Fans of movies from the bygone days should start making plans to come to Memphis in June. Ray Nielsen and the dedicated staff of the Memphis Film Festival have lined up a stellar lineup of guests for the 31st annual Memphis Film Festival. The Memphis Film Festival began as a celebration of Western Films. While the Western roots remain, the festival has expanded to include films from all genres. If you have a thing for Damsels in Distress, this year’s festival should satisfy your sweet tooth. Several famous scream queens are scheduled to take part in this year’s celebration.

Julie Adams may be best known as the Creature From the Black Lagoon’s object of lust. “Creature From the Black Lagoon” was her only genre film. Ms. Adams was a leading lady in a number of fine dramas. Despite that fact, Ms. Adams will always be remembered as the bikini babe being chased by the Gill Man. This year is the 50th anniversary of the classic monster movie.

Both Western and Horror movie fans will be happy to meet and talk with sexy Sally Fraser. Ms. Fraser appeared in a number of fun B-horror movies in the 1950s. She was menaced by giants, aliens, insects and wild-west badguys. Her film credits include “Earth vs. the Spider,” “War of the Colossal Beast,” “It Conquered the World,” “Wyatt Earp” and “The Gene Autry Show.” “Superman” fans will get the chance to meet the original TV Lois Lane. Noel Neill is also among the scheduled guests. The list goes on.

I spoke with Ray Nielsen about this year's festival. Ray wanted you to know about the Charlie Chan theme of this year's festivel. "Oh yeah, there is going to be a fair amount of emphasis on detective films this year, particularly Charlie Chan films. There's a website called www.charliechan.net that has a few hundred faithful members. They've been wanting to organize a Chan festival for years but have never been able to get one together. A small number of them are going to latch on to us this year, hoping to make us a springboard for their own event later on. We'll be showing some Chan films, having special panels (including one with an author who's written a couple of Chan books), etc. Two of our guests worked in one Chan film each. Rita Quigley was in the last Sidney Toler Chan, "The Trap" and Noel Neill of Superman fame was in the last Chan film in the series (with Roland Winters) called "Sky Dragon". John Calvert starred as "The Falcon" in three detective films in the late '40s. He had been preceeded by George Sanders and Tom Conway in the role. Richard Dix, whose son Robert is attending, was "The Whistler". Calvert had a supporting role in one of those, "Mark of the Whistler". Nancy Saunders was in one "Crime Doctor" film with Warner Baxter, and she also worked with Gerald Mohr in "The Lone Wolf in London." Myrna Dell was in three or four earlier "Falcon" films with Tom Conway, and played opposite Calvert in the "Falcon" film, "Search for Danger." We'll also be doing a re-creation of a "Falcon" radio show with Calvert doing the lead. He did not play the part on radio originally, but since he did it on film it makes sense to have him do it fo us.

The Film Festival will feature 125 films, TV shows and complete serials showing continuously for the run to the show. There will be panel discussions and a live radio show reenactment by the stars. The festival also features a large dealer room where you can quench your memorabilia Jones. Check out the Memphis Film Festival website for registration information, directions and further information on fun side trips while in Memphis. If you make it to the Bluff City this June stop and say hello. You’ll find me at the Holiday Inn Select at the 2004 Memphis Film Festival.

Rusty White