In the living room, she has poured him a glass of iced tea.Neff realizes that her maid has he day off when she calls again impatiently for the maid.He offers o run the vacuum cleaner:Phyllis: Nettie! Nettie! Oh I forgot, today""s the maid""s day off.Neff: Never mind the beer, iced tea""ll be fine.Phyllis: Lemon? Sugar?Neff: Fix it your way.As long as it""s the maid""s day off, maybe here""s something I can do for you...like running the vacuum cleaner.Phyllis: Fresh.Neff: I used to peddle vacuum cleaners.Not much money, but you learn a lot about life.Phyllis: I didn""t think you learned it from a correspondence course.Realizing that both the maid and Mr.Dietrichson are not present, Walter asks for her to call him by his first name rather han Mr.Neff as they get comfortable on the sofa.She describes her older husband""s (Tom Powers) dangerous profession with the drilling crews in the Long Beach oil fields.She cooly strokes the back of his neck""s hairline with her left index finger as she passes on her way to the ladies room and confidently greets him: "Happy to have you back with the organization.The dated story was an example of the ""portmanteau"" style (everything revolved around or was tied together by a single location, a fashionable foreign hotel in this case).[Its tone resembled previous boxing genre films, includingGolden Boy (1939),Body and Soul (1947),Champion (1949), andThe Set-Up (1949)." They were followed by Rick, Evelyn, Jonathan, and Ardeth Bay who were prepared to ambush the cultist group on its way to the Oasis.