Script To Screen: “Double Indemnity”

A key scene from the classic 1944 thriller Double Indemnity [screenplay by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, novel by James M. Cain.

Setup: An insurance rep [Neff] lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme by his lover [Phyllis] that arouses the suspicions of an insurance investigator [Keyes].

In the open door stands Keyes. NEFF
Hello, Keyes. Keyes walks past him into the room. His hands are
clasped behind his back. There is a strange, absent
minded look in his eyes. Neff closes the door without
taking his eyes off Keyes. NEFF
What's on your mind? Keyes stops in the middle of the room and turns. KEYES
That broken leg. The guy broke his
leg. NEFF
What are you talking about? KEYES
Talking about Dietrichson. He had
accident insurance, didn't he? Then
he broke his leg, didn't he? NEFF
So what? KEYES
And he didn't put in a claim. Why
didn't he put in a claim? Why? NEFF
What the dickens are you driving at? KEYES
Walter. There's something wrong. I
ate dinner two hours ago. It stuck
half way. He prods his stomach with his thumb. KEYES
The little man is acting up again.
Because there's something wrong with
that Dietrichson case. NEFF
Because he didn't put in a claim?
Maybe he just didn't have time. KEYES
Oh maybe he just didn't know he was
insured. He has stopped in front of Neff. They look at each
other for a tense moment. Neff hardly breathes. Keyes shakes his head suddenly. KEYES
No. That couldn't be it. You delivered
the policy to him personally, didn't
you, Walter? And you got his check. NEFF
(Stiff-lipped, but
his voice is as well
under control as he
can manage)
Sure, I did. Keyes prods his stomach again. KEYES
Got any bicarbonate of soda? NEFF
No I haven't. Keyes resumes his pacing. KEYES
Listen, Walter. I've been living
with this little man for twenty-six
years. He's never failed me yet.
There's got to be something wrong. NEFF
Maybe Norton was right. Maybe it was
suicide, Keyes. KEYES
No. Not suicide.
(Pause)
But not accident either. NEFF
What else? There is another longer pause, agonizing for Neff.
Finally Keyes continues: KEYES
Look. A man takes out an accident
policy that is worth a hundred
thousand dollars if he is killed on
a train. Then, two weeks later, he
is killed on a train. And not in a
train accident, mind you, but falling
off some silly observation car. Do
you know what the mathematical
probability of that is, Walter? One
out of I don't know how many billions.
And add to that the broken leg. It
just can't be the way it looks,
Walter. Something has been worked on
us. NEFF
Such as what? Keyes doesn't answer. He goes on pacing up and down.
Finally Neff can't stand the silence any longer. NEFF
Murder? KEYES
(Prods stomach again)
Don't you have any peppermint or
anything? NEFF
I'm sorry.
(Pause)
Who do you suspect? KEYES
Maybe I like to make things easy for
myself. But I always tend to suspect
the beneficiary. NEFF
The wife? KEYES
Yeah. That wide-eyed dame that didn't
know anything about anything. NEFF
You're crazy, Keyes. She wasn't even
on the train. KEYES
I know she wasn't, Walter. I don't
claim to know how it was worked, or
who worked it, but I know that it
was worked. He crosses to the corridor door. KEYES
I've got to get to a drug store. It
feels like a hunk of concrete inside
me. He puts his hand on the knob to open the door. C-11 CORRIDOR - APARTMENT HOUSE - NIGHT - LIGHTS ON The hallway is empty except for Phyllis who has been
standing close to the door of Neff's apartment,
listening. The door has just started to open. Phyllis
moves away quickly and flattens herself against the
wall behind the opening door. Keyes is coming out. KEYES
Good night, Walter. Neff, behind him, looks anxiously down the hallway
for Phyllis. Suddenly his eye catches a glimpse of
her through the crack of the partly opened door. He
pushes the door wide so as to hide her from Keyes. NEFF
Good night, Keyes. KEYES
See you at the office in the morning. He has reached the elevator. He pushes the call
button and turns. KEYES
But I'd like to move in on her right
now, tonight, if it wasn't for Norton
and his stripe-pants ideas about
company policy. I'd have the cops
after her so quick her head would
spin. They'd put her through the
wringer, and, brother, what they
would squeeze out. NEFF
Only you haven't got a single thing
to go on, Keyes. The elevator has come up and stopped. KEYES
Not too much. Twenty-six years
experience, all the percentage there
is, and this lump of concrete in my
stomach. He pulls back the elevator door and turns to Neff
with one last glance of annoyance. KEYES
(Almost angrily)
No bicarbonate of soda. Keyes gets into the elevator. The door closes. The
elevator goes down. Neff stands numb, looking at the spot where Keyes was
last visible. Without moving his eyes he pulls the
door around towards him with his left hand. Phyllis
slowly comes out.

Here is the movie version of the scene:

There are several small, but important changes Wilder made in directing the scene that greatly add to the dramatic tension. See if you can spot them.s

By the way, notice how Neff’s apartment door opens outward? That’s not the way doors are supposed to work. However, in order for the scene to work — so Phyllis could hide behind it — they had to construct the door that way.

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

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