"Working kind of late, Mr. Neff." "Yeah." "With my rent I need the overtime." "Inter-office memo." "Walter Neff to Barton Keyes, Claims Manager." "I'm speaking to you, Keyes, and nobody else, you big, clumsy chimpanzee." "it's about the Dietrichson policy." "Accident and double indemnity, the guy that got himself killed." "You were pretty good in there for a while." "You said it wasn't an accident." "You were right." "You said it wasn't suicide." "Right again." "You said it was murder." "Bingo." "Only when it came to picking Dietrichson's killer, you blew it." "You wanna know who killed him?" "Hang on to that wet cigar butt, Keyes." "I did." "It was me." "Walter Neff, age 36, unmarried, no visible scars, until an hour ago, that is." "The simple fact is, I killed a man." "I killed him for money and a woman." "Only I didn't get the money, and I don't want the woman." "Began about the end of September." "I had to run out to Beverly Hills on this auto policy renewal." "I can still remember the smell of honeysuckle all around that house." "I felt terrific, Keyes." "There was no way in the world I could've known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle." "(Birds Chirping)" "Good afternoon." "Is Mr. Dietrichson in?" "I'm Mrs. Dietrichson." "Can I help you?" "I'm Walter Neff with Pacific Casualty." "it's about some renewals on your husband's automobiles." "Well, he's not here." "Is there anything I can do?" "Well, it's just that the insurance has expired and I'd hate to think of you smashing a fender or anything while you weren't fully covered." "How thoughtful." "Come in." "I hate to take up your time." "No trouble." "I was just taking some sun." "That's a smashing towel you're wearing, Mrs. Dietrichson." "Make yourself comfortable." "NEFF:" "To tell the truth, Keyes," "I didn't care about Dietrichson or the auto renewals right then." "I was thinking about Mrs. Dietrichson, and the faint smell of suntan lotion on her warm soft skin." "On the piano was Mr. Dietrichson in a silver frame and his daughter Lola by his first wife." "Won't you sit down, Mr..." "Neff." "Neff." "Neff." "With two "f's", like in Philadelphia, if you know the story." "What story?" "The Philadelphia Story." "About the insurance, my husband doesn't tell me anything." "it's on the, the two cars." "You see, we've been handling your husband's insurance for the past three years and we'd just hate to see the policies lapse." "I guess he's been too busy on the new oil rigs." "Well, maybe I could catch him home some evening for a few minutes." "I suppose so." "He doesn't get home much before 8:00." "Tell me, do you handle automobile insurance or all kinds?" "All kinds." "Right down the line." "I've been doing it for about 11 years." "Accident insurance?" "Yeah, that, too." "That bracelet you're wearing, is there engraving on it?" "Just my name." "Like, for instance?" "Phyllis." "Phyllis." "I think I like that." "Phyllis." "But you're not sure?" "I'd have to drive it around the block a couple of times." "Mr. Neff, why don't you come back here tomorrow at 8:30 and then you can talk to him about it." "Who?" "My husband." "You were anxious to talk to him, weren't you?" "But I'm getting over it." "I believe in this state there's a 65 mile an hour speed limit." "Oh, really?" "Well, how fast was I going, Officer?" "I'd say about 90." "Thank you very much, Mrs. Dietrichson." "Tomorrow evening at 8:30 then." "Mr. Neff, Mr. Keyes has been yelling for you all afternoon." "Is he sore or just frothing at the mouth a little?" "(laughing) A little of both." "Come off it, Bonaventura." "You're in trouble and you know it." "I'm insured with this company and I want my money." "Come in." "You know Sam Bonaventura?" "You wrote the policy on his truck." "Yeah, sure." "How are you doing, Mr. Bonaventura?" "Well, not so good." "My truck burns up and all of a sudden this clown doesn't wanna pay off." "Yeah, you just turned the key and all of a sudden the whole truck just blazed up in his face." "Never even singed his eyebrows." "I got 4,200 bucks tied up in this truck." "Every month hundreds of claims come to this desk." "Now, some of them are phony." "I know which ones are phony." "How do I know?" "My little man tells me." "What little man?" "The little man in here." "Every time I see a phony claim, my stomach gets tied up in knots." "Now, you spoiled my dinner last night." "I couldn't even look at the eggs this morning." "That's how I knew your claim was phony." "So, what did I do?" "I sent a tow car out to the garage this afternoon, they jacked up your burned-out truck." "And what did they find?" "They found what was left of a pile of shavings." "What shavings?" "The shavings you doused in kerosene and dropped a match on." "Sign this." "What's that?" "it's a waiver on your claim." "Sign it." "Yeah." "Now you're an honest man again, and I'll be able to enjoy my food." "4,200 bucks." "What?" "Don't you know how to open the door?" "You just put your hand on the knob, you turn it to the right, pull it toward you." "Attaboy." "Now the same thing from the other side." "What are we?" "An insurance company or a bunch of amateurs, writing a policy on a jerk like that?" "Oh, no, wait a minute now." "I clipped a note to his application to have him thoroughly investigated before accepting the risk." "I know. it's not you, Walter." "it's the company." "The way they do things." "The way they don't do things." "The way they sign up anything just to have it show up on the sales sheet." "I have to sit here at this desk up to my neck in phony claims watching to see that no more money goes out the window than comes in the door." "You love every minute of it." "But you're so compulsive you're driving yourself crazy." "You won't even say it's Tuesday without looking at the calendar first, then you have to check to see whether it's this year or last year's calendar." "And then you have to find out what company printed the calendar, and you have to check that company and see whether their calendar agrees with the World Almanac's calendar." "Now, come on, Keyes." "Get out of here before I throw the desk at you." "I love you, too." "NEFF:" "And I really did, Keyes, despite the obvious flaws in your character." "But behind the cigar ashes on your