Summer in downtown Bangor – it has never been the same since those River City Cinema people moved in. Just look what they brought with them: Trouble!

Four years ago, when they took over Pickering Square, they did so with aggression, firing off rounds of ammo at audiences in their popular “Noir Beneath the Stars” film series. It’s amazing people walked out alive.

The next year, the society took a lighter turn with “Smiles on a Summer Night,” but don’t be conned. They still left people doubled over, all hurting from laughter and barely able to carry their lawn chairs back to their cars.

Speaking of cars, last year’s festival, “If It’s Friday, It Must Be Bangor,” was all about getting out of Dodge in movies that took us on a road trip around the world (and in one movie, even the human body). Reckless driving onscreen ensued.

And there you have it. In four short years, the society has made downtown Bangor a summer destination with its free film festival, which starts tonight at sundown in Pickering Square and continues each Friday night through Aug. 8. The only exception is Friday, July 4, when the society joins the rest of the Bangor area in looking to the skies for the fireworks over the Penobscot River.

For those who haven’t been to one of the festivals, be prepared for an enthusiastic crowd. A typical night’s attendance ranges anywhere from 400 to 500 people, filling Pickering Square to capacity, with room left only for standing.

The happy buzz of those in attendance, the smell of fresh popcorn, the cars circling the periphery and the state-of-the-art film equipment gifted to the society by the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, have made this community event a showcase for Bangor. It’s a great time.

This year’s theme is the society’s juiciest yet. The series is called “The Perils of Peroxide,” and let’s just lay it on the line. They weren’t shy in unleashing their share of dishwater blonde badness.

Tonight’s film is a case in point as it features that mincing blonde bombshell herself, Mae West, in 1933’s “She Done Him Wrong.” What a movie – and what an outrage it created back in the day with the National Legion of Decency, an organization that successfully pushed for “cleaner” fare after West created her presumed affront to the moral senses.

Based on West’s stage play “Diamond Lil,” “Wrong” features West in her first starring role in a movie. Here, she’s Lady Lou, a saloon singer with a penchant for diamonds, a bump in her grind, and a way of attracting men that has nothing to do with subtlety – and everything to do with subtext.

Her first line in the movie sets the tone for all that’s to follow: “I’m one of the finest women who ever walked the streets.” Another highlight comes when a potential suitor notes that he has heard so much about her. Lou’s response? “Yeah, but you can’t prove it.” And on it goes, with the one-liners rolling with uncanny ease and Lou eventually setting her sites on one Captain Cummings, a missionary played by a young Cary Grant, who proves with this early, charismatic performance that he was destined for stardom.

On July 11, look for Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg’s 1934 film “The Scarlet Empress,” while on July 18, it’s the Billy Wilder thriller “Double Indemnity,” with Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson playing not-so-nice in one of the best examples of film noir in one of our best films, period.

On July 25, it’s all about Maine – at its soapiest, its meanest, its most romantic, its most illegitimate – in Mark Robson’s nine-time Academy Award-nominated “Peyton Place,” which was shot in Camden in 1957 with Lana Turner, Hope Lang and Lee Philips all dealing with the high and lows of small-town life. Mostly, the lows. Beneath the gloss, the film endures because it got to the truth of small-town life – its secrets, its scandals and gossip. Its strong performances didn’t hurt, either, nor did its excellent script, which was written by John Michael Hayes, a summer resident of Grindstone Neck who also happened to be one of Hitchcock’s best scribes.

About Hitchcock. Since no film series called “The Perils of Peroxide” would be complete without a film by that director, who famously had a fetish for the faux blonde, the society offers up one of his best films, “Vertigo,” with Kim Novak, James Stewart and Barbara Bel Geddes on Aug. 1. It’s a movie that features a more discrete Maine angle – it was written by Samuel Taylor, a longtime Maine summer resident (Blue Hill, to be exact), who came through with one of the screen’s most complex, satisfying screenplays.

Finally, on Aug. 8, it’s Jayne Mansfield in “The Girl Can’t Help It.” And when you see the movie, you’ll understand why she can’t help it – in every ridiculously revealing outfit she sports, you have to wonder what industrial-strength threads were used to keep her cinched her into her outfits. Whatever they used, it worked – but only barely.

As the trailer itself states, this is a movie in which “you’ll rock-n-roll yourselves to the happiest time of your life.” That’s a bit of an overstatement, but it is a fun show, particularly given Mansfield’s game performance and also because the movie is laced with musical performances by Little Richard, Eddie Fontaine, Fats Domino, The Platters, Julie London, Eddie Cochran and a host of others.

Once again, audiences are encouraged to bring lawn chairs to each event, as seating in Pickering Square is limited to only a few benches. In case of rain, turn to the Bangor Opera House, which will host the films for free. Information about the series and the society may be found on their Web site, www.rivercitycinema.com.

WeekinRewind.com is the site for Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s blog, video podcasts, iTunes portal and archive of hundreds of movie reviews. Smith’s reviews appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.

New to DVD

Renting a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases.

Across the Universe – C+

American Gangster – B

Balls of Fury – D+

Bee Movie – C

The Brave One – C

The Bucket List – C+

The Carmen Miranda Collection – A-

Charlie Wilson’s War – B+

Cloverfield – B

Definitely, Maybe – B+

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – A

Drillbit Taylor – B-

Gone Baby Gone – B+

The Great Debaters – B+

I Am Legend – B-

I’m Not There – C-

In the Valley of Elah – B+

Jumper – D

Juno – A-

The Kite Runner – B-

Lars and the Real Girl – B+

Lust, Caution – C

Michael Clayton – A-

National Treasure: Book of Secrets – C+

No Country for Old Men – A

The Other Boleyn Girl – B-

Persepolis – A-

The Savages – B+

Semi-Pro – BOMB

The Spiderwick Chronicles – C+

Sweeney Todd – A

10,000 B.C. – D-

There Will Be Blood – A

Vantage Point – C-

Water Horse: Legend of the Deep – B

Witless Protection – D-

Youth Without Youth – C-