Sass Mouth Dames Film Club series 30

Megan McGurk introduces three sparkling pre-Code gems in the Brooks Hotel.

Grab a drink at the bar.

Popcorn is free!

Tickets available at Eventbrite

Red Headed Woman (1932)

Screens 12 September at 7.00

Jean Harlow leapt to stardom playing an unabashed gold digger (or a ‘sex pirate’ as screenwriter Anita Loos preferred) who never met a man she couldn’t trim. She turns the tables on her married boss (Chester Morris) who assumes he’s in charge of a little office slap and tickle. Harlow lampoons sexual double standards without missing a beat. Keep an eye out for swoon merchant Charles Boyer as the chauffeur.

Trouble in Paradise (1932)

Screens 19 September at 7.00

Director Ernst Lubitsch set the gold standard for sophisticated comedies brimming with style in Depression-era Hollywood. Kay Francis plays an elegant parfumier who gets tangled up with two swindlers, played by Miriam Hopkins and Herbert Marshall. The ‘Lubitsch touch’ is on tap with the moon in champagne, daring jewel robberies, an obscenely expensive handbag, class upheaval, and a scintillating three-cornered romance.

Murder at the Vanities (1934)

Screens 26 September at 7.00

Once Florenz Ziegfeld kicked the bucket in 1932, Earl Carroll became the top chorus line producer on Broadway. Carroll developed the story about a backstage murder mystery and took his showgirls to Hollywood. Directed by Mitchell Leisen, a king of woman’s pictures, and costumed by Travis Banton, the musical revues give Busby Berkeley a run for his money. Not to be missed for the ‘Sweet Marijuana’ number.

Sass Mouth Dames Film Club series 29

Megan McGurk introduces three classic woman’s pictures from Depression-era Hollywood Thursday nights in the Brooks Hotel cinema.

Tickets are available from Eventbrite

Faithless (1932)

Screens 2 May at 7.00

Tallulah Bankhead plays an heiress who lives on caviar, champagne, and designs by Adrian. She scoffs at the idea of living on the $400 a week her fiancé Robert Montgomery makes in advertising. After the Wall Street Crash, the best laid plans of sables, diamonds, and Monte Carlo go bust, catapulting our heroine into a rapid downward spiral. Tallulah loses everything—her money, possessions, and self-respect. When she hits rock bottom, will Bob Montgomery stick?

The Richest Girl in the World (1934)

Screens 9 May at 7.00

Miriam Hopkins shares a fizzy rapport with Joel McCrea in a picture that made a bundle at the box office and brought the co-stars together for four more pictures. Playing a savvy scion inspired by Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, Miriam fends off a shower of fortune hunters who toy with her affections. Since she can’t be sure of any man’s intentions, Miriam switches places with her secretary, played by Fay Wray, to discover if Joel is after her heart or her money.

Stella Dallas (1937)

Screens 16 May

Director King Vidor’s classic three-hankie melodrama captures the way society pressures women to conform within traditional roles. Barbara Stanwyck plays a brassy, fun-loving gal from the wrong side of the tracks who catches the eye of the son from a wealthy small-town family. John Boles falls for her unpolished charm, but as soon as they exchange vows, he tries to smooth her rough edges. Their daughter, played by Anne Shirley, inherits her father’s snobbery, and is mortified by her mother’s loud wardrobe. Barbara Stanwyck’s performance is a belter.

Sass Mouth Dames Film Club series 26

Megan McGurk introduces a classic woman’s picture each Thursday in November.

Tickets are available from Eventbrite.

Get your sass booster with a programme full of gems!

Stage Door (1937)
Screens 2 November at 7.00
RKO’s biggest stars, Ginger Rogers and Katharine Hepburn, play rival roommates in a flawless picture directed by Gregory La Cava. Set in a theatrical boarding house among Broadway-hopefuls, the cast is full of ambitious scene stealers such as Eve Arden, Gail Patrick, Andrea Leeds, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Constance Collier, and Phyllis Kennedy. La Cava had his secretary record their delicious backstage sass by shorthand for use in the off-the-cuff script.

Back in Circulation (1937)
Screens 9 November at 7.00
Joan Blondell is the best newspaperman in skirts. When other reporters wonder how they lost the scoop, Joan brushes them off with a wisecrack: ‘I’m cute that way.’ If only the newspaper’s editor, Pat O’Brien, would give her a break from chasing front-page stories—at least long enough for a little between-the-sheets action. Horny and run off her feet, Joan sparkles in every scene. Ray Enright’s romantic comedy has flown under the radar, but it’s woman’s picture canon.

Love Is News, poster, Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, Don Ameche, 1937. (Photo by LMPC via Getty Images)

Love Is News (1937)
Screens 16 November at 7.00
Society heiress Loretta Young decides she’s had enough of nosey reporters, particularly the one played by Tyrone Power. She plans revenge by giving a juicy exclusive to a rival columnist, which not only makes Ty look like a chump, it puts him in Dutch with his editor, played by Don Ameche. Loretta noted that director Tay Garnett laughed all the time, creating a fun atmosphere on the set, and it shows.

Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938)
Screens 23 November at 7.00
In the original French folk tale, a deranged husband murders his wives, one after another. Paramount’s cosmopolitan update benefits from the ‘Lubitsch Touch’ which borrows from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Once Claudette Colbert walks down the aisle with Gary Cooper, she learns he has a habit of changing his mind and filing for divorce. Before the groom gives her the gate, and she joins the ranks of seven ex-wives, Claudette concocts an inspired plan of reform.

