Picturegoer — Week ending 24 June 1944
Maria Montez cover · “MacMurray becomes an actor at last!” — Double Indemnity feature
British wartime Picturegoer issue for the week ending 24 June 1944, with Maria Montez on the colour cover. Its strongest archival feature is W. H. Mooring’s “MacMurray becomes an actor at last!”, an unusually early British popular-press response to Fred MacMurray’s dramatic reinvention in Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, illustrated with Wilder, MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck together on set.
Read the catalogue note →- Organisation
- Odhams Press
- Condition
- Good appearance for an original 1944 wartime issue, ungraded. The Maria Montez colour cover remains vivid and highly presentable, with moderate spine rubbing and small splits, minor edge and corner wear, light top-edge chipping/short tears, surface scuffing and handling creases. Rear and interior pages are age-toned but clean and highly legible.
- Completeness
- Assumed complete under the standing TMR magazine rule unless the owner states otherwise. Front cover, rear page and one interior spread are supplied; no page-by-page collation has been performed.
- Date
- Week ending 24 June 1944
- Film
- Double Indemnity
- Territory
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Format
- Illustrated film fan magazine; cover states “Every Other Thursday”
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Status
- Original period publication
- Release context
- British wartime Picturegoer issue carrying contemporary coverage of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and an active National Savings Committee ‘Salute the Soldier’ campaign advertisement
Catalogue note
British wartime Picturegoer issue for the week ending 24 June 1944, with Maria Montez on the colour cover. Its strongest archival feature is W. H. Mooring’s “MacMurray becomes an actor at last!”, an unusually early British popular-press response to Fred MacMurray’s dramatic reinvention in Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, illustrated with Wilder, MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck together on set. The facing “Six new Stars?” feature documents the magazine’s manufacture of emerging screen personalities, while the rear combines current film advertising with an official National Savings Committee ‘Salute the Soldier’ appeal. The issue therefore connects Hollywood star construction, a formative moment in film noir, British wartime spectatorship and civilian savings culture.
Why this object matters
Score and assessment method
Archive Importance: 9.7 / 10 · Gold Star.
This is a curatorial judgement, not a measurement accurate to one tenth or a market valuation. Read the explanation and its evidence limits together.
How Archive Importance is assessed →Use this record
Cite this object
Include the date you accessed this record when citing it.
Explore further
Connections use the catalogue’s named people, organisations and themes.