shirt you had a heart as big as a house." "I hope you didn't mind my changing the appointment." "Last night was not so convenient." "No, that's okay, I was working on my stamp collection." "I was just making some iced tea." "Would you like some?" "No." "Unless you got a bottle of beer that's not working." "The maid's day off, so..." "I'm sorry." "Tea is fine." "About those renewals." "I spoke to my husband about them." "You did?" "He'd like to renew." "In fact, I thought he'd be here this afternoon." "But he's not." "No." "No." "Lemon?" "Sugar?" "Fix it your way." "Seeing it's your maid's day off, maybe there's something I can do for you." "Like running your vacuum cleaner." "What did you do before you became an insurance salesman?" "I turned down a Rhodes scholarship, selling vacuum cleaners door to door." "Mother was heartbroken." "And you've been breaking hearts ever since." "I wanted to ask you something, Mr. Neff." "Make it Walter." "Tell me, Walter," "in this insurance business how much commission do you make?" "20 percent." "Why?" "I just thought maybe I could throw a little business your way." "Well, I can always use it." "I was thinking about my husband." "I worry a lot about him out on those oil rigs." "it's very dangerous." "The other day, a casing line snapped and caught the foreman, and now the man's in the hospital with a broken back." "That's bad." "Well, the thought just terrifies me." "Suppose that happened to my husband?" "It could." "Don't you think that he ought to have accident insurance?" "Definitely." "What kind of insurance could he have?" "Well, enough to pay the doctors and the hospital bills." "Say $400 a week cash benefit." "He'd rate about $200,000 capital sum." ""Capital sum?" What's that?" "In case he got killed." "I'm sorry." "Maybe I shouldn't have said that." "I suppose you have to think of everything in your business." "Mr. Dietrichson would understand." "I'm sure I could sell him on the idea of some accident protection." "Why don't I talk to him about it?" "He's got a lot on his mind." "He's not interested in anything except maybe a ball game on television." "You're much more interesting than a ball game." "Tell that to him." "I just sit and knit." "Is that what you married him for?" "Maybe I like the way his thumbs hold up the wool." "Well, any time his thumbs get tired I wonder if a little bourbon would get this on its feet." "What I wanted to talk to you about, Walter, was could I get an accident policy for him?" "I mean, I have a small allowance." "I could pay for it and then he need know nothing about it." "Why shouldn't he know?" "Well, the truth is that he doesn't want accident insurance." "He's very superstitious about it." "And if there was a way that I could get it like that then all the worry would be gone." "Do you see what I mean?" "Yeah." "Sure." "Yeah. I have 20I20 vision." "In other words, you want him to have a policy without him knowing it." "And that means without the insurance company knowing that he doesn't know it." "That's the setup, isn't it?" "Is there anything wrong with that?" "I think it's lovely." "No." "And then some dark, wet night if a crown block should just happen to fall on him, it could be the brakes on his car, or he could fall out of an upstairs window." "Any little thing as long as it's a morgue job." "What are you saying?" "Mrs. Dietrichson, you want to murder your husband, don't you?" "That's a horrible thing to say!" "What do you take me for?" "A guy that walks into your parlor and says, "Good afternoon, madam." ""I sell accident insurance on husbands." ""Have you got one that's been around too long?" ""Somebody you'd like to turn into a little hard cash?" ""Well, just give me a smile, I'll help you collect."" "Do I look that stupid?" "I think you're rotten." "I think you're terrific as long as I'm not your husband." "Get out of here." "You bet I'll get out, baby, but quick." "(DOORBELL ringing)" "Well." "Hello." "How did you know where l live?" "it's in the telephone book." "So it is." "Come in, come in, come in." "Thank you." "Well." "You're doing all right for yourself." "Well, if you mean I'm in way over my head, you're right." "Surprised to see me?" "No. I knew you wouldn't leave it like that." "Like what?" "Like it was at your place." "I'm must've said something to give you a terribly wrong impression." "I'm sorry." "What you want me to do?" "Be nice to me." "Like you were the first time at my house." "I can't be like the first time." "Something's happened." "I know." "What's the matter?" "I feel as if he's watching me." "Not that he cares." "He has me on a leash so tight that I can't breathe." "I shouldn't have come." "No." "Maybe not." "Want me to go?" "Do you want to?" "Right now?" "Yeah, right now." "How are you gonna do it?" "Do what?" "Kill him." "You smell terrific." "What is it?" "Just me, Walter." "I'd love a drink." "All I have is bourbon." "Fine." "Soda?" "Water." "You know, about six months ago there was a case where they found a guy shot." "His wife said that he was cleaning a gun and his ear got in the way." "All she collected was a 10 to 20 stretch in the women's penitentiary." "Maybe it was worth it to her." "See if you can carry that as far as the living room." "it's nice here, Walter." "How can you afford it?" "A federal grant. I qualified for the poverty program." "Oh, just the bedroom." "You get your own breakfast?" "Once in a while I squeeze a grapefruit." "You're lucky." "Being alone." "You don't have to sit opposite him and his daughter every morning." "What daughter?" "Lola." "The cupcake on the piano?" "He thinks more of her than he does of me." "What about a divorce?" "Don't you think you could make ends meet on community property?" "He doesn't have any money." "Not since he's been in the oil business." "But he had when you married him?" "A lot." "Now he's impossible." "If I buy a dress or a pair of shoes he yells at me." "So you lie awake nights and you listen to him snore." "You get ideas like you wish he was dead." "Perhaps I do." "And you wish it was an accident." "And he had that insurance policy for $200,000." "Is that it?" "Perhaps that, too." "Did I flunk the test?" "NEFF:" "No." "You passed with flying colors." "Walter, I can't stand it anymore." "What if