Murray Schumach wrote "The Struggle Over Double Indemnity" to express his frustrated view towards the problems with getting his move passed by the censors and Hollywood producers in 1935 and again eight years after.
Mr. Schumach realizes that anyone in the mid-nineteen thirties who reads the newspaper was aware of the stories about a wife and lover planning to murder her husband. The reader continues to read these types of stories to seek for the reason of the murder or maybe because of boredom. Maybe because of the historical time period which made the people acustomed to this type of crime.
A story of the same type was introduced in 1935. Eight years passed by before the censors and producers were willing to pass the story. The plot of the story was like the ones read in the newspapers. A married woman and her lover murder her husband for the insurance. The woman gives in to the investigators at the insurance company. The investigators do not tell the information to the police because they have already called it an accident. The lady and her lover leave the United States and commit suicide together.
The producers and censors read the story and judge that the story is violating the provisions of the Production Code. Also if it was to result in a picture it would be rejected when presented for approval. There were objections by Mr. Breen to the main characters. "The leading characters are murderers who cheat the law and die at their own hands. . . It may be argued that one of these criminals is, in a sense, glorified by his confession to save the girl he loves," "Also the story deals improperly with an illicit and adulterous sex relationship.
Later in 1943 an new version of the story was sent to the censors. This is the change in plot. "This murderer kills his accomplice; then though mortally wounded by her, talks his confession into a dictaphone at the insurance office." "By this time the insurance investigator is closing in on him, and he collapses just as the investigator arrives."
The reaction of Breen was totally different this tiem. Apparently, detail on crime became more active and adultery was not as objectionable on the screen. His objective to the story were minor; they were just a play on words unlike the first script.
