IMDb > Double Indemnity (1944) > Plot Summary
Double Indemnity
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Plot Summary for
Double Indemnity (1944) More at IMDbPro »

In 1938, Walter Neff, an experienced salesman of the Pacific All Risk Insurance Co., meets the seductive wife of one of his clients, Phyllis Dietrichson, and they have an affair. Phyllis proposes to kill her husband to receive the proceeds of an accident insurance policy and Walter devises a scheme to receive twice the amount based on a double indemnity clause. When Mr. Dietrichson is found dead on a train-track, the police accept the determination of accidental death. However, the insurance analyst and Walter's best friend Barton Keyes does not buy the story and suspects that Phyllis has murdered her husband with the help of another man. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Walter Neff is the Pacific All Risk Insurance Company's top salesman. He returns to the office late one evening - bleeding from a gunshot wound - and dictates a memo to his colleague Barton Keyes. It all started the previous May when he stopped in at the Dietrichson home to see if Mr. Dietrichson would renew his existing auto insurance policy. He meets the man's wife Phyllis and quickly sees through her feeble attempt to buy accident insurance for her husband without him knowing about: she wants to kill him. Neff and Phyllis are soon lovers with Neff taking charge of the killing. Initially, their plan goes off without a hitch but Neff soon realizes he's been played and decides to do something about it. Written by garykmcd

Alone in his company's Los Angeles offices late one evening and under some distress, insurance salesman Walter Neff dictates an inter-office memo to his colleague, claims manager Barton Keyes, about killing one of his clients, a Mr. Dietrichson. Barton suspected that Dietrichson was murdered by his wife, Phyllis Dietrichson, who was claiming the double indemnity on her husband's accident insurance policy. Walter met Phyllis innocently enough - he was dropping off auto insurance renewal papers for her husband - but quickly fell under her seductive charms. They were obvious to each other in their mutual attraction. After deducing that she was planning on killing her husband since she stated he was abusive and claiming the insurance moneys on a policy her husband would have no idea existed, Walter decided to go into cahoots with her so that he could help her craft and execute the "perfect" insurance policy, and plan and execute the "perfect" murder beyond Keyes' scrutiny, leading to them living in bliss together and with money. Beyond any slip-up in the plan, Keyes and Dietrichson's disgruntled daughter, Phyllis' step-daughter Lola Dietrichson, factored into their ability to pull off the plan successfully. Walter concludes his memo for its reason, which he considers more a confession. Written by Huggo

Smooth talking insurance salesman Walter Neff meets attractive Phyllis Dietrichson when he calls to renew her husband's automobile policy. The couple are immediately drawn to each other and an affair begins. They cook up a scheme to murder Mr. Dietrichson for life insurance money with a double indemnity clause. Unfortunately, all does not go to plan... Written by Col Needham <col@imdb.com>

Insurance agent Walter Neff plots with attractive Phyllis Dietrichson to murder her husband. After the husband has been tricked into signing a double indemnity accident policy, they kill him to make it look like an accident. Insurance investigator Barton Keyes doesn't believe it was an accident and pursues the case, linking Phyllis with everyone but his friend, Walter. Neff, meanwhile, is told by Dietrichson's daughter from a previous marriage that she believes that Phyllis killed her mother in order to marry her father. Neff suspects Phyllis of a double cross and he believes she has abandoned him for the younger man. Written by filmfactsman


Plot Synopsis:
Walter Neff (MacMurray) is a successful insurance salesman for Pacific All-Risk returning to his office building in downtown Los Angeles late one night... See more (warning! contains spoilers) »

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