I did something and they caught me?" "They're not gonna catch you because I'm gonna help you." "We're gonna do it together and we're gonna do it right." "And I'm the guy that knows how." "It took me 11 years but I think I know all the tricks." "You..." "You do know what you're saying?" "Yeah." "I know what I'm saying." "The first thing we needed was to fix him up with that accident policy." "I knew he wouldn't buy it, but all I needed was his signature on the application." "So I had to make him sign it without knowing what he was signing." "And I wanted a witness other than Phyllis to hear me give my sales pitch." "See, I was trying to think with your brains, Keyes." "I suppose you realize, Mr. Dietrichson, that since you're not an employee you're not covered by the normal workmen's compensation." "The only way you can really be protected is to have a personal policy of your own." "If we bought all the insurance that he carries in that little book, we'd stay broke paying for it, wouldn't we, sweetheart?" "What keeps us so broke is you going out and buying five pairs of shoes at a crack." "You got a policy covering that, pally?" "Dollar for dollar, Mr. Dietrichson, accident insurance is the cheapest coverage you can buy." "Let's just settle that automobile insurance tonight." "I had a tough day." "Right." "Well, all we need for that is your signature on these renewal applications." "If you'll all excuse me, I've got to be going." "Where?" "To Anne's house." "We're studying for an exam tomorrow." "Are you sure you're not going to see Donny Franklin again?" "I told you I'm going to Anne's." "Hey, it better not be that Franklin guy." "Look, if you don't believe me call her mother and ask." "Anne and I will be studying very hard for an exam tomorrow." "And I'm late already." "Now, I hope that is all clear." "Good night, Father." "Good night, Phyllis." "How are you going to get there?" "You can't take my car again." "Anne's picking me up." "She has her own car now." "A great little fighter for her weight." "Now, if you'll just sign here, please." "Sign what?" "The application for the automobile renewal." "This will cover you until the new policies are issued." "Just so I'm covered when I drive up north next week." "San Francisco?" "Palo Alto." "He was a Stanford man." "He still drives up for his class reunion each year." "Why don't you fly?" "That only takes an hour." "My husband hates to fly." "it's the safest form of travel there is." "According to statistics..." "Yeah, I know all about your statistics." "Flying terrifies me." "It always has." "Where do I sign?" "Right here, at the bottom." "That's it." "Both copies, please." "Sign twice?" "One is the agent's copy." "I need it for my files." "Files." "Duplicates." "Triplicates." "Fourplicates." "Don't worry about the check, Mr. Dietrichson." "I'll stop by your office any morning and pick it up." "How much you taking me for?" "I'm sorry. $361 .50." "Nothing personal, Neff, but you guys are robbers." "Good night." "Good night, Mr. Dietrichson." "Bring me some soda when you come up, Phyllis." "I'll see you to the door, Mr. Neff." "That trip to Palo Alto." "When does he go?" "End of the month." "Can you work it so he takes the train?" "I didn't know there was a train." "There is. it's a new run to San Francisco complete with observation platform." "Can you do it?" "Why the train?" "There's a clause in every accident policy, it's a little something called double indemnity." "The insurance companies put it in as a kind of a come-on for their customers." "It means that they pay double for certain accidents." "The kind that almost never happen." "Like, for instance, if a guy got killed on a train, they'd pay $400,000 instead of $200,000." "I see." "We're going for the limit, baby." "That's why it's got to be the train." "it's going to be the train, Walter." "Just as you say." "(crickets chirping)" "Well." "Something the matter?" "Well, I thought you might give me ride, if you're going my way." "Which way would that be?" "You can drop me at Westwood Boulevard." "Yeah, I hear that's a great place to study for exams." "LOLA:" "There's Donny now." "You won't tell on me, will you?" "I'd have to think about it." "Who's he?" "Mr. Neff." "He gave me a ride from the house." "I could've come over for you." "I hear you're persona non grata up there." "I'm beginning to feel the same way about you, mister." "Look, sonny, she needed a ride." "I don't think that's any reason to get uptight, do you?" "Don't pay any attention to him, Mr. Neff." "Thanks a lot." "Good night, Lola." "NEFF:" "We had to be very careful from now on, Phyllis and I." "We had plans to work out." "We picked out a big supermarket." "She was supposed to be there every day around 1 1.:00 and I could run into her there." "Walter." "Let me talk first." "it's all set." "The accident policy came through." "I've got it in my pocket." "I also got his check." "I went out to the oil rig last week." "He thought he was paying his auto insurance." "The check's just made out to the company so it could be for anything." "Now, you've got to send a check in for the auto insurance." "it's all right." "One of the cars is in your name." "But, Walter, listen..." "Open your purse." "Can you get into his safe deposit box?" "Yes." "We both have keys." "Don't put the policy in there until I tell you." "Remember, you never even saw it, do you understand?" "I'm not a fool." "What about the train?" "That's just it." "He isn't going." "What?" "The trip's off." "He..." "He had a fall yesterday at the oil rig and broke his leg." "Well, that's a ball game." "Well, what do we do now?" "Wait." "What for?" "Till he can get on the train." "I told you it's got to be the train." "We can't wait." "There are lots of other ways." "We're gonna do it right or we're not gonna do it at all." "Hi, Keyes." "Just come from Norton's office." "The semi-annual sales records are out." "And you're our high man." "That's twice in a row." "Congratulations." "Well, thanks." "How'd you like a cheap drink by way of celebration?" "How would you like a $50 a week cut in salary?" "How would you like an incurable rash?" "No, I'm serious, Walter." "I've been talking to Norton." "The work keeps piling up on my desk, pressure on my nerves." "I