Parents need to know that this is a grim, downbeat "film noir" narrative. Evil doesn't triumph, but the main character makes bad choices and is pretty much doomed from the inception. He falls for another man's wife and tries to help her kill her husband (the woman also turns out to embody the worst sort of wicked-stepmother image, late in the story). There is nothing explicitly sensual in this narrative, even as much later "steamy erotic thrillers" copied the vibe and used it as an excuse for graphic sex and nudity. This one would merit just a PG today.

Families can talk about Walter Neff, and why a smart, successful insurance salesman would throw away his life for a scheming woman. Are his motivations realistic, or more of a crossover from "film noir," the wave of pessimistic detective movies and moody crime thrillers that suddenly came out of 1940s Hollywood? What modern movies have you seen that remind you of the classic film noir style? You might get history-minded kids to look into the life and work of writers James M. Cain and Raymond Chandler who inspired this film, and even further back to the real-life 1927 Ruth Snyder/Judd Gray murder case that inspired this movie.