THEY were an essential element of the golden age of Hollywood, an important part of what kept audiences flocking to the cinemas.

These days, so-called B-movies – originally the less important, lower budget film shown as part of a double bill – have been given a bad name, often regarded as something to ridicule.

But Cromarty Film Festival in the Black Isle is aiming to change that with its couthy and kooky strand bringing previously forgotten 1930s, 40s and 50s Hollywood B-movies set in Scotland back to the big screen to be appreciated by a whole new audience.

The festival – which runs from November 30 to December 2 – will see a young Katherine Hepburn starring as a Highland villager who scandalously seduces the local minister in The Little Minister from 1934, and 1939 film The Spy in Black, which sees a First World War German submarine arrive in the Orkney Islands.

Though Hepburn went on to become one of Hollywood’s most loved stars, her role in this B-movie set in rural 1840s Scotland – which is difficult to find in the UK – didn’t bring in the rave reviews and contributed to her early reputation as “box office poison”.

Previous festivals have unearthed and screened the likes of Trouble In The Glen, a little-known comedy starring Orson Welles (and a dodgy accent) as an absentee landlord installing himself as Laird.

Others featured include the Devil Girl From Mars, in which a statuesque, leather-clad female alien lands in a small Scottish village with the aim of taking some strapping male Highlanders back to Mars.

The strand’s Inverness-based curator Lawrence Sutcliffe said the films selected gave insight into how Scotland was presented in Hollywood’s golden age.

Many had been long forgotten but deserved being viewed once more, he claimed. “The Brothers from 1947 [in which two sons from Scottish clans fight over a servant girl on the Isle of Skye in 1900] is on one of the straighter ones but it deserves to be much better known than it is.

“A few years ago I put on both Whisky Galore, which is very well known of course but much lesser known is Rockets Galore!, a 1957 sequel. It’s not without its own charms but what makes it more interesting is the pairing. It’s a colour film set in the same places which is great to see.”

Other themes include Loch Ness, with films such as Incidents at Loch Ness and What a Whopper, which use stock pics of the loch in the backdrop hammy monster scenes.

Yet he claimed that The Little Minister was a worth while rediscovery. “It’s based on JM Barrier’s work and in the 1920s it was very popular – four silent versions of it were made. But none of them left California.

“It was a strange period for Katharine Hepburn because she was just breaking into film – she had been an actress on the stage. Dorothy Parker wrote a review along the lines of ‘she runs the gamut of emotions from A to B’. For a while in the 30s she had the reputation as box office poison.”

He argued that while many of the films depicted a “fantasy” version of Scotland, most were “very warm” in their view of Scotland. “Brigadoon says very kind and generous things about Scotland. It’s underlying message is a very warm one, and that’s something that many films made closer to home have failed to grasp.

“It’s been argued that when Braveheart is stripped back it has some quite anti-Scottish sentiment. It’s not very complementary about Scotland.”

But he insisted that while they had historical merit the main point was to have a bit of fun. “What we hope is that people come along and enjoy these films – people go to them knowing there is an element of tweeness.

“They get to smile at the outlandish interpretations and actors being ‘Scottish’. Some films in other strands of this film festival can be quite challenging. But these are brilliant to watch with a group – when someone starts giggling it very quickly spreads.”