Double Indemnity was my first genuine exposure to the genre/style of film noir, and I have to say that I genuinely enjoyed it.
As far as the noir-aspect of the film goes - murder, the hero narrating portions of the film via a flashback voiceover, very dark locations with a lot of shadows, corny dialogue that made liberal use of the words "dame" and "baby" - it was about what I expected. Granted, the closest I've come to film noir before this is Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Tracer Bullet strips in Calvin and Hobbes, but nevertheless the film struck me to be typical (or possibly even stereotypical) film noir. And I enjoyed it anyway.
Film noir aside, I thought the film was excellent. I especially enjoyed the acting. Barbara Stanwyck genuinely struck me as a murderous black widow of a wife, while Fred MacMurry does an excellent job as Walter Neff. I especially liked Edward G. Robinson's near-obsessive portrayal of Keyes.
Billy Wilder did an excellent job of building the tension up throughout the film. My favortie scene has to be where the car stalls out while MacMurry and Stanwyck are about to make their getaway.
Overall, I thougholy enjoyed Double Indemnity. It's a great introduction to film noir, and if you're interested in the genre (and even if you're not), you should definitely watch it.
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