Murphy’s Town Hall Cinema Athenry 16 21st January 1938 – The Mystery of the Mary Celeste, a 1935 Hammer Films Mystery movie was screened in the Hall by Collins’ Travelling Picture Show (source: the Hall Journal). Sometimes known under the alternative title, Phantom Ship, this Denison Clift directed film stars Bela Lugosi, Shirley Grey and Arthur Margetson. 28th January 1938 – A film titled The Blue Shriek is documented as having been screened in the Hall by Collins’ Travelling Pictures (source: Hall Journal). Unfortunately we have been unable to trace any movie with this exact title. However, a likely candidate for this screening is perhaps The Blue Streak, (aka Kentucky Blue Streak), a 1935 Puritan Pictures Horse Racing Drama starring Edward J Nugent, Frank Coghlan Jr, Patricia Scott and Cornelius Keefe. NB: Tipperary Star 17th April 1937 (page 8) Ad Quote: “Exciting Horse Races, a thrilling prison escape and mysterious murder are among the highlights of this film.” Poster Quote: “He broke jail to ride the WINNER! 4th February 1938 – No Monkey Business, a 1935 General Film Distributors Comedy starring Gene Gerrard, June Clyde and Renée Houston was screened in the Hall by Collins’ Travelling Pictures (source: Hall Journal). 17th May 1938 – The Invisible Ray, a 1936 Universal Pictures Sci-Fi Horror film starring Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Frances Drake and Frank Lawton was screened in the Hall by J Walkin Travelling Cinema (source: Hall Journal). 1st July 1938 – The Luckiest Girl in the World, a 1936 Universal Pictures Comedy starring Jane Wyatt, Louis Hayward, Nat Pendleton, Eugene Pallette, Catherine Doucet and Phillip Reed was screened in the Hall by Carron Brothers (source: Hall Journal). 8th July 1938 – The Longest Night, a 1936 MGM Mystery film starring Robert Young, Florence Rice, Ted Healy, Julie Haydon, Catherine Doucet and Janet Beecher was screened in the Hall by Carron Brothers (source: Hall Journal). 15th July 1938 – The Country Doctor, a 1936 Twentieth Century Fox Drama was screened in the Hall by Carron Brothers (source: Hall Journal). It stars Jean Hersholt, June Lang, Slim Summerville, Michael Whalen, Dorothy Peterson, Robert Barrat and The Dionne Quintuplets. 20th July 1938 – San Francisco, a 1936 MGM Disaster Movie starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy and Jack Holt was screened in the Hall by Carron Brothers (source: Hall Journal). NB: This film is based on the true-life story of the San Francisco earthquake of April 1906. Spencer Tracy won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance. This film would be screened again almost 10 years later, in January 1948, and again in May 1955. 21st July 1938 – A film titled The Man of Steel was screened in the Hall by Carron Brothers (source: Hall Journal). Unfortunately, we have been unable to trace any film from this era with that title. It may have been a film called Killers of the Sea, a 1937 GNP documentary about a group of fishermen, led by Captain Wallace Casewell, who go to sea to kill sea creatures, ostensibly to protect game fish from natural predators, such as sharks and whales. The following are credited with featuring in this film: Captain Wallace Casewell, Steve Peaden and Bryant Lee. The poster for this film (seen on left) contains the Tagline: “See THE MAN OF STEEL - CONQUEROR OF SEA MONSTERS!” and it is this, along with its production date, that leads us to consider it a possibility for the screening here. NB: GNP refers to Grand National Pictures. (Spelt as Caswell in the onscreen credits). 24th July 1938 – The Conflict was screened in the Hall by Carron Bros (source: Hall Journal). This was most likely Conflict, a 1936 Universal Pictures Boxing Drama starring John Wayne, Jean Rogers and Ward Bond with a screenplay based on Jack London’s 1913 novel, The Abysmal Brute. NB: This film was definitely shown elsewhere in Cinemas around the Ireland in 1938, e.g. the Savoy Cinema Kilkenny (see the Nationalist and Leinster Times, Saturday, 29th January 1938, page 4). See also 1st October 1945 entry below for, The Story of Jack London. London, real name John Griffith Chaney (12th January 1876 – 22nd Nov 1916) was an American novelist, journalist and activist. He was an innovator in the genre that would later become known as Science-Fiction or Sci-Fi.
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