Wednesday, November 7, 2018.  7pm.  FREE.   
This Historical Society program will be shown at the Keene Public Library, 30 Winter Street, Keene.

The Historical Society of Cheshire County in partnership with the Keene Public Library will show a film starring Keene High School Graduate turned film star June Vincent.

Dorothy June Smith (1920-2008) moved to Keene when she was eleven years old. Her father was the minister of the First Congregational Church. Popular at Keene High School, an accomplished pianist and member of the Dramatic Club, acting in productions at Northfield Seminary and Oberlin College, she worked as a fashion model in New York City while studying acting, and at this time became June Vincent. After a brief stint on Broadway, she found herself under contract with Universal Pictures, where she began to make B movies, in 1943. She made over two dozen films in her career, working with Loretta Young, Boris Karloff, Humphrey Bogart, Linda Darnell, Judy Canova, and Robert Cummings

In the opinion of many, her best film role was as Catherine Bennett in the cult 1946 film noir, Black Angel, which we will be screening this evening, based on the novel by the crime noir author Cornell Woolrich, and co-starring Dan Duryea, Ava Gardner and Peter Lorre.

This strange film, a reworking of Woolrich’s story, in a way which takes the edge off of Vincent’s ability to show her tough, bare-knuckled side. Nevertheless, Vincent’s morphing from docile housewife to street-smart survivor in Black Angel is remarkable.