Barbara Stanwyck, an obscene typo and the sordid story behind Double Indemnity

• Surprisingly, the idea for Double Indemnity – Billy Wilder’s film noir masterpiece about a gold-digging femme fatale and the spineless insurance agent who falls under her spell – was prompted by a catastrophic printing mistake at a smalltown rag during the Roaring Twenties. Reading through the freshly printed first edition, one of the editors was shocked to see an ad for women’s underwear which should have read: “If these sizes are too big, take a tuck in them.”