spend half the night walking up and down in bed." "I've got to have an assistant, and I was thinking maybe you" "Oh, no." "Why?" "Why pick on me?" "Because I've some crazy notion you might be good at the job." "Keyes, look, I'm a salesman." "Yeah." "You're too good to be a salesman." "Nobody's too good to be a salesman." "All you guys do is push doorbells and dish out a line of double talk which nobody understands." "But, Walter, the job I'm offering you takes brains, integrity." "it's still a desk job." "Keyes, I just don't want a desk job." "Is that all you can see in it?" "Just a hard chair to plant your keister in from 9:00 to 5:00." "Just a bunch of papers to shuffle along the desk." "Five sharp pencils and a scratch pad to write figures on." "That's not the way I see it, Walter." "To me a claims man is a surgeon." "His desk is an operating table." "Those pencils are scalpels, bone chisels." "The papers are alive, packed with drama." "To me a claims man is a bloodhound, a cop, judge and a jury, and a father confessor," "(PHONE ringing) all rolled up..." "Yeah!" "Who?" "Hold the line." "And that doesn't mean anything to you, huh?" "You don't want to work with your brains." "You want to work with your finger pushing the doorbell." "There's a broad on the line." "Hello." "Walter Neff speaking." "I had to call you." "it's urgent." "Are you with somebody?" "Yeah, as a matter of fact I am." "Can I call you back?" "No, no." "it'll just take a moment." "He's going tonight." "He's taking the train." "Yeah, yeah, I am." "I'm listening." "it's just..." "Can you make it short?" "He's been up since yesterday, hobbling around on crutches." "So, I told him he might as well take that new train up north." "Well, it'd be a change and he can get his mind off himself." "He fell for it." "The doctor says it's okay as long as he's careful." "So he's gonna go." "Isn't it wonderful?" "Everything the way you wanted it." "10:15, Union Station." "Yeah." "Hold the line a minute." "Suppose l join you in your office, Keyes." "I don't mind waiting." "Just tell her not to take all day." "Go ahead." "I'll take him in the station wagon, and we'll leave at about 9:30." "Just the way we worked it out." "Only with the crutches that makes it so much better, doesn't it?" "Yeah, it's 100% better." "By the way, what color did you pick?" "Color?" "He's gonna be wearing a dark blue suit and the cast is on the left leg." "Sounds terrific." "Walter, I love you." "Goodbye." "So long, Margie." "Sorry." "It was a customer." "Margie." "I bet she drinks from the bottle." "Why don't you settle down and get married?" "No." "Why didn't you?" "I almost did, a long time ago." "Then you started to investigate her." "That's right. I found out she'd been dyeing her hair since she was 16, she had a manic-depressive in her family, on her mother's side." "She already had one husband, you know." "He was a pro pool player." "I get the general idea, Keyes." "Come on." "What are we gonna tell Norton?" "What about this job we're offering you?" "I'd have to think about it." "That's fair enough." "I just want you to know I didn't ask for you in this job because I think you're smart." "it's just that I think you're a shade less dumb than the others around here." "I appreciate the vote of confidence, Keyes." "NEFF:" "That was it, Keyes, and there was no use kidding myself anymore." "The machinery had started to move, nothing could stop it now." "The time for thinking had all run out." "From here on, it was a question of following the timetable move by move." "I left my rate book on the desk as if I'd forgotten it." "I left the office to call on a prospect in Pasadena." "I wanted my time all accounted for up to the last possible moment." "I got home around 6.:15 and I drove right into the garage." "Another alibi." "How you doing, Mr. Neff." "Hi, George." "How about a wash on the Messerschmitt?" "How soon did you want it?" "I got two cars ahead of you." "Any time you get around to it." "I'm gonna stay in tonight." "Okay, I'll have it all cleaned up for you in the morning." "NEFF:" "I called Ike Schwartz, one of the salesmen in the office." "He lived in Montebello." "A toll call, so there'd be a record of it." "I told him I'd forgotten my rate book and needed some dope on the public liability bond I was figuring." "I asked him to call me right back." "This was another part of my alibi, so that later on I could prove that I'd been home." "Take it easy, sweetheart." "We've got lots of time." "(crickets chirping)" "Just let me do it my own way, Mother." "Here, take this crutch." "Can you manage?" "Yeah." "NEFF:" "I lay there waiting and thinking of the dark street downtown that we picked out." "She was to honk the horn three times." "That was to be the signal." "Don't do too much dancing." "Remember what the doctor said." "If you get careless you could end up with a shorter leg." "Then I'll just have to break the other to match them up again, right?" "(HORN HONKlNG)" "What are you doing that for?" "What the..." "You start just as soon as the train leaves." "Yes, I remember everything." "No speeding." "You don't want any cops stopping you, not with him in the back." "We've been through all that already." "When you turn off the highway cut the lights." "I'll drop off the train as close to the spot as I can." "Wait till the train passes, then blink your lights twice." "San Francisco, lady?" "Yes." "Car nine, section 11 ." "Just my husband going." "Car nine, section 11 ." "Right here." "It's all right." "Thank you." "My husband doesn't want to be helped." "Car nine, section 11 ." "The gentleman only." "Thank you." "You all right, honey?" "Take care." "I'll miss you." "Can you make up my berth right away?" "Yes, sir." "I'm going to the observation car for a smoke." "One car back, sir." "Howdy." "Hello." "Need a hand?" "No, no, thanks." "You going far?" "Palo Alto." "My name's Jackson." "I'm going all the way to Medford." "Medford, Oregon." "Palo Alto's a nice little town." "You a Stanford man?" "Yeah, I used to be." "I bet you left something behind." "I always do." "My cigar case." "I must've left it in my suitcase." "Care to roll yourself a cigarette, Mr..." "Dietrichson." "Wonder if the porter would get them for me." "I could get your cigars