomping performance makes him by far the most vivid creation on show.
