86 minute running time so the perfect length…. snappy dialogue mainly by Ray Chandler, directed by Billy Wilder (Shmuel Vildr) … Barbara Stanwyck as femme fatale, Fred MacMurray the breezy sap … I guess this is the first film noir … it’s a green-go classic, for sure. It was so financially successful that it spawned hundreds of imitators in following years. The idea behind these crime pictures is that American confidence, optimism, charm and naivete is mixed up with some real scheming and violence — it’s complicated. John Farr also liked it.