for you." "Be glad to, Mr. Dietrichson." "That'd be very nice." "It's car nine, section 11 ." "Car nine, section 11 ." "Yeah." "Pleasure." "We got to make this fast." "Hang on to that blanket." "I'll need it later." "Get the crutch." "Now the blanket." "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, it suddenly came over me that everything would go wrong." "Mr. Neff, you're going to need the car after all." "I'll be through with it in a minute." "No, no, no." "I'm just gonna walk over and get a sandwich at the coffee shop." "I've been working upstairs all night." "My stomach's sore at me." "I'll see you, George." "Okay." "NEFF:" "It sounds crazy, but it's true, so help me." "I couldn't hear my own footsteps." "It was the walk of a dead man." "It was the longest night I ever lived through, Keyes." "Norton wants to see us." "Is anything wrong?" "The Dietrichson case, the guy's dead." "He was insured, it's gonna cost us a lot of money." "That's always wrong." "What do the police figure?" "That he got tangled in his crutches on the platform, fell off the train." "They're satisfied." "It's not their dough." "Go right in, Keyes." "He's waiting for you." "Gentlemen, sit down." "You find this an uncomfortably warm day, Mr. Keyes?" "Excuse me. I didn't know this was formal." "Well, any new developments?" "I just spoke to Jackson, long distance, up in Medford, Oregon." "Who's Jackson?" "Well, he's the last guy that saw Dietrichson alive." "You know, they were talking together on the observation car." "Dietrichson said he wanted a cigar but he forgot them back with his luggage," "Jackson went to get them." "When he came back, no Dietrichson." "You see, now, that's very interesting, the cigar case." "Well, anything else?" "No." "Well, there's a daughter, but all she can remember is Neff talking to her father about accident insurance at their house one night." "(clearing THROAT) Yes, a very fine piece of salesmanship that was, Mr. Neff." "Now, don't push Neff around." "He's got..." "He's got the best sales record in the office." "A salesman isn't supposed to know when a customer is gonna fall off a train." "Fall off a train?" "In other words, we are certain that he fell off the train, right?" "I don't get it." "You don't get it, Mr. Keyes?" "Well, then, what is your opinion?" "No opinion." "Come on." "How about a hunch?" "One of those marvelous little hunches of yours, huh?" "Not even a hunch." "Well, I'm surprised, Mr. Keyes." "On the other hand, I have formed a very definite opinion." "I think I know..." "Erase." "I know that I know." "You know that you know what?" "I know that it wasn't an accident." "Now, how do you like that?" "Well, you've got the ball." "Let's see you run with it." "You know, there's a widespread feeling" "(lNTERCOM buzzing) that just because a man has a large office..." "Yes." "Send her in." "Just because a man has a large office he must be some kind of an idiot." "Well..." "I have a visitor and..." "No, no." "No, no." "No." "I want you gentlemen to sit right here and watch me handle this." "Okay?" "Mrs. Dietrichson." "Mrs. Dietrichson, I'm very glad you came, I assure you." "This is Mr. Keyes." "How do you do?" "How do you do?" "And this is Mr. Neff." "Yes, we've met." "Mrs. Dietrichson." "Walter..." "Sit down, please." "I want to assure you, Mrs. Dietrichson, of our sympathy during your bereavement." "I hesitated to ask you to come over here so soon after your loss, but your husband had an accident policy with our company, and evidently you didn't know that." "No." "There was some talk about it at the house, but I didn't think he wanted one." "He took it out a few days later." "I see." "Well, you'll probably find the policy among his personal effects." "His safe deposit box hasn't been opened yet." "Now, Mrs. Dietrichson, please, I don't want you to feel in any way that you're being questioned." "It's just that there are so many things that we must know." "What sort of things?" "We've received the report from the coroner's inquest." "Accidental death." "We are not entirely satisfied..." "Erase." "We are not satisfied at all." "Frankly, we suspect suicide." "Had your husband been moody or depressed lately?" "Some financial problems, for instance?" "Well, there must have been something." "Now, let's..." "Let's discuss this so-called accident." "A man buys a policy in absolute secrecy." "Why?" "Because he doesn't want his family to suspect what he intends to do." "Do what?" "Commit suicide." "Look, he went on the trip entirely alone." "Well, he has to be alone." "Doesn't go by plane." "In spite of a broken leg, he goes by train." "And hobbies all the way back to the observation car?" "Very unlikely for a man with a broken leg, unless he's got very good reason." "Okay, he gets there, he finds he's not alone." "There's another guy standing there." "What was his name?" "His name was Jackson." "Probably still is." "Jackson." "How does he get rid of Jackson?" "Some flimsy excuse about cigars." "Okay, now he's alone." "Now he does it." "He jumps." "Suicide." "Ergo, our company is not liable." "Now, you know, of course, we could go to court." "No. I don't know anything." "And I don't know why I'm here." "Just a moment, please." "I said we could go to court." "I didn't say we wanted to." "I mean, it's against company policy." "It could involve a lot of expense, a lot of lawyers, a lot of time, as much as a year." "So what I am suggesting is a compromise on both sides." "A settlement for a certain sum, a part payment of the policy." "Don't bother, Mr. Norton." "When I came here, I had no idea you owed me money." "You told me you did." "Then you told me you didn't." "Now you tell me you want to pay me part of it." "You want to bargain with me at a time like this." "I don't like your insinuations about my husband, Mr. Norton, and I don't like your methods." "In fact, I don't like you." "Gentlemen, good afternoon." "Well, I've got to hand it to you, Mr. Norton." "You sure carried that ball." "Well, let her claim." "Let her sue." "We can prove it was suicide." "Suicide?" "The first thing I thought of was suicide." "I threw that in the wastepaper basket three seconds later." "You ought to take a look at the statistics on suicide sometime." "You might learn something