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Billy Wilder risked Fred MacMurray's image in ''Double Indemnity''
"Look, I'm a saxophone player," said MacMurray.
Public perception is a fickle thing. If an actor is lucky enough to be associated with any one thing in an audience's mind, the actor might find it difficult to shake that notion. Take Andy Griffith, for example. For years after The Andy Griffith Show ended, the former Sheriff Taylor experimented with what kinds of roles he took. He even founded his own production company to try new things and test how far his audience would follow him. What he found, though, was that folks mostly still only accepted him as Sheriff Taylor. He tried and failed in the wake of his most famous show, learning that most viewers preferred to see him one specific way. It's no coincidence that you can draw so many parallels between The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock, his real second act in show business.
Another actor with similar struggles was Fred MacMurray. Throughout his career, MacMurray established a particular connection with his viewing audience. There was some quality to him as an actor that made him feel trustworthy. For a stretch of the 1960s and '70s, MacMurray was the perennial Dad Next Door, starring in the show My Three Sons while also appearing in Disney features like The Shaggy Dog, and Flubber. He had a genial approach to each role, and the public really bought into him as a good guy.
But, one of the greatest filmmakers of all time could've shifted that perception forever all the way back in 1944 when Billy Wilder was casting for Double Indemnity, a film noir thriller instantly recognized as one of the best movies ever.
According to Wilder, the process was fraught with rejection, as seemingly nobody was willing to put their image on the line to play the morally ambiguous lead role. In the book Film Noir Reader 3: Interviews with Filmmakers of the Classic Noir Period, Wilder spoke about how difficult it was to find the right actor to play the character:
"Well, he was just kind of a middle-class insurance guy who works an angle. If he is that tough, then there is nothing left for Stanwyck to work on. He has to be seduced and sucked in on that thing. He is the average man who suddenly becomes a murderer. That's the dark aspect of the middle-class, how ordinary guys can come to commit murder. But it was difficult to get a leading man. Everybody turned me down. I tried up and down the street, believe me, including George Raft. Nobody would do it, they didn't want to play this unsympathetic guy.
Nor did Fred MacMurray see the possibilities at first. He said, 'Look, I'm a saxophone player. I'm making my comedies with Claudette Colbert, what do you want?' 'Well, you've got to make that one step, and believe me it's going to be rewarding; and it's not that difficult to do.' So he did it. But he didn't want to do it. He didn't want to be murdered, he didn't want to be a murderer."
It's telling, then, that MacMurray would go on to even more comedy success after Double Indemnity. He was so convincing as a good, neighborly guy, that fans were willing to cast aside how they saw him in the earlier thriller in order to accept him in a sitcom role.
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After that it was The Absent Minded Professor--Flubber and My Three Suns mostly. The Apartment won 5 Oscars and #101 movie of all time. He was a sensational heel 😬- Most movie watchers liked him before and after.
