i'm mrs. dietrichson. what is it?
pacific all-what?
is there anything i can do?
perhaps i know what you mean, mr. neff. i've just been taking a sun bath.
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.
i hope i've got my face on straight.
won't you sit down, mr. -- neff is the name, isn't it?
what story?
about the insurance. my husband never tells me anything.
i guess he's been too busy down at long beach in the oil fields.
i suppose so. but he's never home much before eight.
you're not connected with the automobile club, are you?
somebody from the automobile club has been trying to get him. do they have a better rate?
no, he isn't.
you're a smart insurance man, aren't you, mr. neff?
doing pretty well?
you handle just automobile insurance, or all kinds?
accident insurance?
just my name.
phyllis.
but you're not sure?
mr. neff, why don't you drop by tomorrow evening about eight-thirty. he'll be in then.
my husband. you were anxious to talk to him weren't you?
there's a speed limit in this state, mr. neff. forty-five miles an hour.
i'd say about ninety.
suppose i let you off with a warning this time.
suppose i have to whack you over the knuckles.
suppose you try putting it on my husband's shoulder.
that's what i suggested.
i guess so. i usually am.
i wonder if i know what you mean.
hello, mr. neff.
aren't you coming in?
i hope you didn't mind my changing the appointment. last night wasn't so convenient.
i was just fixing some iced tea. would you like a glass?
there might be some. i never know what's in the ice box. nettie!.
about those renewals, mr. neff. i talked to my husband about it.
yes. he'll renew with you he told me. in fact, i thought he'd be here this afternoon.
no.
nettie!.  nettie!.  oh, i forgot, it's the maid's day off.
lemon? sugar?
fresh.
i didn't think you'd learned it from a correspondence course.
no. californian. born right here in los angeles.
i wanted to ask you something, mr. neff.
walter.
tell me, walter, on this insurance -- how much commission do you make?
i thought maybe i could throw a little more business your way.
i was thinking about my husband. i worry a lot about him, down in those oil fields. it's very dangerous.
he doesn't just sit behind a desk. he's right down there with the drilling crews. it's got me worried sick.
please don't talk like that.
the other day a casing line snapped and caught the foreman. he's in the hospital with a broken back.
it's got me jittery just thinking about it. suppose something like that happened to my husband?
don't you think he ought to have accident insurance?
what kind of insurance could he have?
capital sum? what's that?
i suppose you have to think of everything in your business.
you could try. but he's pretty tough going.
he's got a lot on his mind. he doesn't want to listen to anything except maybe a baseball game on the radio. sometimes we sit all evening without saying a word to each other.
so i just sit and knit.
maybe i like the way his thumbs hold up the wool.
i want to ask you something, mr. neff. could i get an accident policy for him -- without bothering him at all?
that would make it easier for you, too. you wouldn't even have to talk to him. i have a little allowance of my own. i could pay for it and he needn't know anything about it.
because i know he doesn't want accident insurance. he's superstitious about it.
if there was a way to get it like that, all the worry would be over. you see what i mean, walter?
is there anything wrong with it?
what crown block?
i don't know what you're talking about.
are you crazy?
what's the matter?
get away with what?
that's a horrible thing to say!
i think you're rotten.
get out of here.
hello.
you forgot your hat this afternoon.
don't you want me to bring it in?
it's in the phone book.
it's raining.
long beach. they're spudding in a new well. he phoned he'd be late. about nine-thirty.
it's about time you said you're glad to see me.
like what?
i must have said something that gave you a terribly wrong impression. you must surely see that. you must never think anything like that about me, walter.
it's not okay. not if you don't believe me.
i want you to be nice to me. like the first time you came to the house.
i know it has. it's happened to us.
i feel as if he was watching me. not that he cares about me. not any more. but he keeps me on a leash. so tight i can't breathe. i'm scared.
i oughtn't to have come.
you want me to go?
right now?
do what?
walter, for the last time --
i'm crazy about you, walter.
something french. i bought it down at ensenada.
bourbon is fine, walter.
plain water, please.
who didn't?
perhaps it was worth it to her.
it's nice here, walter. who takes care of it for you?
you get your own breakfast?
it sounds wonderful. just strangers beside you. you don't know them. you don't hate them. you don't have to sit across the table and smile at him and that daughter of his every morning of your life.
yes. lola. she lives with us. he thinks a lot more of her than he does of me.
he wouldn't give me a divorce.
he hasn't got any money. not since he went into the oil business.
yes, he had. and i wanted a home. why not? but that wasn't the only reason. i was his wife's nurse. she was sick for a long time. when she died, he was all broken up. i pitied him so.
yes, walter. he's so mean to me. every-time i buy a dress or a pair of shoes he yells his head off. he won't let me go anywhere. he keeps me shut up. he's always been mean to me. even his life insurance all goes to that daughter of his. that lola.
no. and nothing is just what i'm worth to him.
walter, i don't want to kill him. i never did. not even when he gets drunk and slaps my face.
perhaps i do.
perhaps that too.
the other night we drove home from a party. he was drunk again. when we got into the garage he just sat there with his head on the steering wheel and the motor still running. and i thought what it would be like if i didn't switch it off, just closed the garage door and left him there.
but walter, i didn't do it. i'm not going to do it.
i've got to go now, walter.
will you call me, walter?
walter!
i hate him. i loathe going back to him. you believe me, don't you, walter?
i can't stand it anymore. what if they did hang me?
it's better than going on this way.
you!
do you know what you're saying?
walter, you're hurting me.
straight down the line.
if we bought all the insurance they can think up, we'd stay broke paying for it, wouldn't we, honey?
