Double Indemnity (1944)

Richard Gaines: Mr. Norton

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Quotes 

• [Norton, Keyes's boss, has just tried, unsuccessfully, to convince a client that her husband's death was a suicide] 

  Barton Keyes : You know, you, uh, oughta take a look at the statistics on suicide some time. You might learn a little something about the insurance business.

  Edward S. Norton : Mister Keyes, I was RAISED in the insurance business.

  Barton Keyes : Yeah, in the front office. Come now, you've never read an actuarial table in your life, have you? Why they've got ten volumes on suicide alone. Suicide by race, by color, by occupation, by sex, by seasons of the year, by time of day. Suicide, how committed: by poison, by firearms, by drowning, by leaps. Suicide by poison, subdivided by *types* of poison, such as corrosive, irritant, systemic, gaseous, narcotic, alkaloid, protein, and so forth; suicide by leaps, subdivided by leaps from high places, under the wheels of trains, under the wheels of trucks, under the feet of horses, from *steamboats*. But, Mr. Norton, of all the cases on record, there's not one single case of suicide by leap from the rear end of a moving train. And you know how fast that train was going at the point where the body was found? Fifteen miles an hour. Now how can anybody jump off a slow-moving train like that with any kind of expectation that he would kill himself? No. No soap, Mr. Norton. We're sunk, and we'll have to pay through the nose, and you know it.

• Edward S. Norton : That witness from the train, what was his name?

  Barton Keyes : His name was Jackson. Probably still is.

• Edward S. Norton : So he gets rid of this Jackson with some flimsy excuse about cigars.

  Edward S. Norton : [dramatically]  And then he's alone. And then he does it.

  Phyllis : [bristling]  Does what?

  Edward S. Norton : He jumps. Suicide. In which case the company is not liable. But you know that, of course. Now we could go to court...

  Phyllis : [furious]  I don't know anything! In fact, I don't know why I came here!

  Edward S. Norton : [abashed]  Just a moment. I said we could go to court, I didn't say we want to. What I want to suggest is a compromise on both sides. A settlement for a certain sum, a part of the policy value.

  Phyllis : Don't bother, Mr. Norton. When I came in here I had no idea you owed me any money. You told me you did, then you told me you didn't. Now you tell me you want to pay a part of it, whatever it is. You want to bargain with me at a time like this! I don't like your insinuations about my husband and I dont like your methods... in fact, I don't like you, Mr. Norton! Goodbye gentlemen!

• Edward S. Norton : There is a widespread feeling that just because a man has a large office, he must be an idiot.

• Barton Keyes : Nice going, Mr. Norton, you sure carried that ball. Only you fumbled on the goal line, then you heaved an illegal forward pass and got thrown for a 40-yard loss. Now you can't pick yourself up because you haven't got a leg to stand on.

  Edward S. Norton : Why haven't we? She can go to court and we can prove it was suicide!

  Barton Keyes : Can we? Mr. Norton, the first thing that struck me was that suicide angle. Only I dumped it into the waste paper basket just 3 seconds later. You know, you ought to take a look at the statistics on suicide sometime. You might learn a little something about the insurance business.