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Billy Wilder used a cigarette lighting gag in Double Indemnity (1944) and Stalag 17 (1953). Keyes always had a cigar handy but can never light it on his own because he doesn't carry a matchbook or lighter. Neff would do it for him and in the final scene, the gag is reversed with a touch of male bonding. Sefton infuriates Duke further by making the latter his personal lighter - on the chest, the arm and the third time which is the payoff, the nape.
The use of a small prop like a cigarette is his way of adding layers to the dialogue. In Some Like It Hot (1959), Wilder used the maracas to get the perfect timing in Daphne's drop-dead funny engagement announcement. In The Apartment (1960), Baxter uses a nasal spray in his nervous first face-to-face meeting with Sheldrake. But later in the day, when he was delighted that he's getting his first date with Fran to see "The Music Man", he squirts the little carnation on his coat that was given to him by Fran. This was Jack Lemmon's idea as he actually had a cold during the filming of the scene and he didn't tell Wilder or MacMurray before the filming.
Double Indemnity (1944)
A: Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray)
B: Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson)
[At the Garlopis fraud scene]
A: And you've loved every minute of it, Keyes. You love it, only you worry about it too darn much. You and your little man. You're so darned conscientious, you're driving yourself crazy. You wouldn't even say today's Tuesday unless you looked at the calendar. Then you'd check to see if it was this year's or last year's calendar. Then you find out who printed the calendar and find out if their calendar checked with the world almanac's calendar.
B: Now, that's enough from you, Walter. Now get out of here before I throw my desk at you.
A: [strikes a match with his thumb] I love you, too.
[Keyes tries to recruit Walter to be his assistant]
A: I don't think I want it, Keyes. Thanks just the same.
B: [takes a cigar] Well, fair enough. Only get this-- [puts the cigar in his mouth and tries to find a match on himself] I picked you for the job, not because I think you're so darn smart, but because I thought you were a shade less dumb than the rest of the outfit. [Walter strikes a match with his thumb and gives it to Keyes who proceeds to light his cigar.] Guess I was wrong. You're not smarter, Walter. You're just a little taller.
[At Mr. Norton's office, the day after Dietrichson's death]
B: Come on, Walter. Next time, I'll rent a tuxedo.
[They exit the office. Keyes readies his cigar again but can't find a light. Walter strikes a match.]
[The Medford man scene]
B: She put in her claim. I'm gonna throw it right back at her.
[Keyes gropes for a light again. Walter strikes the match that he has been nervously twirling in his mouth and gives it to Keyes.] Let her sue us if she dares. I'll be ready for her... and that somebody else. They'll be digging their own graves. [Keyes lights his cigar.]
[Final scene]
A: Know why you couldn't figure this one, Keyes? I’ll tell ya. 'Cause the guy you were looking for was too close. Right across the desk from ya.
B: Closer than that, Walter.
A: I love you, too.
Stalag 17 (1953)
A: Sgt. J. J. Sefton (William Holden)
B: Duke (Neville Brand)
[The day after the failed escape of Manfredi and Johnson]
A: You listen to me! What do you think the chances are of getting out of here? And let's say you make it to Switzerland. Let's say to the States. So what? They ship you out to the Pacific… slap you in another plane and you get shot down again. Only this time you wind up in a Japanese prison camp. That is, if you're lucky. Well, I'm no escape artist. Cigar, Cookie. You can be the heroes, the guys with fruit salad on your chest. Me, I'm staying put. And I'm gonna make myself as comfortable as I can. [takes the cigar from Cookie] And if it takes a little trading with the enemy… to get me some food or a better mattress…[bites off the tip of the cigar and spits it out] that's okay by Sefton.
[Sefton strikes the match off Duke's sleeve.]
B: Why, you crud. This war's gonna be over someday. Then what do you think we'll do to kraut-kissers like you?
[The "observatory" scene]
A: I grease the kraut guards. I give them 10% of the take.
B: And maybe a little something else, Sefton.
A: A little something what?
[Sefton strikes the match off Duke's chest which provokes Duke into grabbing Sefton roughly by his jacket.]
B: Maybe a little information.
[The revelation scene]
B: Brother, were we all wet about you!
A: Forget it.
[Sefton strikes the match off the back of Duke's neck and lights the last cigar he'll ever smoke in the camp.]
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