Double Indemnity (1944)

Fred MacMurray: Walter Neff

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Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  Walter Neff : Know why you couldn't figure this one, Keyes? I'll tell ya. 'Cause the guy you were looking for was too close. Right across the desk from ya.

  Barton Keyes : Closer than that, Walter.

  Walter Neff : I love you, too.

• 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.

• Walter Neff : Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money - and a woman - and I didn't get the money and I didn't get the woman. Pretty, isn't it?

• Walter Neff : You'll be here too?

  Phyllis : I guess so, I usually am.

  Walter Neff : Same chair, same perfume, same anklet?

  Phyllis : I wonder if I know what you mean.

  Walter Neff : I wonder if you wonder.

• Phyllis : Neff is the name, isn't it?

  Walter Neff : Yeah. Two "F"s, like in Philadelphia, if you know the story.

  Phyllis : What story?

  Walter Neff : The Philadelphia Story.

• Walter Neff : Do I laugh now, or wait 'til it gets funny?

• Walter Neff : It's just like the first time I came here, isn't it? We were talking about automobile insurance, only you were thinking about murder. And I was thinking about that anklet.

• Walter Neff : Suddenly it came over me that everything would go wrong. It sounds crazy, Keyes, but it's true, so help me. I couldn't hear my own footsteps. It was the walk of a dead man.

• Walter Neff : I get the general idea. She was a tramp from a long line of tramps.

• Phyllis : We're both rotten.

  Walter Neff : Only you're a little more rotten.

• Walter Neff : How could I have known that murder could sometimes smell like honeysuckle?

• Phyllis : I was just fixing some ice tea; would you like a glass?

  Walter Neff : Yeah, unless you got a bottle of beer that's not working.

• Walter Neff : I was thinking about that dame upstairs, and the way she had looked at me, and I wanted to see her again, close, without that silly staircase between us.

• Walter Neff : Dear Keyes, I suppose you'll call this a confession when you hear it... Well, I don't like the word confession, I just want to set you right about something you couldn't see because it was smack up against your nose. You think you're such a hot potato as a claims manager; such a wolf on a phony claim... Maybe y'are. But let's take a look at that Dietrichson claim... accident and double indemnity. You were pretty good in there for awhile Keyes... you said it wasn't an accident, check. You said it wasn't suicide, check. You said it was murder... check.

• Barton Keyes : Now that's enough out of you, Walter. Now get outta here before I throw my desk at you.

  [looks in his pocket for a match] 

  Walter Neff : [takes a match of his own and lights Keyes' cigar]  I love you, too.

  [voiceover] 

  Walter Neff : I really did, too, you old crab. Always yelling your head off, always sore at everybody. You never fooled me with your song and dance, not for a second. I kinda always knew that behind all the cigar ashes on your vest was a heart as big as a house.

• Walter Neff : That was all there was to it.Nothing had slipped, nothing had been overlooked.There was nothing to give us away. And yet, Keyes, as I was walking down the street to the drugstore, suddenly, it came over me that everything would go wrong. It sounds crazy Keyes, but it's true, so help me, I couldn't hear my own footsteps. It was the walk of a dead man.

• Barton Keyes : Just came from Norton's office. Semiannual sales records are out. You're high man, Walter. That's twice in a row. Congratulations.

  Walter Neff : Thanks. How'd you like a cheap drink?

  Barton Keyes : How'd you like a $50 cut in salary?

  Walter Neff : Do I laugh now or wait til it gets funny?

  Barton Keyes : I'm serious. I've just been talking to Norton. Too much stuff piling up on my desk. Too much pressure on my nerves. I spend half the night walking up and down on my bed. I've got to have an assistant and I thought of you.

  Walter Neff : Me? Why pick on me?

  Barton Keyes : 'Cause I've got a crazy idea you might be good at the job.

  Walter Neff : That's crazy all right. I'm a salesman.

  Barton Keyes : Yeah, peddlar. Glad-handler. Back-slapper. You're too good to be a salesman.

  Walter Neff : Nobody's too good to be a salesman.

  Barton Keyes : Phooey. All you guys do is ring a doorbell and hand out a smooth line of monkey dough. What's troubling you is that fifty buck cut, isn't it?

  Walter Neff : That'd trouble anybody.

  Barton Keyes : Look Walter, the job I'm talking about takes brains and integrity. It takes more guts than there is in 50 salesmen. It's the hardest job in the business.

  Walter Neff : Yeah, but it's still a desk job. I don't want to be nailed to a desk.

