Double Indemnity Page #5

A-22 NEFF

NEFF:

No pigeons around, I hope... About

those policies, Mrs. Dietrichson --

I hate to take up your time --

A-23 PHYLLIS

PHYLLIS:

That's all right. If you can wait

till I put something on, I'll be

right down. Nettie, show Mr. Neff

into the living room.

She turns away as gracefully as one can with a towel for a

wrapper.]

A-24 ENTRANCE HALL

Neff watches Phyllis out of sight. He speaks to the maid

while still looking up.

NEFF:

Where would the living room be?

MAID:

In there, but they keep the liquor

locked up.

NEFF:

That's okay. I always carry my own

keys.

He goes through the archway. Maid goes off the other way.

A-25 LIVING ROOM

Neff comes into the room and throws his briefcase on the

plush davenport and tosses his hat on top of it. He looks

around the room, then moves over to a baby grand piano with

a sleazy Spanish shawl dangling down one side and two cabinet

photographs standing in a staggered position on top. Neff

glances them over: Mr. Dietrichson, age about fifty-one, a

big, blocky man with glasses and a Rotarian look about him;

Lola Dietrichson, age nineteen, wearing a filmy party dress

and a yearning look in her pretty eyes. Neff walks away from

the piano and takes a few steps back and forth across the

rug. His eyes fall on a wrinkled corner. He carefully

straightens it out with his foot. His back is to the archway

as he hears high heels clicking on the staircase. He turns

and looks through the arch.

NEFF'S VOICE

The living room was still stuffy

from last night's cigars. The windows

were closed and the sunshine coming

in through the Venetian blinds showed

up the dust in the air. The furniture

was kind of corny and old-fashioned,

but it had a comfortable look, as if

people really sat in it. On the piano,

in couple of fancy frames, were Mr.

Dietrichson and Lola, his daughter

by his first wife They had a bowl of

those little red goldfish on the

table behind the davenport, but, to

tell you the truth, Keyes, I wasn't

a whole lot interested in goldfish

right then, nor in auto renewals,

nor in Mr. Dietrichson and his

daughter Lola. 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.

A-26 STAIRCASE (FROM NEFF'S POINT OF VIEW)

Phyllis Dietrichson is coming downstairs. First we see her

feet, with pom-pom slippers and the gold anklet on her left

ankle. CAMERA PULLS BACK SLOWLY as she descends, until we

see all of her. She is wearing a pale blue summer dress.

Rate this script:3.5 / 8 votes