Review of Double Indemnity

Los Angeles insurance salesman in his late 30s is seduced by the wife of one of his clients, who gives him the idea of taking out an accident insurance policy on her husband without his knowledge. If he's killed, the wife receives $200,000--if he's killed on a train, the amount is doubled. Writer Steven Bochco had the daunting task of compressing James M. Cain's crime novel into a 75-minute movie for television. Bochco must have known how unnecessary the whole idea was, especially since no amount of effort could even hope to get the project out from the shadow of Billy Wilder's classic 1944 version. The three leads (Richard Crenna and Samantha Eggar as the illicit lovers, Lee J. Cobb as Crenna's boss) go through the motions dutifully, but nothing here feels fresh.