Murphy’s Town Hall Cinema Athenry 10 The Gorilla, a 1930 Warner Bros film starring Joe Frisco, Harry Gribbon, Walter Pidgeon & Lila Lee The Girl of the Golden West, a 1930 Warner Bros Western starring Ann Harding and James Rennie Eucharistic Congress (1932) British Pathé newsreel Canister 32/52 18 Misbehaving Ladies (aka The Queen of Main Street), a 1931 First National Pictures/Warner Bros Comedy starring Lila Lee, Ben Lyon, Louise Fazenda & Lucien Littlefield. 19 The Cast of this movie, captured from the accompanying Warner Bros Pressbook, is shown below on the right. 1st June 1934 – I Am a Fugitive (from a Chain Gang), a 1932 Warner Bros Drama was screened in the Hall by Carron Brothers (source: Hall Journal). It stars Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson and Preston Foster. Muni plays James Allen, a wrongly convicted WW1 veteran, imprisoned and sentenced to hard labour on a Chain Gang. 8th June 1934 – The Maid of the Mountains, a 1932 Associated British Pictures Musical was screened in the Hall by Carron Brothers (source: Hall Journal). Nancy Brown, Harry Welchman, Betty Stockfeld, Albert Burdon and Wallace Lupino 20 star in this Lupino Lane film. NB: The screenplay was based on the 1916 Operetta, also titled The Maid of the Mountains. 15th June 1934 – The Sign of the Cross, a 1932 Paramount Pictures Historical Film starring Fredric March, Elissa Landi, Claudette Colbert, Charles Laughton (as Emperor Nero) and Charles Middleton was screened in the Hall by Carron Brothers (source: Hall Journal). A Historical Epic, directed by Cecil B DeMille, with a screenplay based on Wilson Barrett’s 1895 Four Act Tragic Play of the same name. NB: The images at the back of this Volume show Claudette Colbert, as Empress Poppaea, in the legendary Milk Bath scene from this film. Did this scene make it on to the Hall screen intact in 1934? We just don’t know but it seems highly unlikely, given that National Film Censorship began in Ireland with the introduction of the 1923 Censorship of Films Act! 2nd October 1934 – Gambling Ship, a 1933 Paramount Pictures Drama starring Cary Grant, Benita Hume, Jack La Rue, Glenda Farrell, Roscoe Karn, Arthur Vinton, Charles Williams and Edwin Maxwell was screened in the Hall by Carron Brothers (source: Hall Journal). NB: Directed by Louis J Gasnier and Max Marcin. Benita Hume was married to fellow actor, Ronald Colman. 12th October 1934 – The Way of Life (aka They Call It Sin), a 1932 Warner Bros Drama starring Loretta Young, George Brent, David Manners and Una Merkel was screened in the Hall by Carron Bros (source: Hall Journal). NB: Directed by Thornton Freeman. Quote: “The story of a young girl who was loved by three men and had to make a hasty choice eventually.” 21 19th October 1934 – Gold Diggers of 1933, a 1933 Warner Bros Musical was screened by Carron Brothers (source: Hall Journal). Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Guy Kibbee and Ginger Rogers star together in this Mervyn LeRoy directed film. 21st October 1934 – Hard To Handle, a 1933 Warner Bros Comedy starring Jimmy Cagney, Mary Brian and Ruth Donnelly was screened in the Hall by Carron Brothers (source: the Hall 18 NB: An interesting Documentary titled, The Story of British Pathé is available to view for free on YouTube™ 19 NB: First National Pictures was a subsidiary of Warners. Louise Fazenda was married to Hal B Wallis, a Producer at Warner Bros. 20 Wallace Lupino was a brother of Director Lupino Lane (real name Henry Lupino) and an uncle to screen star Ida Lupino 21 Quote is taken from the Empire Theatre (Galway) advertisement in The Connacht Tribune 16th December 1933, page 8. Figure 8 – © Warner Bros & First National Pictures Figure 9 – Murphy Collection
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