Fred MacMurray Quotes

Walter Neff So I let her have it, straight between the eyes. She didn't fool me for a minute, not this time. I knew I had ahold of a red hot poker, and the time to drop it was before it burned my hand off...I was all twisted up inside and I was still holding on to that red-hot poker. And right then it came over me that I hadn't walked out on anything at all, that the hope was too strong, that this wasn't the end between her and me. It was only the beginning.

Walter Neff Office memorandum. Walter Neff to Barton Keyes, Claims Manager. Los Angeles, July 16, 1938. Dear Keyes, I suppose you'll call this a confession when you hear it. Well, I don't like the word confession. I just want to set you right about something you couldn't see because it was smack up against your nose. You think you're such a hot potato as a claims manager, such a wolf on a phony claim. Maybe you are. But let's take a look at that Dietrichson claim. Accident and double indemnity. You were pretty good in there for a while, Keyes. You said it wasn't an accident. Check. You said it wasn't suicide. Check. You said it was murder. Check. You thought you had it cold, didn't you? All wrapped up in tissue paper with pink ribbons around it. It was perfect. Except it wasn't, because you made one mistake. Just one little mistake. When it came to picking the killer, you picked the wrong guy. You want to know who killed Dietrichson? Hold tight to that cheap cigar of yours, Keyes. I killed Dietrichson. Me, Walter Neff, insurance salesman. 35 years old, unmarried, no visible scars. Until a while ago, that is. Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money and for a woman. I didn't get the money and I didn't get the woman. Pretty, isn't it?

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle I've been bit on my finger! It could've been my leg! It could've been my head, I might've died! In a time of mortal peril, any man should expect that his family will come rushing to his side! What's wrong with that? What's wrong with that? My family rushing to my side, what's wrong with that?

John Lawless Oh, not a thing, sir, I'm sure.

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle I'm a good-hearted husband, I'm generous and kind, no wife could have a life as free of cares! So when a good-hearted husband has been bit, it's only right, that his wife should share the agony he bears! What's wrong with that? What's wrong with that? I want my wife to share my life, what's wrong with that? Cordelia!

John Lawless Well, now, that answers a whole slew o questions, don't it?

Walter Neff So we just sat there, and she started crying softly like the rain on the window. And we didn't say anything. Maybe she had stopped thinking about it, but I hadn't. I couldn't because it was all tied up with something I'd been thinking about for years. Since long before I ever ran into Phyllis Dietrichson. Because, you know how it is Keyes, in this business you can't sleep for trying to figure out all the tricks they could pull on you. You're like the guy behind the roulette wheel, watching the customers to make sure they don't crook the house. And then one night, you get to thinking how you could crook the house yourself. And do it smart. Because you've got that wheel right under your hands. You know every notch in it by heart. And you figure all you need is a plant out front, a shill to put down the bet. And suddenly the doorbell rings and the whole setup is right there in the room with ya. Look, Keyes, I'm not trying to whitewash myself. I fought it, only I guess I didn't fight it hard enough. The stakes were $50,000 dollars, but they were the life of a man too, a man who'd never done me any dirt except he was married to a woman he didn't care anything about. And I did.

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle JOHN! My alligators! Look at my alligators! JOHN!

John Lawless Yes, sir, you yelled, sir?

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle Why are these windows open?

John Lawless Must've been the new maid, sir.

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle WHAT new maid?

Miss Cordelia Biddle Her name is Florence, dear, she started this afternoon.

John Lawless She was complaining about the smell.

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle What smell?

John Lawless Well, the alligators, they do have a certain...

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle WHAT?

Miss Cordelia Biddle We're accustomed to it, dear.

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle Oh.

John Lawless She probably decided to give the room an airing, and forgot to close up again.

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle Well, of all the stupid, idiotic... Get an axe!

Mrs. Cordelia Biddle Anthony!

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle Not for Florence, for the alligators! Maybe they're still alive in there, we'll chop em out!

Rela You've changed, Wes.

Wes Anderson Nobody stays the same.

Walter Neff That was all there was to it. Nothing had slipped, nothing had been overlooked, there was nothing to give us away. And yet, Keyes, as I was walking down the street to the drugstore, suddenly it came over me that everything would go wrong. It sounds crazy, Keyes, but it's true, so help me. I couldn't hear my own footsteps. It was the walk of a dead man.

Walter Neff It was a hot afternoon, and I can still remember the smell of honeysuckle all along that street. How could I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle?

Miss Cordelia Biddle Where did you meet this young man, Cordy? At a party Aunt Gladys and Uncle Phil gave. I wrote you about...

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle You didn't write us about getting married!

Miss Cordelia Biddle Well, Papa, he didn't *ask* me until today!

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle What took him so long?

Walter Neff 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. On the piano in a 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 big Davenport. But to tell you the truth, Keyes, I wasn't a whole lot interested in goldfish right then, not 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.

Miss Cordelia Biddle What were you doing shaving at this hour of the day?

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle I haven't been shaving! And since when do I shave my finger?

Miss Cordelia Biddle Well, you don't shave your ear either, but last week, you cut it.

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle That's different, the ear is in the general vicinity of the face!

Miss Cordelia Biddle Well, so's the finger when you're shaving!

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle It's a *bite*, blast it!

Miss Cordelia Biddle No!

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle Yes!

Miss Cordelia Biddle Who?

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle George! Turned on me just like that, after all these years!