DOUBLE INDEMNITY, directed by Billy Wilder, written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, 105 minutes, not rated. Shows Friday night only, Pickering Square, Downtown Bangor, sunset.

When it was announced that Billy Wilder’s 1944 film, “Double Indemnity,” would be part of the River City Cinema Society’s “Perils of Peroxide” series, that sealed it. Reviews of “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “Meet Dave” would be nixed in favor of calling attention to a film that was instrumental in reshaping American mainstream movies.

Based on a script Wilder co-wrote with Raymond Chandler from James M. Cain’s novella, “Double Indemnity” is one of the finest examples of American film noir. In the film, Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson go against type to create characters of such cunning surprise, it’s difficult to shake them once you’ve had the pleasure of meeting them.

MacMurray is Walter Neff, an insurance salesman for Pacific All-Risk Insurance Co. who falls for Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck) the moment she descends the staircase of her swank California home in high heels and a glimmering ankle bracelet.

Phyllis is one smoldering (and married) piece of work, all blond hair, honeysuckle perfume and loose angles on whom clothes seem unnecessary. In true femme-fatale fashion, she’s a woman who appears naked even when she’s clothed, which is a good reason Walter becomes so taken with her, and the chief reason he decides to get into bed with her. Metaphorically speaking, of course – at least initially.

Since nobody talks as they do in noir, one of the movie’s great pleasures is in its dialogue, which is something to be savored, particularly in an early scene in which Walter hits on Phyllis, who pretends not to be amused:

Phyllis: “There’s a speed limit in this state, Mr. Neff. It’s 45 miles an hour.”

Walter: “How fast was I going, officer?”

Phyllis: “I’d say around 90.”

Walter: “Suppose you get down off your motorcycle and give me a ticket.”

Phyllis: “Suppose I let you off with a warning this time.”

Walter: “Suppose it doesn’t take.”

Phyllis: “Suppose I have to whack you over the knuckles.”

Walter: “Suppose I bust out crying and put my head on your shoulder.”

Phyllis: “Suppose you try putting it on my husband’s shoulder.”

Walter: “That tears it.”

Suppose it doesn’t, Walter, though lines like that sell “Double Indemnity,” giving it a swift, electric lift. When Walter and Phyllis conspire to knock off her husband, they do so by deceiving the man into signing an accidental death policy.

Once they pull that off, the groundwork is laid for his murder, which must look like an accident if Phyllis is to receive the full benefits of his double indemnity policy. And when that is accomplished, she will see her $50,000 settlement double to $100,000, money that presumably will go toward her new life with Walter.

Of course, it doesn’t go that way – it can’t go that way. If it did, there wouldn’t be a movie. As the film unfolds, what Walter and Phyllis are forced to face in the wake of their greed and murderous betrayal goes beyond the mere fact that there were flaws in their plan. They also must face the mounting lack of trust that builds between them, as well as the repercussions that stem from that mistrust when Walter’s sharp-eyed boss, Keyes (a marvelous Robinson), starts to pull together the pieces of their imperfect crime. And when he does that, which he must since the film’s morality hinges on him, Walter and Phyllis start to feel dangerously trapped.

For Phyllis, dealing with the situation comes down to a brutal coldness. For Walter, it’s somehow worse. He’s the beast who has been bitten by the very vampire he courted. Some might think he’s the victim here, but when you study their relationship, it’s clear that it isn’t love he feels for Phyllis, but the hope for ownership. He doesn’t so much want her as he wants the idea of her. She’s his gorgeous “baby,” something pretty – and pretty unobtainable – a woman who would look good on his arm and in his bed.

At the start of the movie, Walter wonders how he could have known that honeysuckle could smell like murder? By the end, we all find out, and it’s fantastic.

Grade: A

WeekinRewind.com is the site for Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s blog, video podcasts, iTunes portal and archive of hundreds of movie reviews. Smith’s reviews appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.