about the insurance business." "I was raised in the insurance business." "Oh, yeah." "In the front office." "Come on." "You never read an actuarial table in your life." "That's what you've got me here for." "I've got 10 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 poisons, by drownings, by firearms, by leaps." "Suicide by poison, subdivided by types of poison, such as corrosive irritants, 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 ocean liners." "But of all the cases on record there's not a single case of anyone committing suicide by leaping from the platform of a moving train." "And do you know how fast that train was going at the point where the body was found?" "15 miles an hour." "Now, how could anybody jump from a slow moving train with any kind of expectation that he would kill himself?" "No way, Mr. Norton." "We're sunk, we're gonna have to pay through the nose, and you know it." "Come on, Walter." "Next time I'll rent a tuxedo." "I could've hugged you right then and there, Keyes, you and your statistics." "You were the only one we were really scared of, and instead you were practically playing on our team." "You were sensational in Norton's office this afternoon." "I felt so funny." "I wanted to look at you all the time." "How do you think I felt?" "Hey, where are you?" "I'm in a phone booth nearby." "Can I come up?" "Yeah." "Yeah, okay." "But be careful." "Don't let anybody see you." "Use the fire stairs." "Okay." "I'll be there in a few minutes." "(DOORBELL ringing)" "Hello, Keyes." "What's on your mind?" "He broke his leg." "Who broke his leg?" "What do you..." "What do you mean he broke his leg?" "Dietrichson had an accident policy, didn't he?" "He broke his leg, didn't he?" "So what?" "Well, he didn't put in a claim." "Why didn't he put in a claim?" "Walter, I had dinner two hours ago and the thing got stuck half way." "This little man has been acting up." "Something's wrong with this Dietrichson case." "(sighing)" "Do you have any bicarb?" "No, no. I haven't." "Something's gotta be wrong." "Well, maybe..." "Maybe Norton was right." "Maybe it was suicide." "No." "It wasn't suicide, and it wasn't an accident." "What else?" "Look, a guy takes out an accident insurance policy that pays $400,000 if he's killed in a double indemnity situation." "Two weeks later, he's killed on a train." "Not in a train accident, mind you, but falling off some silly old observation car." "Do you know what the mathematical probability of that is?" "I tell you, someone's worked something on us." "Such as?" "Murder?" "Don't you have any peppermint or anything?" "No, no." "Who do you suspect?" "I don't know." "Maybe I like to make things easy for myself, but I always tend to suspect the beneficiary." "His wife?" "Yeah." "That wide-eyed dame who didn't know anything about anything." "She wasn't even on the train." "I know she was not." "I don't know how it was worked, or who worked it, but I do know it was worked." "Look, I've got to get down to the drug store." "This thing in here is like a hunk of concrete." "Why don't I walk you to the elevator?" "If I could move in on her right now, tonight, I'd turn her over to the cops so fast it'd make her head spin." "They'd put her through the wringer." "But you haven't got a single thing to go on." "No, just this hunk of concrete in here." "Walter, I do have a piece of advice for you." "What's that?" "Stock some bicarbonate of soda, will you?" "See you in the morning, Keyes." "What are we gonna do?" "Nothing at all." "What's he got?" "Nothing." "What can be prove?" "Nothing." "I'm scared." "Come on." "NEFF:" "Monday morning there was a note on my desk that you wanted to see me." "Outside your door was Jackson, the last man in the world I wanted to see." "Come in, Walter." "Come in." "I want to ask you something." "After all the years we've known each other, do you mind if I make a rather blunt statement?" "About what?" "About me." "I'm a very great man." "(laughing)" "This Dietrichson business, it's murder." "And murders don't come any neater." "About as fancy a piece of homicide as anybody ever ran into." "Smart, tricky, almost perfect." "But I think Papa's figured it out." "Figured it out, wrapped it in tissue paper with little pink ribbons on it." "I'm listening." "You know what?" "This Dietrichson guy was never on the train." "He wasn't?" "No, he wasn't." "You can't be sure of killing a man by throwing him off a train that's going 15 miles an hour." "The only way you can be sure is kill him first, then throw the body on the tracks." "That would mean he was either killed on the train, or, and this is where it really gets fancy, he was killed somewhere else." "Leave the body on the tracks." "Two possibilities, I personally buy the second." "Well, you're way ahead of me." "Look, they kill the guy, the wife and a somebody else, and the somebody else takes the crutches, the somebody else gets on the train as Dietrichson, and the somebody else jumps off." "They put the body on the tracks after the train passed." "An impersonation." "Let's see what we have in the way of proof." "Now, the only guy who really had a good look at the supposed Dietrichson is sitting right outside my office." "I took the liberty of bringing him down here from Oregon." "Let's see what he has to say." "KEYES:" "Now, Mr. Jackson." "Will you come in, please?" "Well, I see you've been studying the photographs." "What do you say?" "This is not the man that was on the train." "Will you swear to that?" "I'm a Medford man." "Medford, Oregon." "And if I say it, I mean it, and if I mean it, of course I swear it." "Okay." "Mr. Jackson, this is Mr. Neff, one of our salesmen." "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Neff." "How do you do?" "Pleased indeed." "Sit down, please." "Mr. Jackson, can you describe the man you saw on the observation platform?" "Well, I'm sure he was a younger man, about 10 or 15 years younger than the man in those photographs." "Good." "Now you realize this is a matter of strict confidence." "Oh, yeah." "We may ask you to come down to Los Angeles again if the case goes to court." "Any time you need me." "I'm entirely at your disposal, gentlemen." "Good." "Expenses paid, of course." "Of course." "Get me Lubin, cashier's