When Tomorrow Comes (1939)
Screens 30 November at 7.00
Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer followed their box office hit Love Affair with this star-crossed romance between a waitress and a world-renowned musician. Boyer attends a union meeting just to hear Irene Dunne deliver a strike-calling speech to an assembly of harried and underpaid servers. Irene is swept away by the swoon merchant who listens so well. The only problem is, he’s already taken, as so often happens when an elegant stranger sits in your section for his lunch. Director John M. Stahl was a king of bittersweet melodrama.

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

Sass Mouth Dames Film Club series 25

Megan McGurk introduces four pre-Code woman’s pictures starring the MGM queens.

Grab a drink at the bar in Brooks Hotel. Popcorn is free!

Tickets available at Eventbrite

Possessed (1931)

Screens 7 September

If Joan Crawford and Clark Gable had lacked discipline, the heat from their illicit affair might have burned Metro to the ground. Luckily, they kept their clothes on long enough to face the camera for the third of eight pictures they made together. Director Clarence Brown builds a kept woman story into a captivating romance during one of the bleakest years of the Depression. Joan plays an earnest factory gal on the hunt for a rich man as if she was a one-woman Lewis and Clark expedition.

Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise (1931)

Screens 14 September

The picture’s subtitle tells you everything you need to know about the trajectory of woman’s pictures during the 1930s. After Greta Garbo escapes an arranged marriage, she finds refuge with Clark Gable and his German Shepherd. Before long, she’s left high and dry and joins the circus. Then she moves into a Penthouse financed by a sugar daddy politician. Almost every writer in MGM had a crack at the baggy monster of a script which censors found objectionable, but the whole escapade is pure GARBO-going-places.

Riptide (1934)

Screens 21 September

Currently, Norma Shearer enjoys a reputation for being the great lady of MGM. But during the pre-Code era, Norma was targeted by religious groups for making pictures that they felt glorified premarital sex, adultery, and divorce. In Riptide, Norma follows her heart (or her libido) while wearing what is arguably the best wardrobe (by Adrian) of her entire career. Norma would be stuck in hoop skirts and period costume for the next five years. Will Norma choose Herbert Marshall or Robert Montgomery—and does it even matter when she looks so good?

Stamboul Quest (1934)

Screens 28 September

Based on the life of Annemarie Lesser, a famously dissolute spy who was dying in a sanitorium during the film’s production, Stamboul Quest stars Myrna Loy as agent Fräulein Doktor. Myrna is the whole show, playing a character who knows that romance is the Achilles heel for a counter-espionage expert. Myrna has an important job, yet she still falls for soft-spoken George Brent. Gowned to the nines by Dolly Tree, Myrna disproves the old canard about spies darting about incognito in trench coats and anonymous fashion.

Sass Mouth Dames Film Club series 23

Megan McGurk introduces five stellar woman’s pictures from the 1940s each Thursday in March.

Tickets are available from Eventbrite.

Third Finger, Left Hand (1940)

Screens 2 March, 7.00

Myrna Loy plays a successful magazine editor who pretends to be married. She wears a gold wedding band for protection against wolves and sexual harassment on the job. But then suddenly, Melvyn Douglas shows up and claims to be her husband. What’s a busy editor to do? Art director Cedric Gibbons understood the appeal of seeing a woman seated behind a very big desk. And costume designer Dolly Tree combines a glorious wardrobe for Loy’s career woman, including sobersides tweed and a whimsical cherry basket hat.

Moon over Miami (1941)

Screens 9 March, 7.00

Shot in gorgeous, sweet-shop Technicolor, director Walter Lang styles a durable feel-good premise: How will three ambitious dames snare a man with deep pockets? Betty Grable, Carole Landis, and Charlotte Greenwood pool their resources to hunt for a millionaire in a fashionable Miami resort. Costumes by Travis Banton and choreography by Hermes Pan embellish a breezy romantic comedy musical. Betty Grable leading a conga line has the cure for what ails you.

The Gay Sisters (1943)

Screens 16 March, 7.00

Wicklow-born Geraldine Fitzgerald belongs to an elite quartet of co-stars who managed to upstage Barbara Stanwyck, alongside Joan Blondell, Gary Cooper, and Walter Huston. Stanwyck, an emotional firebrand in front of a camera, usually dominated every scene. In Irving Rapper’s film about orphaned heiresses, Fitzgerald plays the horny adventuress sister and steals more than one scene from the star. Three poor little rich gals (Nancy Coleman plays the nice one) are beset by a greedy developer (George Brent) who tries to win their familial property in court. As Fiona, the eldest, Stanwyck figures she knows all the angles to fix the legal ties that bind the Gaylord sisters.

Nocturne (1946)

Screens 23 March, 7.00

When a skirt-chasing composer is murdered, the prime suspects are all brunettes named Dolores. George Raft would no more have stepped on a star’s line of dialogue than he would a dance partner’s feet, which makes him ideal in the role of a police detective who leads the investigation. Raft questions a glamorous rogue’s gallery of hardworking women trying to catch a break in Hollywood, including platinum sex bomb Myrna Dell (playing a maid!) and Lynn Bari, a film studio extra. Producer Joan Harrison, who also contributed to the script, began her career as screenwriter for Hitchcock before she became an executive in RKO.

Forever Amber (1948)

Screens 30 March, 7.00

Linda Darnell shines in the screen adaptation of Kathleen Winsor’s bestselling bonkbuster. Darnell’s character is a ruthless mercenary, a Restoration-era Baby Face who sleeps her way to the top. Amber juggles demands from many men in return for a life of luxury, much like Darnell did in real life. René Hubert’s lavish designs set the stage for Twentieth Century Fox’s epic bodice-ripper costume drama that was fiercely condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency.