DOUBLE INDEMNITY, directed by Billy Wilder, written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, 105 minutes, not rated.

When it was announced that Billy Wilder’s 1944 film, “Double Indemnity,” would be released this week in a new, digitally remastered, two-disc special edition, that sealed it. Reviews of “Accepted” and “Material Girls” would be nixed in favor of calling attention to a film that was instrumental in reshaping American mainstream movies.

That isn’t hyperbole. Based on a script Wilder co-wrote with Raymond Chandler from James M. Cain’s brash novella, “Double Indemnity” isn’t just one of the first examples of American film noir, it’s also one of the finest.

Mirroring its influences – the hard-boiled gangster novels of the 1930s and German Expressionism – the American noir movement was born out of necessity.

With crime on the rise and the nation at war, American society in the 1940s viewed evil as an ongoing reality. The American dream had given way to a national gloom, which proved the perfect cauldron for the invention of a new art form, one that would allow people to escape their frustration through urban fantasy.

What audiences responded to was complex – movies that eschewed the optimism of the past in favor of embracing the pessimism of the present. Moreover, for the first time, they were willing not only to identify with a crook, but also to root for one, a major shift in attitude that reflected the desperation of the times as well as noir’s base elements of mistrust, such as in its cynical examination of women and romantic love.

All of this comes together seamlessly in “Double Indemnity,” with Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson going against type to create characters of such cunning and surprise, it’s difficult to shake them once you’ve had the pleasure of meeting them.

In the film, MacMurray is Walter Neff, an insurance salesman for Pacific All-Risk Insurance Company 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 blonde 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 why 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 to be unamused:

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 do sell “Double Indemnity,” giving it a swift, electric lift. When Walter and Phyllis conspire to knock off her husband, they do so by deceiving him to sign 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 the policy’s double indemnity clause. 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 fit together the pieces of their imperfect crime. And when he does that, which he must since he’s the film’s moral center, 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 believe that Wilder sides with Walter, turning him into a kind of victim, but when you study Walter’s relationship with Phyllis, it’s clear that he’s really no better than she.

It isn’t love Walter feels for her, but the hope of ownership. He doesn’t so much want Phyllis as he wants the idea of Phyllis. He objectifies her. She’s just his gorgeous “baby,” something pretty and pretty unobtainable, a woman who would look good on his arm and in his bed. He’s using her every bit as much as she’s using him.

At the start of the movie, he wonders how he could have known that honeysuckle could smell like murder. By the end of the movie, Walter finds out, all right, and so do we. Turns out it’s a smell you don’t forget.

Grade: A

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, and Weekends in Television. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.

VIDEO-DVD CORNER

BDN film critic Christopher Smith has rated recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Akeelah and the Bee – B+

ATL – B-

Basic Instinct 2 – D+

The Benchwarmers – D

Big Momma’s House 2 – D

The Bone Collector: HD DVD – C+

Breakfast on Pluto – B

Brokeback Mountain – A-

Capote – A

Cheaper by the Dozen 2 – C-

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – A

The Constant Gardener – A-

Date Movie – D-

Derailed – C+

The Devil’s Rejects – B

Double Indemnity – A

Eight Below – B+

Failure to Launch – C-

The Family Stone – D

Freedomland – C-

Fun with Dick and Jane – C

The Hills Have Eyes – D

A History of Violence – A

Hoodwinked – C

Howl’s Moving Castle – A-

Inside Man – B+

Invasion: Complete Series – B+

Junebug – A

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – B+

Last Holiday – B

The Libertine – D

The Matador – B+

Match Point – A

Memoirs of a Geisha – C+

Munich – A-

Nanny McPhee – B-

North Country – C

Oliver Twist – B+

Paradise Now – A-

The Pink Panther – C+

Poseidon – B

Pride & Prejudice – A

Prime – B-

The Producers – B+

Red Eye – B+

Rent – C-

Rumor Has It… – C-

Scary Movie 4 – D+

The Shaggy Dog – C-

Shakespeare Behind Bars – A-

Shopgirl – B+

Silent Hill – C-

16 Blocks – B

The Squid and the Whale – B+

Stir of Echoes: HD DVD – A-

Syriana – B+

Take the Lead – C-

Transamerica – B

Underworld: Evolution – C-

An Unfinished Life – C-

Veronica Mars: Complete Second Season – A

Walk the Line – A-