office." "Ever been in Medford, Mr. Neff?" "No, never." "Wait a minute." "Do you go trout fishing?" "Maybe I saw you up Klamath Falls way." "No." "Never fish." "Neff." "Okay, Mr. Jackson." "If you'll go down the cashier's office, room 27 on the 11th floor, they'll take care of your expenses." "JACKSON:" "Goodbye, gentlemen." "It's a pleasure." "Well, there it is, Walter." "No murder is perfect." "They all come apart sooner or later." "And when there are two people involved it's usually sooner." "Now, we know the Dietrichson broad is in it and a somebody else." "Now, pretty soon we'll know who that somebody else is." "He'll show." "Somewhere, somehow, they've got to meet." "Whether it's love or hate doesn't matter." "They just can't keep away from each other." "They think they're twice as safe because there are two of them." "Well, it's not twice as safe." "It's 10 times twice as dangerous." "They committed a murder, that's not like taking a bus ride together." "They can't get off at different stops." "They're stuck with each other." "They've got to ride together to the end of the line." "And the last stop is the cemetery." "Mr. Neff, there's someone waiting in your office." "Who?" "I don't know." "A young lady." "She wouldn't give her name." "Thanks, Joan." "Hello, Mr. Neff." "Hello." "Lola Dietrichson." "Don't you remember me?" "Yes." "Sure." "Of course I remember you." "Mr. Neff, could I talk to you just for a few seconds?" "Yeah." "Sure." "Well, how have you been, Lola?" "Mr. Neff, I have a strange feeling that there's something weird about my father's death." "Weird?" "Weird in what way?" "I had the same feeling once before when my mother died." "When your mother died?" "We were up in Lake Arrowhead." "It was six years ago." "we had a cabin up there, and it was winter and very cold and my mother was very sick with pneumonia." "She had a nurse with her and it was just the three of us in the cabin." "One night I got up and went into my mother's room." "She was delirious with fever and the bed covers were on the floor and the windows were wide open." "The nurse wasn't in the room." "I ran over and covered her up as quickly as I could." "Just then I heard a door open behind me." "It was the nurse." "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." "Do you know who that nurse was?" "No." "Who?" "Phyllis." "I tried to tell my father but I was just a kid then, and he wouldn't listen to me." "Six months later she married him." "I kind of talked myself out of thinking she could do something like that." "But that something has happened to my father, too." "Wait a minute, Lola, you're not making sense here." "Your father fell off a train." "Right, and 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 she was pinning a black veil on it, as if she couldn't wait to be in mourning." "You don't like your stepmother, do you?" "I hate her." "I hate her because she did it." "I'm going to tell everything I know." "All these things that you've been telling me, have you told anyone else?" "No, no one." "How about your stepmother?" "I don't live in the house anymore." "I have a little apartment in Hollywood." "With your boyfriend?" "No." "We had a fight right after my father was killed." "I'm sorry to hear that." "Mr. Neff, they killed my father together." "He helped her do it." "He and Phyllis." "I know he did." "What makes you say that?" "He's at her house, night after night." "It's been him and Phyllis all along." "Mr. Neff, please, I don't know what to do." "You've got to help me, please." "Well, have you told anyone?" "No one." "I'll take care of it, I promise." "Will you leave it to me?" "Thank you." "Come on." "NEFF:" "Franklin." "That's funny." "Phyllis and Donny Franklin." "What was he doing up at her house?" "I couldn't figure that one out." "I tried to make sense out of it and I got nowhere." "But the real brain-twister came the next day." "You sprang it on me, Keyes, after office hours, when you caught me down in front of the building." "Walter!" "Keyes." "I wanna talk to you." "Hold on to your socks, kid." "The Dietrichson case has just bust wide open." "How do you mean?" "The guy showed." "That's how I mean." "Well, this somebody else?" "The guy she did it with." "No kidding?" "Yeah." "She's gonna sue us." "She's gonna take us to court." "Let her." "When I put her on the stand, I'll break them in two, both of them." "Come on." "I'll buy you a martini." "No, thanks." "With two olives." "I got a date." "Margie?" "I still bet she drinks out of the bottle." "KEYES ON TAPE:" "Memo to Mr. Norton." "Confidential." "Dietrichson File." "With regard to your proposal to put Walter Neff under surveillance," "I disagree absolutely." "I have investigated his movements." "On the night of the crime, he is definitely placed in his apartment from 7.:15 p.m. on." "In addition to this, I have know Neff intimately for 11 years, and I personally vouch for him, without reservation." "Furthermore, no connection whatsoever has been established between Walter Neff and Mrs. Phyllis Dietrichson." "Whereas, I am now able to report that such a connection has been established between her and another man." "This man has been observed to visit the Dietrichson home on the night of November 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th." "We've succeeded in identifying him as one Donald Franklin, law student, aged 25, residing at Lilac Court Apartments," "2812-1/2, North La Brea Avenue." "We've checked Franklin's movements on the night of the crime and have found that they cannot be accounted for." "I'm preparing a more detailed report for your consideration and it is my belief that we already have sufficient evidence against Franklin and Mrs. Dietrichson to justify police action." "I strongly urge that this whole matter be turned over to the office of the District Attorney." "Respectfully, Barton Keyes." "Phyllis?" "Yeah." "Walter." "I've got to see you." "Tonight." "No, no, it has to be tonight." "How about 11:00?" "No, not necessary." "Don't worry about Keyes." "No, he's satisfied." "Now, just..." "Just leave the door unlatched and turn the lights off." "No, no, no." "The house is not being watched." "No. I told you Keyes is satisfied." "It's just for the neighbors." "Yeah." "Yeah, that's