About this item
The behind-the-scenes story of the quintessential film noir and cult classic, Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity - its true crime origins and crucial impact on film history - is told for the first time in this riveting narrative published for the film's 80th anniversary. From real crime to serial to novel to movie, the history of Double Indemnity is as complex and exciting as the plot of any to hit the screen during film noir's classic period. Born of a true crime that inspired reporter and would-be crime writer James M. Cain's novella, Hollywood quickly bid on the rights but throughout the 1930s a strict code of censorship made certain that no studio could green-light a murder melodrama based on real events. Then World War II loosened some strictures, and director-writer Billy Wilder - before his prime as director of sparkling comedies - could hire hardboiled novelist Raymond Chandler and revamp the story enough to pass the censors.
About the Author
Alain Silver was born in Chinatown, Los Angeles and lived in Paris for two years as a young child. He is a graduate of UCLA with degrees in film studies and a member of the industry guilds for both writers and directors. In addition to the books on the Author Page, his fiction writing includes the produced movie scripts for "Time at the Top" (a family feature for Showtime) , an adaptation of Dostoevsky's "White Nights" (which he also directed) , and "Blood Cure" (available on Amazon Prime) .After working as assistant director and production manager on studio projects, he became an independent feature producer where his 30-plus credits include "Cyborg 2," "Beat," and "Crashing." He has lectured on topics that range from production to film noir and Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles and moderated and participated in panels for the American Film Institute, Slamdance, Cinequest, and Los Angeles Film Festivals, and UCLA Extension.As an expert on noir, Chandler, and also vampire films and directors David Lean and Robert Aldrich, he has appeared on-camera for the BBC, Starz, Channel Four UK, E!, KCET, American Movie Classics, the Sci-fi Channel, CBC/Ontario, ARD and done more than a score of audio commentaries and essays for DVD releases from Criterion, Warner Bros. and 20th Century-Fox.
