Daily Dialogue — August 3, 2012

Phyllis: Mr. Neff, why don’t you drop by tomorrow evening about eight-thirty. He’ll be in then.
Walter Neff: Who?
Phyllis: My husband. You were anxious to talk to him weren’t you?
Walter Neff: Yeah, I was, but I’m sort of getting over the idea, if you know what I mean.
Phyllis: There’s a speed limit in this state, Mr. Neff. Forty-five miles an hour.
Walter Neff: How fast was I going, officer?
Phyllis: I’d say around ninety.
Walter Neff: Suppose you get down off your motorcycle and give me a ticket.
Phyllis: Suppose I let you off with a warning this time.
Walter Neff: Suppose it doesn’t take.
Phyllis: Suppose I have to whack you over the knuckles.
Walter Neff: Suppose I bust out crying and put my head on your shoulder.
Phyllis: Suppose you try putting it on my husband’s shoulder.
Walter Neff: That tears it.

— Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck), Double Indemnity (1944), screenplay by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, novel by James M. Cain

http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=a3obH

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is subtext suggested by lizswan who also suggested Double Indemnity.

Trivia: Raymond Chandler hated the experience of writing the script with Billy Wilder so much that he actually walked out and would not return unless a list of demands was met. The studio acceded to his demands and he returned to finish the script with Wilder, even though the two detested each other.

Dialogue On Dialogue: The Motion Picture Production Code, often called the Hays Code, which was in force from 1930 to 1968, “spelled out what was acceptable and what was unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States.” Sex, nudity, drugs, booze, strict rules. Ironically it led to scenes just like this one in Double Indemnity, where the writers had to use subtext to convey sexual tension.