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.
Who killed George Sanders? Was it Bridget Kelly, the wharf hustler who became his executive secretary, played by Yvonne DeCarlo? Was it Mrs Ryan, the widow he swindled, played by real life ex-wife Zsa Zsa Gabor? Could it be Mrs. Van Renasslear (Coleen Gray), the married woman he seduced and tossed aside? Or was it Stephanie North (Nancy Gates), the budding ingenue he promised Broadway glory? Directed by Charles Martin, with cinematography by James Wong Howe, and a score by Max Steiner, the picture offers a glamorous postmortem of a savage financier who had it coming.
Beloved Infidel (1959)
Screens Wednesday March 19 at 7.00
Sheilah Graham was part of the mighty ‘unholy trio’ of gossip columnists that ruled Hollywood, along with Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper. Sheilah distinguished herself by printing acid barbs about stars who were used to flattering publicity. In multiple books she covered a bigger story about her own affair with F. Scott Fitzgerald. The literary lion was a studio screenwriter on the skids when she threw him a lifeline. Deborah Kerr captures the unique torment of loving a man haunted by his own demons. Although critics believed Gregory Peck was miscast as Fitzgerald, the actor taps into the enduring appeal the Jazz Age novelist had for Graham.
Joan Blondell plays a waitress on the hunt for a rich husband. She strikes up a friendship with Melvyn Douglas, a swoon merchant disguised as a stuffed-shirt professor who can’t help giving lessons on how to be a lady. Trying to curb her penchant for accepting gifts from men, he advises that she only accept flowers, fruit, candy, and hospitality. Just how creative can Joan Blondell get with those directions?
The Big Street (1942)
Screens 10 October at 7.00.
Best known for being a comedic powerhouse who invented appointment TV and later bought the studio that once considered her only a second-tier contract player, Lucille Ball proves her dramatic chops in one of the best Broadway fables from Damon Runyon. Lucy plays a hard-boiled canary with a cash register where a heart ought to be. Henry Fonda, a bus boy, worships her from a far and then up close.
Old Acquaintance (1943)
Screens 17 October at 7.00.
Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins play college pals who become rival novelists. Bette is the highbrow author who struggles writing literary fiction. Miriam writes bodice rippers that turn into commercial best sellers. Bette wears jackets and ties; Miriam wears ruffles and lace. Sparks fly whenever they meet, making the love interests with men the least interesting thing about the picture.
Michael Curtiz borrows elements from Doris Day’s life story for a snappy look at the climb to stardom. Day started out as a nightclub singer, just like her character on screen. Jack Carson plays an agent who knows right away that she has what it takes, but talent alone isn’t enough for a hit radio show. She needs the right sound. Eve Arden’s gift for scene-stealing is unrivalled.
Born to Be Bad (1950)
Screens 11 May at 7.00
Joan Fontaine plays the butter-wouldn’t-melt blonde who knows exactly what men like and uses it to her own advantage. She’s supposed to be enrolled in business school, but is already an expert in sass mouth economics. Joan Leslie shares her flat without realising that she’s about to lose everything to the soft-spoken Fontaine. Director Nicholas Ray adds Zachary Scott, Robert Ryan, and Mel Ferrar as pawns in the game
Home Before Dark (1958)
Screens 18 May at 7.00
After spending a year in a psychiatric hospital, Jean Simmons returns home to her husband, a cold fish professor played by Dan O’Herlihy. Is Simmon’s character having another nervous breakdown? Or is she being gaslighted? Director Mervyn LeRoy explores the trauma for women who try to be what men want instead of who they really are inside. Rhonda Fleming (in a blonde wig!) stirs up the drama.
Portrait in Black (1960)
Screens 25 May at 7.00
Once again, Lana Turner is up to her neck in trouble and glamour. Trapped in a sexless marriage to a cruel shipping magnate (Lloyd Nolan), she decides she’d rather plan his funeral with help from her lover (Anthony Quinn). Soon they are driven witless by a blackmailer. Lana is also tormented by stepdaughter Sandra Dee, who insists on slumming with a tugboat captain (John Saxon). Virginia Grey and Anna May Wong join an outstanding cast.
Refunds are available up until noon on the day of the screening.
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.
