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Office memorandum wild enough to bottom Keys, Claims Manager, Los Angeles, July

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sixteenth, nineteen thirty eight. Dear
Keys, I suppose you would call us

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a confession when you hear it.
I don't like the word confession. I

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just want to set you right about
something you couldn't see because it was smack

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up against your nose. You think
it's such a hot potato as a claims

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manager. It's such a wolf on
a phony claim. Maybe let's take a

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look at that Didricson claim accident in
double indemnity. You were pretty good in

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there for a while. Keys.
You said it wasn't an accident. Check,

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he said it wasn't suicide. Check, you said it was murder.

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Check. You thought you had a
cold all wrapped up in tissue paper with

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pink ribbons around it. It was
perfect, except it wasn't because you made

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one mistake, just one little mistake, when it came to picking the killer,

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you picked the wrong guy. Do
you want to know who killed Diedrickson?

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Little tight to that cheap cigar of
here? His kids? I killed

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Diedrickson? Maybe Walter f Insurance Sales
thirty five years old, unmarried, no

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visible scars until a while ago.
That is as I killed him. I

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killed him for money and for a
woman, and I didn't get the money,

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and I didn't get the woman.
Probably, isn't it. Double indemnity

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is an insurance clause that pays out
double the policy limit if the insured individual

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dies due to an accident. It
is a common provision, but for our

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intents and purposes, it defines the
start of the film noir genre. Released

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in nineteen forty four, directed by
Billy Wilder. He also co wrote this

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film with famed hard boiled detective writer
Raymond Chandler. Double Indemnity leaves the captivating

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tale of insurance salesman Walter Naff played
by Fred McMurray, who, on what

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appears to be a standard sales call, meets the soultry in alluring Phyllis Dietrichson

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Barbara Stanwick and becomes instantly smitten.
This leads Naff down a road of lust

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murder in Deception. The film also
features the fast talking film legend Edward G.

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Robinson as Barton Keys, an adjuster
that sniffs out phony claims with ease.

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Fast talking is a primary staple of
film noir and really drives this film

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with its biting dialogue and crisp words. First, we will hear the end

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of the initial conversation between missus Dietrichson
and Naf. The dialogue is so powerful,

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profound in verbose. Here also try
and pick up on the innuendo between

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the two. And then at the
conclusion of this scene we hear another fantastic

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example of a film noir staple,
haunting voiceover narration by Naff. Here is

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my insurance man art you miss Nith
eleven years doing pretty well. It's a

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living you handle just automobile insurance or
kinds all kinds, fire, earthquake,

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fath public liability group, insurance,
industrial stuff, and so on right down

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the line. Accident insurance, accident
insurance show, mister Didickson, we should

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tell me was some great on that
ankleand just my name as for instance,

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tell us a Lissa, I think
I like that, but you're not sure.

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You have to drive it around the
black a couple of times, mister

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Neff, why don't you drop by
tomorrow evening around eight thirty. He'll be

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in then my husband. You were
anxious to talk to him, weren't you.

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Yeah, it was, But I'm
sort of getting over the idea.

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If you know what I mean.
There's a speed limit in this state,

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mister Neff, forty five miles an
hour. How beasts I going off,

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I'd say around ninety. Suppose you
get down off your motorcycle and give me

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a ticket. Suppose I let you
off for the warning this time. Suppose

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it doesn't take. Suppose I have
to work you over the knuckles. Suppose

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I must start crying and put my
head in your shoulder. Suppose you try

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putting it on my husband's shoulder that
tears it A thirty tomorrow evening, Then

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that's what I suggested. You'll be
here too, I guess. So I

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usually am same chair, same perfume, same ankle. I wonder if I

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know what you mean. I wonder
if you wonder it was a hot afternoon

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and I can still remember the smell
of honeysuckle all along that street. How

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could I have known that the murder
can sometimes smell like honeysuckle. Maybe you

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would have known Key's the minute you
mentioned accident insurance, but I didn't.

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I felt like a million when dissecting
this film. It would be near criminal

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to not talk about the performance of
Edward G. Robinson. This film is,

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in my opinion, his most underrated
performance. As Barton Keys, he

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steals the scene every time he appears. His mannerism's voice and natural short stature

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make him the perfect claims adjuster.
Our next two clips are examples of this.

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When we first encounter Keys, he's
arguing with a claimant seeking to get

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paid on a claim. Here how
Keys turns the tables with smooth direct delivery.

