Double Indemnity
Insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) and the insured’s wife, Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) try to swindle an insurance company out of a accident and life insurance policy that pays double for death by certain accidents, by offing Dietrichson’s husband by “accident”. Things go well before it all goes south. They first have to get the “accident” past Neff’s boss (Edward G. Robinson) who has a nose for fraud. Again, at first they do, then he starts to smell a rat. The wrong rat, but a rat nevertheless.
And it all ends in tears.
This is classic in the noir genre, with some awesome dialog. My favorite is this:
Phyllis: Mr. Neff, why don’t you drop by tomorrow evening about eight-thirty. He’ll be in then.
Walter Neff: Who?
Phyllis: My husband. You were anxious to talk to him weren’t you?
Walter Neff: Yeah, I was, but I’m sort of getting over the idea, if you know what I mean.
Phyllis: There’s a speed limit in this state, Mr. Neff. Forty-five miles an hour.
Walter Neff: How fast was I going, officer?
Phyllis: I’d say around ninety.
Walter Neff: Suppose you get down off your motorcycle and give me a ticket.
Phyllis: Suppose I let you off with a warning this time.
Walter Neff: Suppose it doesn’t take.
Phyllis: Suppose I have to whack you over the knuckles.
Walter Neff: Suppose I bust out crying and put my head on your shoulder.
Phyllis: Suppose you try putting it on my husband’s shoulder.
Walter Neff: That tears it.
Great film.
