- Messages
- 17,219
- Location
- New York City
"Wash Their Faces" was a sequel to "Angels With Dirty Faces," where the Kids meet Pat O'Brien and James Cagney, and Rocky turns yella when he goes to the chair. "Wash" doesn't really follow up on any of that, and it's unclear if the Kids are even supposed to be the same characters or not. Sheridan's leading man is none other than rising young star Ronald Reagan, who really isn't half bad with what he's given to do, which mostly involves telling Leo Gorcey to shut up and listen.
The Patio appears to be a better grade of neighborhood house that gets the first crack at big pictures after they've finished downtown. So we should be getting "Wizard of Oz" sometime next spring. If you lived on Midwood Street or Rogers Avenue and didn't feel the need to go all the way downtown see the newest thing as soon as it came out, waiting till it showed up at the Patio would be an agreeable enough -- and cheaper -- way to get your movie fill.
I get the feeling that "Hotel For Women" was cooked up by a couple of writers who were told that the studio had just signed Elsa Maxwell, because she's famous and everybody's talking about her so find something she can do. I imagine it comes across like a down-market "Stage Door," with imitating being the sincerest form of Hollywood and all.
Even in the '70s, that dichotomy still existed. We knew, we could wait for a pic to come to certain theaters (the run-down ones, the one-screen ones, etc. in the out of the way or dicey neighborhoods) to catch a first run pic after it left the "better" and more expensive theaters. It was great for saving money, but also, for catching something you never got around to when it was first released.
I know I've posted pics and stories about the Brook theater in Bound Brook NJ before - a kinda tired old town near where I grew up. When she was alive, my grandmother and I'd go there to catch movies after they had their run in the "better" houses.