  Barton Keyes : Desk job? Is that all you can see in it? Just a hard chair to park your pants on from 9 to 5? Just a pile of papers to shuffle around and 5 sharp pencils and a scratchpad to make figures on? Maybe a little doodling on the side? Well that's not the way I look at it, Walter. To me, a claims man is a surgeon. That desk is an operating table and those pencils are scalpels and bone-chisels. And those papers are not just forms and statistics and claims for compensation. They're alive. They're packed with drama, with twisted hopes and crooked dreams. A claims man, Walter, is a, is a doctor and a bloodhound and a

  [phone rings. Keyes answers] 

  Barton Keyes : Who? Okay, hold on a minute. A claims man is a doctor and a bloodhound and a cop and a judge and a jury and a father confessor all in one. And you want to tell me you're not interested. You don't want to work with your brains. All you want to do is work with your finger on the doorbell for a few bucks more a week. There's a dame on your phone.

• Phyllis : I think you're rotten.

  Walter Neff : I think you're swell - so long as I'm not your husband.

  Phyllis : Get out of here.

  Walter Neff : You bet I'll get out of here, baby. I'll get out of here but quick.

• Phyllis : I'm a native Californian. Born right here in Los Angeles.

  Walter Neff : They say all native Californians come from Iowa.

• Walter Neff : Who'd you think I was anyway? The guy that walks into a good looking dame's front parlour and says, "Good afternoon, I sell accident insurance on husbands... you got one that's been around too long? One you'd like to turn into a little hard cash?"

• Barton Keyes : What's the matter? Dames chasing you again? Or still? Or is it none of my business?

  Walter Neff : If I told you it was a customer, you'd...

  Barton Keyes : "Margie"! I bet she drinks from the bottle.

• Walter Neff : Hello, Keyes. You're up pretty early, aren't you? I always wondered what time you got down to the office. Or did that little man of yours pull you out of bed?

  Barton Keyes : The janitor did. Seems you leaked a little blood on the way in here.

  Walter Neff : Yeah, wouldn't be surprised. I wanted to straighten you out on that Dietrichson case.

  Barton Keyes : So I gather.

  Walter Neff : How long you been standing there?

  Barton Keyes : Long enough.

  Walter Neff : Kind of a crazy story with a crazy twist to it. One you didn't quite figure out.

  Barton Keyes : You can't figure them all, Walter.

  Walter Neff : That's right. I guess you can't at that. Now I suppose I get the big speech. The one with all the two dollar words in it. Let's have it, Keyes.

  Barton Keyes : Walter, you're all washed up.

• Walter Neff : What do the police figure?

  Barton Keyes : That he got tangled up in his crutches and fell off the train. They're satisfied. It's not their dough.

• Walter Neff : That's a honey of an anklet you're wearing, Mrs. Dietrichson.

• Walter Neff : Hello Keyes, what's on your mind?

  Barton Keyes : [troubled]  That broken leg. The guy had a broken leg.

  Walter Neff : What are you talking about?

  Barton Keyes : I'm talking about Dietrichson. He had accident insurance, didn't he?

  Walter Neff : Yeah.

  Barton Keyes : Then he broke his leg, didn't he?

  Walter Neff : So what?

  Barton Keyes : And he didn't put in a claim. Why didn't he put in a claim? Why!

• Walter Neff : You know, about six months ago, a guy slipped on a cake of soap in his bathtub, knocked himself cold, and was drowned. Only, he had accident insurance, so they had an autopsy, and she didn't get away with it

  Phyllis : Who didn't?

  Walter Neff : His wife. Then there was the case of the guy who was found shot. His wife said he was cleaning his gun and his stomach got in the way. All she got was a 3-to-10 stretch in Tehachapi

  [a California women's prison] 

  Walter Neff : .

  Phyllis : [Wearily]  Perhaps it was worth it to her.

• Walter Neff : The insurance ran out on the 15th. I'd hate to think of you having a smashed fender or something while you're not... fully covered.

  Phyllis : Perhaps I know what you mean, Mr. Neff. I've just been taking a sun-bath.

  Walter Neff : No pigeons around, I hope.

• Phyllis : Do you make your own breakfast, Mr Neff?

  Walter Neff : Well, I squeeze a grapefruit now and again.

• Phyllis : I loved you, Walter, and I hated him. But I wasn't going to do anything about it until I met you. You planned the whole thing. I only wanted him dead.

  Walter Neff : [bitterly]  And I'm the one that fixed it so he was dead? Is that what you're telling me?

  Phyllis : And nobody's pulling out. We went in this together and we're coming out at the end together. It's straight down the line for both of us. Remember?

