Double Indemnity House

Underthehollywoodsign has a nice piece about the house used in the film Double Indemnity as the home of Phyllis Dietrichson, played by Barbara Stanwyck. James M. Cain (author of the novel), Raymond Chandler (the co-scriptwriter) and Billy Wilder (co-scriptwriter and director) all describe the Spanish Colonial style house in sniffy tones, but it’s also interesting to note that time and shrubbery have ‘softened’ the exterior making it less noir-ish:

Few houses in the movies are better known than Barbara Stanwyck’s Spanish Colonial in “Double Indemnity.” The director Billy Wilder first shows it in an establishing shot that highlights not only its architectural features but its distinctive site–a hilly corner lot on a sparsely-built suburban street.

Though the script states the house is in Los Feliz, it is actually located in the Hollywood Dell. I’ve always thought the house beautiful and well-suited to its penninsula-shaped lot, but Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, who co-wrote the screenplay, could not have agreed less.

Read more.