1946 Dublin, Ireland

Interviewee: Maura Breslin
Year born: 1938
Movie seen in Dublin, Ireland
Interviewed on: 01/26/2019
Interview by: Eoin Leonard

The first movie I remember seeing was called Arsenic and Old Lace. I might have seen a couple of movies before this but this was the one that really stood out for me. I think I was about 10 or 12  at the time so it would have been the late 1940s in Dublin.

I just remember the movie being really scary, it scared the living daylights out of me. I was so scared I couldn’t move at all, I wanted to run out of the cinema but I just couldn’t move.

The thing that scared me the most was the fact there was a man that was hiding in a trunk (not the trunk of a car but a chest of some sort) who would then start to kill people. I believe the premise of the movie was that people were being killed out of kindness because they were old and alone but I was too young to understand this so instead I just got really scared by it all. I don’t remember any of the actors or the characters names unfortunately but that man in the trunk will always scare me.

I went with my mum and my sister, we would take the bus into the city, into Dublin, and then head to O’Connell street or Abbey street depending on which cinema we were going to that day. My mum would do this every week herself and once me and my sister were old enough she would take us with her

There was a concessions stand but we would never go there because it was too expensive, when we bought snacks we would always get them more local to home where they were cheaper and then bring them with us. We would usually just have a small amount of sweets and my favourites were Honeybee Toffee’s.

There were two cinemas that we went to and I can’t remember exactly which one we saw Arsenic and Old Lace in but it was probably the Savoy theatre on O’Connell street. (still going strong today and the theatre of choice for Ireland’s movie premieres). There were definitely ushers there and they would sell ice cream or sweets throughout the movie, occasionally there was an intermission but it depended on how long the movie was. The theatre itself was very plush, with velvet chairs and velvet drapes, it was large as well as very well decked out.

The other cinema we went to, The Adelphi cinema also in Dublin (unfortunately now a parking lot) used to have live performances before the movie as well as musical interludes but this would have been a couple of decades later (apparently the Beatles and Bob Dylan both performed there during the 60s.)