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Then after erstwhile lovers Phyllis and Nef
conspire and successfully kill her husband to

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attempt to cash in on the double
indemnity on the accidental death policy. Hear

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how Keys has his suspicions, and
he brings them to neth in which he

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is confidently and we find out later
hauntingly painfully accurate, all on the simple

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hunch. Come on, come on, garl Opus, you're not kidding anybody

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with that line of balls. You're
in the Chaman, you know it says

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you. All I want is my
money. There's you. All are you

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going to get is the cops?
Oh hello, water, this is Sam

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Garlopus from Minglewood. For sure,
I omos a glopus wrote a policy on

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his truck. Oh hey, mister
Glopus. I ain't so good. My

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truck burned down. Yeah. Now, look, glopus. Every month hundreds

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of claims come to this desk.
Some of them are phonies, and I

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know which ones. How do I
know? Because my little man tells me

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what little man? The little man
in here. Every time one of these

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phonies comes along, it ties knots
in my stomach. I can't eat.

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Yours is one of them, gylpus. That's how I knew your claim was

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crooked. So what did I do? I send the tokar over to your

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garage this afternoon and they checked up
that burned out truck of yours. And

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what did they find? They found
what was left of an eat pile of

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shavings, by shavings and once you
shunk with kerosene and dropped a match on.

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Look, mister, I'm just a
poor guy. Maybe I made a

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mistake. That's one way of putting
it. I ain't feeling so blue to

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mister had est man to sign us
near field? Fine signed what it's a

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waiver on your claim right here?
Yeah, yeah, now you're an honest

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man again. Goodbye, going opens. I ain't got no more truck,

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honest, it's gone through bugs.
There's a lot of dough when I live

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Smaan, I got opens. Don't
you not open the door? Just put

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your hand on the knob, turn
it to the left, now pull it

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towards you. That's the boys.
Thank you, mister kids And now keys

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suspicions, it's on your mind.
Broken leg? The guy had a broken

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leg. What are you talking about? Talking about Dietrichson? He had accident

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insurance, didn't he? Yeah?
And then he broke his leg, didn't

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he? So what? And he
didn't put an acclaim? Why didn't he

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put an a claim? Why what
are you driving it? Wad? I

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had dinner two hours ago. Maybe
he's stuck halfway little man? Hears is

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acting up again. It there's something
wrong with the Dietrichson case. Or because

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it didn't file a claim. Maybe
he just didn't have time. Maybe he

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just didn't know that he was insured. No, No, that couldn't be

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it. You would deliver the policy
to impersonally, didn't you? He got

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his check? Try got any boy, cob Netnesota. No, I haven't

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Waler. I've been living with us
a little man for twenty six years.

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He's never failed me yet. There's
got to be something wrong or maybe Norton

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was right. Maybe it was suicide. No, not suicide, but not

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an accident either. What else?
Look, Walter, a guy takes out

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an accident policy. It was worth
one hundred thousand dollars if he's killed on

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the train, and two weeks later
he's killed on the train, and not

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in the train accident, mind you, but falling off some silly observation car.

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Do you know what the mathematical probability
of that is? One out of

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oh, I don't know how many
billions, and add to that the broken

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leg. Now it it just can't
be the way it looks. Something has

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been worked on us. So just
what murder? Don't you have any keepam

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into something? Oh? Sorry,
what a salt of water? No?

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No, no, who do you
suspect? Well? Maybe I like to

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make things easy for myself, but
I always tend to suspective beneficiary Meoi,

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Yeah, that wide, I dame. They just didn't know anything about anything,

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or you're crazy because she wasn't even
on the train. I know she

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wasn't, Waltering. I don't claim
to know how it was worked, who

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worked it, But all I know
is that it was worked. I've got

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to get to a drugstore. This
thing feels like a hunk of concrete inside

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me in night Water. All right, Keys, see the arts of the

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water. Yeah, I'd like to
move in on all right now tonight,

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Whether Northmans tripe fancis ideas about a
company policy. I'd have the police after

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her so faster to make a headspin. They put her through the wringer and

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bother of the things they would squeeze
out. I mean, I haven't got

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a single thing to go on,
keys, Oh, not too much.

