Mary Pickford Theater Film Schedule (National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Library of Congress) (2024)

U.K. Crime Classics

Thursday, May 9, 2024 7:00 p.m.

Agatha Christie

MURDER SHE SAID (MGM, U.K., 1961). Dir George Pollock. Screenplay by David Pursall and Jack Seddon; adapted by David Osborn from the novel "4.50 from Paddington" by Agatha Christie. With Margaret Rutherford, Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavlow, James Robertson Justice, Thorley Walters. (86 min, black & white, 35mm print from the Copyright Collection).

While riding on a train, Miss Marple sees what appears to be a murder taking place on another train going in the opposite direction. Regarded as one of the best Miss Marple novels, "4.50 from Paddington" has been adapted for the screen several times, but it is this 1961 film that remains the most popular version despite departing significantly from Agatha Christie�s original. Margaret Rutherford transforms Christie�s prim and fussy elderly spinster into an intrepid force of nature who is like "a giant stone rolling down a hill" (Ron Miller). Christie herself, while praising Rutherford as a "very fine actress," at the same time judged her to be "never in the least like Miss Marple." Murder She Said was nevertheless a hit with audiences and critics alike and Margaret Rutherford went on to play the amateur sleuth in three more films.

Seating is on a first-come first-serve basis. Doors open at 6:30 pm.

Thursday, May 23, 2024 7:00 p.m.

Edgar Wallace

CLUE OF THE NEW PIN (Merton Park Studios, U.K., 1961). Directed by Allan Davis. Screenplay by Philip Mackie, from the novel of the same name by Edgar Wallace. With Paul Daneman, Bernard Archard, James Villiers, Katherine Woodville, Clive Morton, Leslie Sands. (58 min, black & white, 35mm print from the Copyright Collection, rights courtesy of Rialto Pictures).

With

RICOCHET (Merton Park Studios, U.K., 1963). Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey. Screenplay by Roger Marshall, based on the novel "The Angel of Terror" by Edgar Wallace. With Maxine Audley, Richard Leech, Alex Scott, Dudley Foster, Patrick Magee, Frederick Piper. (64 min, black & white, 35mm print from the Copyright Collection, rights courtesy of Rialto Pictures).

Between 1960 and 1965, the London-based Merton Park Studios produced a series of 47 films adapted from the works of English writer Edgar Wallace. Made quickly and cheaply, the films (on average an hour long) starred established character actors and emerging young talent, and were shown in British cinemas as supporting features on double bills. The series made it to the U.S. repackaged for TV, with individual entries shortened to 45 min in order to fit the 60 min commercial broadcast slots. The Library of Congress holds uncut versions of many of the Merton/Wallace films, and we are pleased to be able to show a sampling of these taut and concise mystery/crime fables on the big screen, as they were originally intended to be seen.

Seating is on a first-come first-serve basis. Doors open at 6:30 pm.

Thursday, June 13, 2024 7:00 p.m.

THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D. (Warner Bros., 1941). Directed by William Keighley. Screenplay by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein; story by Kenneth Earl and M. M. Musselman. With James Cagney, Bette Davis, Stuart Erwin. Eugene Pallette, Jack Carson, George Tobias. (92 min, black & white, 35mm print from the Copyright Collection).

Preceded by the Merrie Melodies cartoon RHAPSODY IN RIVETS (Warner Bros., 1941). directed by Friz Freleng. (8 min, Technicolor, 35mm, preserved from original nitrate negatives in the United Artists Collection).

A pilot is enlisted by an oil tycoon to prevent his daughter from marrying a band leader. A fast-paced screwball comedy that provided both Cagney and Davis with an opportunity to move away from their established screen personas, he from gangster roles and she from leads in romantic dramas. Some have suggested that Davis accepted the part, not dissimilar to Claudette Colbert�s runaway heiress in It Happened One Night (1934), to rival Katharine Hepburn, who had great success with comedies such as Bringing Up Baby (1938) and The Philadelphia Story (1940). The actress was later dismissive of the film, claiming that all she got out of it was "a derri�re full of cactus quills."

Seating is on a first-come first-serve basis. Doors open at 6:30 pm.