Daily Dialogue — May 14, 2018

Phyllis: Is there anything I can do?
Walter: The insurance ran out on the fifteenth. I’d hate to think of your having a smashed fender or something while you’re not… uh… fully covered.

— Double Indemnity (1944), screenplay by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, novel by James M. Cain

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Double Entendre.

Trivia: This marks the only film appearance of screenwriter and novelist Raymond Chandler.

Dialogue On Dialogue: The emergence of the Hayes Code caused Hollywood writers to look for other ways to traffic in salacious material and double entendres flowed like wine. In Double Indemnity, the movie is rife with them including this reference to “fully covered” re insurance while Neff stares up at Phyllis is not fully covered by a towel after sunbathing.