Phyllis Dietrichson

They later murder her husband and try to make it seem like an accident on a train in an attempt to invoke the policy's double indemnity clause.

The next day, much to her dismay, Phyllis finds out that the company has refused to pay the double indemnity clause for they did not know about Mr. Dietrichson's broken leg before his death.

Phyllis must also contend with the inquisitive Keyes, who suspects she was involved in the murder of Mr. Dietrichson; he believes her accomplice was Nino, whom she was secretly meeting.

As he tries to escape, planning to live out his life in Mexico rather than face the death penalty, Neff collapses to the floor near the elevator.

In the novella, Phyllis is a former nurse who was suspected of killing several children in her care; the case was dropped for lack of evidence.

[2] Richard Corliss, the former editor-in-chief of Film Comment and a notable film critic for Time magazine, ranked Stanwyck's portrayal of Phyllis #5 on his 2007 list of the "Top 25 Greatest Villains" in cinema history, placing her just ahead of Ann Savage's character Vera in the cross-country crime drama Detour (1945).

[6] As part of his assessment of Phyllis, Corliss pities poor Walter and marvels at his blindness to pure evil:When Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), a bright insurance peddler, meets Phyllis, can't he see that she plans to use his sexual avidity to get him to kill her cranky, unloving husband and then take the rap for the crime?

Of course not, because the type hardly existed in Hollywood films before...Phyllis found her perfect embodiment in Stanwyck, maybe the movies' all-time smartest actress (street-smart, anyway).