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Just twenty six years, experience all
the percentage there is. And let's hunk

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a concrete in my stomach and one
of those things night Keys, So long

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water. What makes filmed war such
an amazing genre, and one of the

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factors that makes it a personal favorite
of mine, is that theories always a

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conclusion where a caper or plan falls
apart. With this being the modern blueprint

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for film noir, this film has
this, and it is heartbreaking, mesmerizing,

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and quite memorable. In our final
scene for this week's review, Neph

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confronts Phyllis after realizing he was used
simply for his knowledge of insurance as an

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insider trader in a sick, twisted
sort of way, or or was he?

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I will leave that up to you
the listeners, to decide. Oh,

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baby, anybody else in the house, nobody? Why? What's our

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music radio up this street? Just
like the first time I came there,

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isn't it? We were talking about
automobile insurance. You were thinking about murder.

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I was thinking about that anglers,
And what are you thinking about now?

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I'm all through thinking, baby,
I just came to say goodbye,

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goodbye. Where are you going?
You're the one that's going, baby,

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not me. I'm getting off the
trolley car right at this corner. Suppose

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you stop being fancy. Let's have
it whatever it is, all right.

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I'll tell you. My friend of
mine's got a funny theory. He says,

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when two people come in and murder, it's sort of like they're writing

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on a trolley car together. One
can't get off without the other. They're

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stuck with each other, and they
have to go on writing together. They

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clear to the end of the line. The last stop is a cemetery.

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Maybe you've got something there, your
betty has. Two people are going to

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right at the end of the line, all right, Only I'm not going

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to be one of them. I've
got another guy to finish my ride for

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me. That's who are you talking
about? Acquaintance yours and mister z A

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Ketty. Come on, baby,
I just got into this thing because I

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happen to know a little something about
insurance, didn't I I was a sucker.

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I'd have been brushed off just as
soon as you get your hands on

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the money. Nobody wanted to brush
you off. Say it. I'm telling

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us it's been you and that Seketty
guy all along, isn't it. That's

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00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:31,480
not true. Does's make any difference
if it's true or not. The point

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is Keys believe Seketty is the one
he's been looking for, having like gas

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chamber before he knows what's happened doing, what's happening to me all this time?

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I'll be silly, baby, What
do you think is going to happen

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00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:52,080
to you? You helped him do
the murder, didn't you. That's what

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Keys thinks. And what's good enough
for Keys? It's good enough for me.

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Maybe it's not good enough for me, Walter, Maybe I don't go

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for the idea. If you'd rather
talk, sometimes people are where they can't

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talk under six feet add maybe and
if it was you they charged that up

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to Sacretti too, wouldn't they?
Sure they wouldn't. And that's just what's

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gonna happen, baby, because he's
coming here at night in about fifteen minutes,

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with the cops right behind him.
It's all taken care of. That

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00:15:22,679 --> 00:15:26,279
would make everything lovely for you,
wouldn't it right. It's got to be

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done before that suit of yours comes
to trial. Lorly gets a chance to

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00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:31,120
sound off. Well, they trip
you up in the standing, you start

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00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:33,279
to go in and drag me down
with you. Maybe I had Sagetty here

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so they won't get a chance to
trip me up, so we can get

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the money and be together. That's
cute. A film being ambiguous at the

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end, or even towards the end
is what makes film noir in a class

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of its own. It is left
to us, the viewers, to make

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the final decision on who is right, who is wrong, and what happens

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after the words the end flashed across
the screen. It comes down to our

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morals and our convictions. That is
ultimately what decides who is the heroes in

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the villains in these films. Those
feelings are what makes this genre so well

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00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:26,360
regarded even today. In the films
that are a part of it, some

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of the most heralded and highly thought
of. This film was very controversial upon

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release, with adultery, murdering of
a spouse, and the dialogue being loaded

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00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:47,000
with innuendo. The production code had
fits over this film. It did not

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00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:52,399
deter it from getting widespread praise from
critics and being a box office dynamo.

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00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:57,679
It made five million dollars against a
budget of nine hundred and eighty thousand.

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It was not nominated for seven Academy
Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director

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for Wilder, Best Actress Stanwick,
and Best Screenplay both Wilder and Chandler,

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more than likely due to the controversy
surrounding the film. It's sadly and quite

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unjustly won none of them. Regardless, this film is the perfect noir film

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in an example of everything that makes
one of my favorite genres truly amazing.

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I hope you'll join me next week
when we will look at high school seniors

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looking to have fun, lose their
virginity, and have some warm apple pie

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in a very unconventional way. Our
film is the nineteen ninety nineteen classic American

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Pie for WMNH and Matt Connerton unleashed. This has been a classic film review

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with Eric Culture. Hello, they're
must in e