what I said. 11:00." "Goodbye, baby." "NEFF:" "I guess I don't have to tell you what I was gonna do at 11:00, Keyes." "For the first time I saw a way to get clear of the whole mess I was in, and of Phyllis, too, all at the same time." "At least, that's what I thought." "What I didn't know was that she was all set for me." "She'd outsmarted me, again, just like she always had." "It could've been something in my voice when I called her up that tipped her off." "And it could have been that she had the idea already." "An idea wasn't the only thing she had waiting for me." "(music playing)" "(DOOR opening)" "In here, Walter." "Is anybody else in the house?" "No." "Why?" "Well, that music." "Must be coming from down the hill." "Well, this is just like the first time I was here." "We were talking about automobile insurance." "Only you were thinking about murder." "And I was thinking about you." "What are you thinking about now?" "I'm all through thinking." "I just came to say goodbye." "Goodbye?" "Where are you going?" "Not me." "No." "I'm getting off the bus at this corner." "I found someone else to finish my ride for me." "Who?" "An acquaintance of yours." "Donny Franklin." "Oh, come on, now." "I just got into this because I knew a little something about insurance, didn't I?" "I mean, you were going to brush me off just as soon as you got your hands on the money." "What are you talking about?" "It's been you and Franklin all along, hasn't it?" "No." "It's not true." "Well, it doesn't make any difference whether it's true or not." "The point is that Keyes believes that Franklin is the guy he's been looking for." "He'll have him put away for life before he knows what's happening to him." "What's happening to me at this time?" "What do you expect to happen to you?" "I mean, you did help do the murder, didn't you?" "That's what Keyes thinks." "What's good enough for Keyes is good enough for me." "PHYLLIS:" "Maybe it's not good enough for me." "Maybe I'd rather tell him what really happened." "That'll be tough to do when you're dead." "And they'd just charge it to Franklin, wouldn't they?" "And that's exactly what they're going to do." "Especially since he's coming here tonight in about 15 minutes with the cops right behind him." "It's all been planned." "And that makes it just perfect for you, doesn't it?" "Nothing's been perfect for me since the first day I met you." "But it'll help." "And it's got to be done before that suit of yours comes to trial, and Lola gets a chance to sound off, and they trip you up on the stand, and you fold up and you drag me down with you." "Maybe I had Donny here so they won't have a chance to trip me up, and then you and I can get the money and be together." "I must say you are a fast thinker." "He came here the first time just to see if Lola was here." "I made him come back." "I was working on him." "He's a little crazy and quick-tempered." "But I kept hammering into him that she was off with some other young man, so that he would go into a jealous rage, and then I would have told him where she was." "And you know what he would have done to her, don't you?" "Yeah." "And for once I believe you because it's just rotten enough." "Walter, we're both rotten." "But you're rotten clear through." "You get me to take care of your husband, then you get Franklin to take care of Lola, and maybe take care of me, too." "Then someone else comes along and takes care of Franklin for you." "That's the way you operate, isn't it?" "Is what you had planned for tonight any better?" "I don't like that music anymore." "Do you mind if I shut the window?" "Walter!" "What's the matter?" "Why don't you shoot again?" "Maybe if I came a little closer." "How's that?" "Think you can do it now?" "Why didn't you shoot?" "Don't tell me it's because you've been in love with me all this time." "No." "I never loved you." "I never loved anybody." "I used you, just like you said." "And that was all you ever meant to me, until now." "I'm sorry." "I'm not buying." "Hold me close." "Goodbye, baby." "(GUN firing)" "It's 4:30 now, Keyes." "It's cold." "I wonder if she's still lying there alone in that house, or whether they've found her by now." "I wonder about a lot of things, but they don't matter anymore," "except I'd like to ask you to do me a favor, Keyes." "I want you to be the one to tell Lola, kind of gently, before it breaks wide open." "I'd like you to get that guy Franklin off the hook because he didn't... (DOOR opening)" "Hello, Keyes." "You're up pretty early, aren't you?" "I always wondered what time you came into the office." "Or did your, your little man pull you out of bed?" "The guard did." "Seems you leaked a little blood on the way up here." "I wouldn't be surprised." "I was trying to straighten out that Dietrichson story for you." "How long you been standing there?" "Long enough." "It's kind of a crazy story with a kind of a twist to it." "The one that you didn't quite figure out." "You can't figure them all." "No, you can't, can you?" "Well, I suppose it's time to make the big speech now, huh?" "Okay." "Let's have it, Keyes." "No speech." "Thanks." "Short, anyway." "You want to call a doctor?" "What for?" "Why?" "So they can patch me up?" "So they can nurse me back on my feet, so that I can walk under my own power into a cell in San Quentin?" "is that it?" "Something like that." "Well, I've got different ideas, Keyes." "Look, here." "Why don't you..." "Why don't you go back to bed, huh?" "Suppose you don't see those tapes until tomorrow morning when the office opens." "From then on you can play it any way you want." "Would you do that much for me, Keyes?" "I only need four hours to get where I'm going." "You're not going anywhere." "You bet I am." "I'm going across the border." "You'll never make it to the border." "That's what you think." "You watch me." "You'll never even make it to the elevator." "So long, Keyes." "How's it going?" "I'm fine." "Fine." "Only somebody moved the elevator a couple of miles away." "They're on their way." "Keyes, you know why you couldn't figure this out?" "Let me tell you." "Because the guy you were looking for was too close." "He was right across the desk from you." "Closer than that, Walter." "Much closer than that." "I love you, too."