• Phyllis : Nettie, show Mr. Neff into the living room.

  [leaves to get dressed] 

  Walter Neff : Where would the living room be?

  Nettie - Dietrichsons' Maid : In there, but they keep the liquor locked up.

  Walter Neff : That's alright, I always carry my own keys.

• Walter Neff : [Recurring line, spoken several times by both the principal characters Walter Neff and by Phyllis Dietrichson]  "Right down the line" or "straight down the line".

• Walter Neff : She didn't get away with it. All she got was a three to ten stretch at Tehachapi.

  Phyllis : Perhaps it was worth it to her.

• Walter Neff : [as Keyes fumbles for a non-existent match]  They give you matches when you buy cigars. All you have to do is ask for them.

  Barton Keyes : Don't like 'em. They always explode in my pocket. So long, Walter.

• Barton Keyes : Walter, I've been living with this little man for 26 years. He's never failed me yet. There's got to be something wrong!

  Walter Neff : Well, maybe Norton was right. Maybe it was suicide.

  Barton Keyes : No, not suicide. But not an accident either.

  Walter Neff : What else?

  Barton Keyes : Now look, Walter, a guy takes out an accident policy that's worth a hundred thousand dollars if he's killed on the train. Then two weeks later he *is* killed on the train. And not in some train accident, but falling off a platform in some silly observation car. You know what the mathematical probability of that is? One out of I don't know how many billions. And after that the broken leg. No, it just cant be the way it looks. Something has been worked on us!

  Walter Neff : Such as what? Murder?

• Barton Keyes : Walter, I had dinner 2 hours ago and it stuck halfway.

  Walter Neff : That little man of yours is acting up again, eh?

  Barton Keyes : There's something wrong with the Dietrichson case.

  Walter Neff : Why? Because he didn't file a claim? Maybe he just didn't have time.

  Barton Keyes : Maybe he just didn't know that he was insured.

• Walter Neff : So we just sat there, and she started crying softly like the rain on the window. And we didn't say anything. Maybe she had stopped thinking about it, but I hadn't. I couldn't because it was all tied up with something I'd been thinking about for years. Since long before I ever ran into Phyllis Dietrichson. Because, you know how it is Keyes, in this business you can't sleep for trying to figure out all the tricks they could pull on you. You're like the guy behind the roulette wheel, watching the customers to make sure they don't crook the house. And then one night, you get to thinking how you could crook the house yourself. And do it smart. Because you've got that wheel right under your hands. You know every notch in it by heart. And you figure all you need is a plant out front, a shill to put down the bet. And suddenly the doorbell rings and the whole setup is right there in the room with ya.

• Walter Neff : You don't know Keyes. Once he gets his teeth into something he never lets go. He'll investigate you, he'll have you shadowed, he'll watch you every minute from now on. Afraid, baby?

  Phyllis : Yes, I'm afraid, but not of Keyes. I'm afraid of us. We're not the same anymore. We did it so we could be together, but now its pulling us apart, isn't it, Walter?

  Walter Neff : What are you talking about?

  Phyllis : And you don't really care whether we see each other or not.

  Walter Neff : [embracing her]  Shut up, baby.

• Lola Dietrichson : Look at me, Mr. Neff, I'm not crazy, I'm not hysterical, I'm not even crying. But I have the awful feeling that something's wrong. And I had that same feeling once before, when my mother died.

  Walter Neff : When your mother died?

  Lola Dietrichson : We were at Lake Arrowhead. It was 6 years ago. We had a cabin there and it was very cold. My mother was very sick; she had pneumonia, there were just three of us there in the cabin. One night I got up and went into my mother's room. She was delirious with fever, all the bed covers were on the floor. The windows were wide open. The nurse wasn't in the room. I went and covered my mother up as quickly as I could. Just then I heard the door open behind me. The nurse stood there. She didn't say a word, but there was a look in her eye I'll never forget. Two days later my mother was dead.

  [growing anger] 

  Lola Dietrichson : Do you know who that was nurse was?

  Walter Neff : No, who?

  Lola Dietrichson : Phyllis!

• Lola Dietrichson : You're not making sense, Miss Dietrichson. Your father fell off a train.

  Lola Dietrichson : Two days before he fell off that train, what was Phyllis doing? She was in her room, in front of a mirror with a black hat on and pinning a veil to it! As if she couldn't wait to see how she would look in mourning!

  Walter Neff : You've had a pretty bad shock, Miss Dietrichson. Aren't you just imagining these things?

  Lola Dietrichson : I caught her eyes in the mirror. They had that same look in them they had before my mother died. That same look.