Double Indemnity (1944)

Film Posters of the 70s, Aurum Press Limited, 1998, p. 44

This poster was printed in two sheets and designed to be pasted onto billboards. Therefore only unused copies survived. Far few of this size poster were printed compared to the standard one sheet poster.

This film noir was directed by Billy Wilder and co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler. The film stars Fred MacMurray as an insurance salesman, Barbara Stanwyck as a seductive wife who wishes her husband dead, and Edward G. Robinson as an insurance analyst, whose job is to investigate bogus claims. The term “double indemnity” refers to a clause in certain life insurance policies, that doubles the pay-out for certain conditions, such as when death occurs as a result of an accident. This film is the definition of film noir, and one of the finest and most influential examples of the genre.