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 35

Megan McGurk introduces three classic Hollywood pre-Codes in September.

Join us at the Dot Theatre for a glass of wine and a sparkling picture.

Tickets available at Eventbrite.

City Streets (1931)

Screens 4 September at 7.00

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 City Streets. 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 Twentieth Century 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.

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 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.