Modern audiences tend to know Sylvia Sidney from her late-career work with Tim Burton, yet she was an instant star in Hollywood after her screen debut in CityStreets. Dashiell Hammett claimed that he wasn’t pleased with Paramount’s version of his story, ‘After School’ which he later revised and retitled, ‘The Kiss-Off.’ But he was smitten with Sylvia Sidney, citing her as his favourite screen actress. Sylvia plays Nan, a girl in the rackets who falls for a carnival sharpshooter named The Kid, played by swoon merchant Gary Cooper. Will their love survive, or will gangsters tear them apart?
The Story of Temple Drake (1933)
Screens 11 September at 7.00
Temple Drake, played by the luminous Miriam Hopkins, has the world on a string. She’s rich, beautiful, and part of an influential family, which gives her the freedom to thumb her nose at society’s rules. But one night, on a spree, she wanders into a spooky roadhouse, where instead of finding restless ghosts rattling chains, she’s surrounded by cutthroat bootleggers and rapists. Miriam was delighted with the heroine taken from Faulkner’s lurid novel Sanctuary. She noted: ‘that Temple Drake, now there was a thing. Just give me a nice, unstandardized wretch like Temple three times a year, and I’ll interpret the daylights out of them.’
Bonus short: On the Loose (1931)
Since Temple Drake is a lean 70 minutes, we’ll start with a short from Hal Roach comedy team Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts. The gals are fed up with dates who take them to Coney Island. Comic mayhem ensues.
Twentieth Century (1934)
Screens 18 September at 7.00
Set at a breakneck pace that moves faster than the train it’s named after, Carole Lombard and John Barrymore give such animated performances in TwentiethCentury that you could turn the film stills into a flipbook. They gesticulate, glower, and sling verbal darts at each other throughout the run of Howard Hawk’s screwball gem. Carole plays Mildred Plotka, a lingerie model who becomes a star thanks to the maniacal tutelage of Barrymore. Once she’s on top, with the stage name Lily Garland, he refuses to let go. The clash of their theatrical egos zings like a musical score, thanks to a brilliant script by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.
Broadway showgirls use a repertoire of gags to get cash from men. But once a gangster squeezes the girls for protection money, they must find a way to give him the brush.
SATIN RACKETS was written and directed by Megan McGurk.
Meet the stars:
Clara Higgins plays Kitty Adare.
Clara is an Irish artist and writer perhaps better known as her pseudonym Mot Collins. Under this moniker, she creates illustrations, zines, and tattoos. Mot is interested in subversive expressions of femininity, sexuality, occultism, and comedy. She is highly influenced by pulp and punk culture. She can be found on Twitter as @heavydutywoman and @motcollinsart on Instagram.
Art design for SATIN RACKETS by Mot Collins.
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M Shawn plays Iris.
M. is a former television news producer, a writer, a researcher, an accidental homemaker, and a full-time Jean Harlow fan. After a year in quarantine, her blood type is banana bread, and if people were allowed to be fictional characters in a past life, she’d be Blondie Johnson.
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Olympia Kiriakou plays Dinah and Mrs Healy.
Olympia Kiriakou is a film historian specializing in stardom and genre in classical Hollywood. She is the host of “The Screwball Story” podcast, and the author of BECOMING CAROLE LOMBARD: STARDOM, COMEDY, AND LEGACY (Bloomsbury, 2020). She is currently writing VIRGINIA GREY: GOOD LUCK CHARM for the University Press of Kentucky. Visit her website The Screwball Girl and find her on Twitter: @thescrewballgrl and @screwballstory.
Patrick McGurk plays Buzz Moody and Talbot.
Pat is a resident of Key West, Florida. He has been active in community theatre since high school as an actor, director and producer. Pat’s stage credits include such diverse roles as the Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show, Bud Frump in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Richard III, and various other parts in Shakespeare. He has also directed over 15 shows from Shakespeare to most recently Private Lives by Noel Coward. When not working on a show, or working, you can find Pat on the water with dive gear or a fishing rod.
Shane McCormack plays Joe Ryan and Corsairs.