got some thing better to do?
it's not that nino zachetti again?
now you're not going to take my car again.
he was a stanford man, mr. neff. and he still goes to his class reunion every year.
i guess that's enough insurance for one evening, mr. neff.
i think you left your hat in the hall.
all right, walter?
he signed it, didn't he?
end of the month.
he always drives.
why?
it's all right. go on, walter.
i see.
it's going to be a train, walter. just the way you say. straight down the line.
walter.
i wanted to talk to you, walter. ever since yesterday.
but listen, walter ---
yes. we both have keys.
i'm not a fool.
walter, that's just it. he isn't going.
that's what i've been trying to tell you. the trip is off.
he had a fall down at the well. he broke his leg. it's in a cast.
what do we do, walter?
wait for what?
we can't wait. i can't go on like this.
there are other ways.
but we can't leave it like this. what do you think would happen if he found out about this accident policy?
don't ever talk like that, walter.
it's not our heads. it's our nerve we're losing.
walter maybe it's my nerves. it's the waiting that gets me.
maybe we have, walter. only it's so tough without you. it's like a wall between us.
i had to call you, walter. it's terribly urgent. are you with somebody?
walter, i've only got a minute. it can't wait. listen. he's going tonight. on the train. are you listening, walter? walter!
he's on crutches. the doctor says he can go if he's careful. the change will do him good. it's wonderful, walter. just the way you wanted it. only with the crutches it's ever so much better, isn't it?
it's the ten-fifteen from glendale. i'm driving him. is it still that same dark street?
the signal is three honks on the horn. is there anything else?
color? oh, sure. the blue suit, walter. navy blue. and the cast on his left leg.
this is it, walter. i'm shaking like a leaf. but it's straight down the line now for both of us. i love you, walter. goodbye.
you all right, honey? i'll have the car out in a second.
take it easy, honey. we've got lots of time.
mrs. tucker went along with her husband last year, didn't she.
remember what the doctor said. if you get careless you might end up with a shorter leg.
it makes you feel pretty good to get away from me, doesn't it?
don't forget we're having the hobeys for dinner on monday.
maybe they do but i've already asked them for monday.
don't worry.
i said don't worry, walter.
i remember everything.
walter, we've been through all that so many times.
car nine, section eleven. just my husband going.
it's all right, thanks. my husband doesn't like to be helped.
goodbye, honey. take awful good care of yourself with that leg.
i'll miss you, honey.
good luck, honey.
walter.
what's the matter, walter. aren't you going to kiss me?
it's straight down the line, isn't it?
i love you, walter.
how do you do.
i've met mr. neff. how do you do.
no. all i know is that your secretary made it sound very urgent.
no. i remember some talk at the house --
-- but he didn't seem to want it.
i see.
his safe deposit box hasn't been opened yet. it seems a tax examiner has to be present.
what sort of things?
please.
thank you.
he was perfectly all right and i don't know of any financial worries.
do what?
i don't know anything. in fact i don't know why i came here.
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 me 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, mr. norton, and i don't like your methods. in fact i don't like you, mr. norton. goodbye, gentlemen.
i felt so funny. i wanted to look at you all the time.
at the drug store. just a block away. can i come up?
how much does he know?
but he can't prove anything, can he?
for how long a while?
yes, i'm afraid. but not of keyes. i'm afraid of us. we're not the same any more. we did it so we could be together, but instead of that it's pulling us apart. isn't it, walter?
and you don't really care whether we see each other or not.
hello, walter.
what's the matter?
what's he got to stop me?
prove it how? listen, if he rejects that claim, i have to sue.
what about me and the first mrs. dietrichson?
walter, lola's been telling you some of her cockeyed stories. she's been seeing you.
yes, she's been putting on an act for you, crying all over your shoulder, that lying little --
because you don't want the money any more, even if you could get it? because she's made you feel like a heel all of sudden.
because of what keyes can do? you're not fooling me, walter. it's because of lola. what you did to her father. you can't take it that she might find out some day.
walter, it's me i'm talking about. i don't want to be left out of it.
we have gone through with it, walter. the tough part is all behind us. we just have to hold on now and not go soft inside, and stick together, close, the way we started out.
i loved you, walter. and i hated him. but i wasn't going to do anything about it, not until i met you. it was you had the plan. i only wanted him dead.
yes. and nobody's pulling out. we went into it together, and we're coming out at the end together. it's straight down the line for both of us, remember.
in here, walter.
nobody. why?
a radio up the street.
and what are you thinking about now?
goodbye? where are you going?
suppose you stop being fancy. let's have it, whatever it is.
maybe he's got something there.
so you've got it all arranged, walter.
just who are you talking about?
what are you talking about?
that's not true.
and what's happening to me all this time?
maybe it's not good enough for me. walter. maybe i don't go for the idea. maybe i'd rather talk.
and that'd make everything lovely for you, wouldn't it?
listen, walter. maybe i had zachetti here so they won't get a chance to trip me up. so we can get that money and be together.
he came here the first time just to ask where lola was. i made him come back. i was working on him. he's crazy sort of guy, quick-tempered. i kept hammering into him that she was with another man, so he'd get into one of his jealous rages, and then i'd tell him where she was. and you know what he'd have done to her, don't you, walter.
we're both rotten, walter.
suppose it is, walter. is what you've cooked up for tonight any better?
walter!
no. i never loved you, walter. not you, or anybody else. i'm rotten to the heart. i used you, just as you said. that's all you ever meant to me -- until a minute ago. i didn't think anything like that could ever happen to me.
i'm not asking you to buy. just hold me close.