Sass Mouth Dames Film Club series 39

Megan McGurk introduces two gems from Hollywood’s classical studio era in The Dot Theatre, Dublin.

Wine and crisps are complimentary.

Get your tickets at Eventbrite.

Devil and the Deep (1932)

Screens 27 August at 19.00 in The Dot Theatre.

Tallulah Bankhead received top billing over Gary Cooper and Cary Grant in the only picture the two men made together. Cast as a battered wife trapped in a miserable marriage to paranoid and jealous Charles Laughton, Tallulah flees his accusations that she’s carrying on with Cary Grant and runs straight into the arms of Gary Cooper. Devil and the Deep blends melodrama, romance, and action in a sultry pre-Code with double swoon merchants. Dressed by Travis Banton, Tallulah radiates the sharp, intense, controlled energy of a woman pushed to her limits.

There’s Always a Woman (1938)

Screens 3 September at 19.00 in The Dot Theatre

How do you like your detective duos? If you prefer a married couple who bicker and compete to solve the case first, look no further than Joan Blondell and Melvyn Douglas. When Mel’s private eye office is out of funds and ready to shutter, instead of closing shop, Joan scores new a new client (Mary Astor) to keep the lights on. Joan gives a freewheeling performance built on clever gags and set pieces that made the bubbly screwball comedy a big hit for Columbia. The studio re-teamed the director, Alexander Hall, and the stars for two other pictures.

Refunds are available up to noon on the day of the screening.

Sass Mouth Dames Film Club series 38

Megan McGurk introduces two gems in Technicolor and Metrocolor in The Brooks Hotel.

Get your tickets at Eventbrite.

Please note that refunds are no problem if requested by noon on the day of the screening.

(Give me a chance to re-sell the ticket, please).

Grab a drink at the bar. Outside food and drinks are not permitted.

Woman’s World (1954)

Screens Wednesday 18 March at 7.00

Clifton Webb plays an automotive titan who intends to promote one of his men, but before he chooses a top executive, he wants to meet their wives, because in the business world, the woman makes the man. Dowdy June Allyson and ambitious Cornel Wilde are the small-town hayseeds with a large brood. Chic Lauren Bacall is ready for divorce since Fred MacMurray is an ailing workaholic. Arlene Dahl is the bombshell social climber who drags her husband, Van Heflin, up the corporate ladder. Which wife wins? Director Jean Negulesco’s shots of historic Manhattan locations, such as the 21 Club, combined with Charles LeMaire’s lavish mid-century wardrobe, produces a magnificent feast in Technicolor.

BUtterfield 8 (1960)

Screens Thursday 26 March at 7.00

Elizabeth Taylor, in a fury over a torn dress, gives a man hell to pay. Instead of reading the plot about a disillusioned call girl, it’s easy to interpret Taylor’s anger at a personal level, directed at a clutch of MGM executives who worked her like a dog since she was a child, not to mention the outrage she felt at being called a homewrecker by the press. Taylor’s brilliant performance as Gloria Wandrous is a highly stylised portrait of rage done in lipstick, mink, and stiletto heels. Even though Taylor considered the script ‘a piece of shit,’ it still netted her an Oscar for Best Actress. Metrocolor and designs by Helen Rose showcase Taylor’s ability to weaponise glamour.

Sass Mouth Dames Film Club series 37

Megan McGurk introduces two gems from the 1940s in The Dot Theatre.

Tickets are available at Eventbrite.

I Wake Up Screaming (1941)

Screens 5 February at 7.00

Victor Mature is a publicist who decides that waitress Carole Landis has what it takes to make it in Manhattan’s café society. After she’s murdered, Vic becomes the prime suspect, but her sister, played by Betty Grable, isn’t so sure. Twentieth Century Fox mogul Darryl Zanuck believed that typecasting was as immutable as an astrological sign. Once typed, a star had little hope of changing their aspect in the studio. Zanuck was especially resolute in keeping women in limited roles. I Wake Up Screaming is the only non-musical picture Betty starred in during her Fox tenure. Betty exhibits a knack for dramatic roles in a downplayed performance.

The Harvey Girls (1946)

Screens 12 February at 7.00

In the Old West, we are told, nice women can ruin a town. Instead of the usual beef between ranchers and outlaws, the story whips up a feud among waitresses and saloon girls which looks like a candy-coloured treat. The picture boasts peak Judy Garland, Angela Lansbury with coiffures to die for, deadpan Virginia O’Brien, Marjorie Main, Cyd Charisse, John Hodiak, gorgeous costumes by Helen Rose and Irene, and songs by Johnny Mercer and Harry Warren. Director George Sidney and the Arthur Freed unit corral a sprawling cast in one of Metro’s most free-wheeling and feel-good musicals. Judy brandishing two six-shooters is not to be missed.

Sass Mouth Dames Christmas

Megan McGurk introduces a gem on 11 December in the historic Dot Theatre.

Tickets are available at Eventbrite.

Join Sass Mouth Dames Film Club as we celebrate Christmas with a screwball murder mystery that’s pure gold. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer adapted Dashiell Hammett’s best selling novel The Thin Man starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, who play the screen’s ideal married couple, Nick and Nora Charles. Directed by ‘One-Take Woody’ Van Dyke in only sixteen days, the picture’s brisk pace, sophisticated style, and urbane banter spawned five sequels and a whole raft of imitations. Nominated for four Academy Awards, the picture was one of the biggest hits at the box office in 1934. We musn’t forget mention their dog Asta, played by Skippy, who steals every scene he’s given.

Sass Mouth Dames Film Club series 36

Dublin’s most glamorous film club returns in November!

Megan McGurk introduces three classic Hollywood pictures in The Dot Theatre.

Get your tickets at Eventbrite

You Can’t Have Everything (1937)

(Screens 13 November at 7.00)

Alice Faye is a playwright, down on her luck, despite having an impeccable literary pedigree. Her grandfather was Edgar Allan Poe, which explains how she can keep her chin up while doing a gloomy job like wearing a sandwich board in the rain. Instead of being accosted by a raven, she must fend off a successful author of popular Broadway musicals, played by Don Ameche. He thinks that she should give up writing and sing on the stage. But Alice Faye plays a highbrow, aghast at his hackneyed productions. Gypsy Rose Lee, gowned to the teeth by Royer, makes her screen debut as the bitchy ‘other woman.’ Gypsy in her prime is not to be missed.

Too Many Husbands (1940)

(Screens 20 November at 7.00)

Jean Arthur, newly married to Melvyn Douglas, discovers that her first husband Fred MacMurray wasn’t lost at sea after all. With two husbands under one roof, until she makes up her mind, Jean has the men bunk together in a frilly satin boudoir that looks like the inside of a music box. Wesley Ruggles directs a sublime screwball comedy where the men behave like absolute idiots to win her hand. When the film was released, in March 1940, Life magazine ran a feature which declared, ‘Next to Garbo, Jean Arthur is Hollywood’s reigning mystery queen.’ Amidst the macho slapstick, she seems like an open book.

The Major and the Minor (1942)

(Screens 27 November)

Billy Wilder left nothing to chance for his Hollywood directorial debut. The script, co-written by Wilder and Charles Brackett, is a glorious screwball farce starring Ginger Rogers, who calls it quits on the big city then disguises herself as a child when she can’t afford the train fare home. In pigtail braids, Ginger fools the train conductor, but she also convinces a swoon merchant on board, played by Ray Milland, that she’s only twelve years old. She falls for him while stuck in a masquerade. Ginger wrote in her memoir that she had more fun working on the picture than any other, except Kitty Foyle (for which she won her Oscar).