Shane McCormack is a freelance illustrator specializing in movie and pop culture subjects.Recent licensed work includes Halloween and Ghostbusters. When not drawing he collects physical media especially 1930/40s movies and any Barbara Stanwyck film. He also enjoys photography and has a BA in Visual Art. He’s on Twitter as @mrharrylime. Shane is the cinematographer and editor for the short film Sex Pirates of 1931. You can see his work at www.mrharrylime.com
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Savannah Monroe plays Pansy.
Savannah Monroe is a film writer and historian based in Colorado. Her focus is in the films and women of the classical Hollywood period. She has been researching and writing about Anne Bancroft, her life and legacy, since 2018. Her work can be found through her website Garbo Talks and on Twitter as @garbo_talks.
Beatrix Herriott O’Gorman plays Laurel.
Beatrix is a filmmaker and writer based in Dublin. She has worked for AMC, Disney, and Metropolitan Films. She was a Screen Ireland/Fís Éireann Fellow at the Stowe Story Labs 2024 Connemara Writers’ Retreat, the recipient of the 2022 Arts Grant from Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, and the Agility Award from the Arts Council of Ireland. Her film FORTY FOOT is currently in development. She loves 35mm film photography and being by the sea.
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Jack Warren plays Mad Dog Healy.
Jack Warren is an actor and filmmaker based in Dublin and New York. Their award-winning short films have screened all over the world, including at the Woodstock Film Festival, the GAZE International LGBTQ Film Festival, the American Cinematheque’s PROOF Film Festival, and the Irish Film Institute. They have a deep fondness for Barbara Stanwyck pictures and anything directed by Frank Borage. Check out all of their work at hellojackwarren.com and come say hi @hellojackwarren on Instagram.
Sound editing and special effects for SATIN RACKETS by Thomas O’Mahony.
Thomas O’Mahony is a London based Irish Podcast Producer who specialises in storytelling and audio design. He hosts a tattoo history show called Beneath the Skin, and is passionate about how we can use audio to tell new and innovative stories. You can find Thomas on all social media @gotitatguineys or contact him for business related inquiries at thomasomahony.media
Megan McGurk is a writer and director who carries a torch for studio era woman’s pictures. Megan wrote, directed, and produced the short film Sex Pirates of 1931. She has hosted Sass Mouth Dames film club in Dublin since 2017 and the podcast from 2018. She has written and directed eleven original radio plays set in the 1930s. She wrote an essay for Criterion on Love Affair. She is on Twitter @MeganMcGurk @SassMouthDames, Instagram @sassmouthdames, and Blue Sky @meganmcgurk.bsky.social
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.
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.
Woody Van Dyke’s screwball comedy lampoons polite marital norms. College professor Don Ameche writes a dull book arguing that jealousy is nothing but a holdover from the cave man. Rosalind Russell, as his wife, believes it’s the spice of life. If her husband really loved her, he’d knock out any man who got fresh. Their theories are put to the test with the arrival of Kay Francis, a lusty publisher, and Van Heflin, a horny devil with a goatee and a satin make-out couch.
Phantom Lady (1944)
Screens 11 January at 7.00
Joan Harrison, former screenwriter for Hitchcock, steps into the role of executive producer in a stylish mystery directed by master of noir Robert Siodmak. Ella Raines tries to prove her boss is innocent of a murder charge. During her search for a woman in a standout hat, Ella bargains for answers by egging on a musician who uses a drum kit to perform a frantic masturbatory jazz solo. It’s all in a night’s work for a razor-sharp investigator.
Down to Earth (1947)
Screens 18 January at 7.00
Terpsichore, goddess of dance, played by Rita Hayworth, is outraged by a Broadway show using her likeness. The divine Rita descends on the ‘Big Street’ to mount a highbrow production replacing the formerly glitzy portrayal of the Muses. But Olympian art clashes with American taste and the show flops. Will the goddess ditch the boards for the heavens, or will she be a trouper?
The Fountainhead (1949)
Screens 25 January at 7.00
Forget about the cartoonish polemic of Ayn Rand’s novel. The real draw of this sly adaptation from Warner Brothers studio is the relationship between its stars. Director King Vidor trades ham-fisted politics for the volcanic heat between Patricia Neal and Gary Cooper. Vidor skirts the Production Code censors with scenes staged with a drill, a whip, and a fireplace poker to underscore the explosive chemistry of stars embroiled in a real-life affair. Patricia risked it all for Coop, just like her character on the big screen.
