Summary
Walter explains in voice-over that he didn't see Phyllis for the next week, and admits to wondering privately whether Mr. Dietrichson breaking his leg wasn't an omen that he should abandon the plan altogether. He recalls the date was June 15th, a day Barton should remember. Back in Walter's office, Barton enters and congratulates him on having the highest sales record in the office. He asks whether Walter would consider a fifty dollar pay cut to become his assistant as a claims man, rather than be a salesman. Walter rejects the offer, not wanting a "desk job." Barton stresses that a claims man's job is full of drama and responsibility, equivalent to being "a doctor and a bloodhound and a cop and a judge and a jury and a father confessor all in one."
During his rant, Walter's phone rings and Barton picks it up, then hands the receiver to Walter, saying there's a "dame" on the line. It's Phyllis, with an urgent message. Playing casual in front of Barton, Walter calls her "Margie" and asks if he can call her back. Phyllis tells him that Mr. Dietrichson has decided to leave for Palo Alto by train that very night, and that he's on crutches. Phyllis breathlessly explains that the crutches will make carrying out the murder that much easier. Walter agrees, speaking in careful, vague terms with Barton still in the room. He suggests to Barton that they regroup in his office after the call, but an oblivious Barton decides to stay. Phyllis tells Walter that Mr. Dietrichson is taking the 10:15 from Glendale to Palo Alto, and that the signal will be three honks on the horn. Walter asks what color she picked out; catching on, she tells him Mr. Dietrichson will be in a blue suit, with a cast on his left leg. She tells Walter she loves him, and they hang up.
Barton asks Walter if he's chasing women again, and cynically supposes that this Margie "drinks from the bottle." He asks Walter why he doesn't settle down, and Walter asks Barton the same question. Barton tells him he almost did, a long time ago, before he felt the "little man" in his stomach start to act up. Walter guesses correctly that Barton had his potential bride investigated, after which he found that she already had a husband. Barton beseeches Walter one last time to consider the claims man job, but Walter refuses. A disappointed Barton tells Walter he singled him out for the job because he thought he was smarter, but in fact, Walter's "just a little taller."
In voice-over, Walter explains that he felt he had passed the point of no return, and that there was no longer any room for doubt or second-guessing. He leaves his rate book on his desk, and pulls his car into the garage around 7:00 PM, in order to help establish his alibi. Walter tells a parking attendant named Charlie he's staying in tonight, and calls his officemate Lou Schwartz from home, so there will be a record of a house call. Walter changes into a navy blue suit, and puts a hand towel and a roll of adhesive in the pocket so he can make a fake cast. He lodges a card in his telephone box and the doorbell box so he will know if anyone has tried to reach him.
Walter leaves his apartment via the service stairwell and walks all the way to the Dietrichson residence in Los Feliz. He mentions in voice-over smelling honeysuckle again, even stronger than before. He lies down in the backseat of the Dietrichson's sedan and waits out of sight, imagining the act he is about to commit. Phyllis and Mr. Dietrichson walk out of the house, and Phyllis pulls the car out of the garage, noticing Walter concealed in the backseat. The three set out for the Glendale train station, but Phyllis instead turns down a dark alley and honks the horn three times, confusing Mr. Dietrichson. Offscreen, Walter can be heard throttling Mr. Dietrichson to death in the passenger seat, as the camera settles on Phyllis's face.
The two continue on to the Glendale train station. Now posing as Mr. Dietrichson on crutches, Walter sets out to board the train with Phyllis at his side. He gives her specific instructions about driving home. Pretending to be husband and wife, Phyllis and Walter kiss and say goodbye just inside the train-car, around plenty of witnesses. On the last car of the train, a man named Jackson traveling to Medford, Oregon chats up Walter about his cast, who is careful not to show his face. Walter asks the man to grab him his cigar case. When he leaves, Walter tosses his crutches over the train's observation deck, and then jumps onto the tracks.
Phyllis, waiting in her car behind some brush, flashes her lights at Walter. The two hastily deposit Mr. Dietrichson's body and the crutches on the tracks, making it look like he fell off the observation deck, and get back in the car. When Phyllis goes to start the car, the engine doesn't turn over, and the two share a tense moment together wondering whether the car has broken down. After several tries, the car finally starts, and Walter remembers in voice-over that he coached Phyllis on the way back about what to say at the inquest about the insurance. He recalls she shed no tears. After they kiss and part ways, Walter ascends the service stairwell of his building again and sees that no one called or rang that night. He changes clothes and goes down to the garage, wanting Charlie to see him again. Walter tells Charlie he's going to the drugstore. In voice-over, Walter tells Barton he couldn't hear his own footsteps, and that he had "a dead man's walk."
Analysis
Barton offering Walter the job of claims man is another instance of the men acting as doubles for one another. Although Walter admits to "thinking with [Barton's] brain," this is for the purposes of committing a crime; he has no interest in being his assistant, and thus identifying with him in an institutional context. Moreover, when trying to sell the idea to Walter with a grandiose speech, Barton himself becomes a salesman, mirroring Walter's current position in the company. Walter and Barton, in addition to being close friends and confidants, also represent the oppositional yet complementary functions of an insurance company, with the former trying to increase its clientele base unilaterally and the latter trying to assess its riskiness on a case-by-case basis.
Notions of risk, debt, compensation, and liability take on an added symbolic significance in Wilder's crime drama, which swirls around insurance company intrigue and fatal romance. Risk, in particular, becomes a major theme of the film once the murder plot is set irreversibly in motion. Walter's job in relation to the plot is similar to Barton's job in relation to the company, in that his goal is to reduce risk as thoroughly as possible. However, Phyllis's willingness to take risks constantly jeopardizes this enterprise, such as when she calls Walter at the office with Barton in the room. In keeping with the themes of doubling and risk management, Walter calls Phyllis "Margie" and passes her off to Barton as a current girlfriend.
The sequence in which Walter carries out the murder is replete with voice-over narration, given that Walter is essentially confessing the scheme in detail to Barton. Walter's non-diegetic narration reveals that he intended to behave not merely like a criminal, but like a meta-criminal: someone who is knowledgeable about the mistakes that criminals make, and the methods used to investigate them. Likewise, the film noir genre often probes not only the sophisticated criminal mindset—especially the psychological and sexual motivations that drive otherwise normal people to commit violent, deviant acts—but also the surprisingly thin line between the law-breaking and the law-abiding classes of society.
In Walter's case, the thrill of executing the perfect crime under his own company's nose carries with it a titillating, risky appeal, which is rendered highly ironic by the fact that Walter is openly confessing the crime to the company via voice-over. However, it is Phyllis whose rage and animus truly drive the act, which the film indicates by having the camera zoom in on her steely face while Walter strangles Mr. Dietrichson. Walter also notes via voice-over that Phyllis does not cry after he commits the act. Phyllis will later ironically taunt Walter for being the one who actually murdered Mr. Dietrichson, whereas she only "wanted" it to be done. Who is at greater fault, or assumes greater "liability" in the act—Walter or Phyllis—is an ethical question that the film seems to pose deliberately to the viewer.
Walter's encounter with Jackson on the train is the one unpredictable variable that threatens the integrity of the plan. Knowing he cannot let anyone see his face, Walter carefully keeps his head carefully concealed in shadow, and asks Jackson to fetch his cigar case, another allusion to vice and pleasure. Walter's guilt manifests after the two part ways and he walks to the drugstore, observing that he had a "dead man's walk." The comment is a fatalistic acknowledgment of what Walter already knows to be true: that he and Phyllis, bound together by conspiracy, must face the consequences of their actions and ride them "straight down the line."
