We have been getting details of this year’s Turner Classic Movies Film Festival (TCMFF) for quite some time now but we all waited with bated breath for the full schedule to drop. Until that time, when the challenging task of selecting begins, we are not satisfied. That event happened on Thursday, March 28, and it is a doozy.
This year’s TCMFF feels special from where I sit in New Jersey. For one, it is the festival’s 15th incarnation. For another, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), the reason for it all, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, on April 14 to be exact. Given those two significant milestones, I expected a festival replete with largeness and TCM has not disappointed.
The theme of this year’s festival, which is set for April 18 – 21, is Most Wanted: Crime and Justice in Film is loaded with possibilities. Imagine all those delicious dirty scoundrels and the saucy dames that ended up in courtroom dramas in movies of all genres. I will be there is all I can say because I am bound to find something that stirs my imagination along with all the usual suspects.
Special guests? There are plenty and big names abound: John Travolta will be on hand on opening night to introduce the 30th anniversary presentation of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994). Jodi Foster will be honored with a hand and footprint ceremony at the Chinese Theatre. She will also introduce The Silence of the Lambs (1991) for which she won the Best Actress Oscar. Steven Spielberg will introduce a director’s cut of his Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Diane Lane will introduce George Roy Hill’s A Little Romance (1979), her feature debut at age 14. The screening of The Shawshank Redemption (1994) will have stars Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins in attendance. Nancy Meyers is introducing a world premiere restoration of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959), and David Fincher is introducing his 1995 thriller Se7en. There is much more I will mention below and, of course, more big names can be found in the TCMFF website, but the closing night screening of Spaceballs (1987) with legend Mel Brooks in attendance cannot be ignored. I cannot wait to be there. Or will I be there?
Keeping all those big names in mind in addition to tributes to Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, both celebrating centennials this year, there are a lot of tough choices, choices more difficult for me than in previous years. I try to balance my schedule with a combination of new-to-me, never seen on a big screen, restorations, discussions, favorites, and sometimes venue. Here is my plan…
Thursday, April 18
Tough choices begin right at the first time slot of this year’s festival. It is likely that James Cagney’s unforgettable performance in Raoul Walsh’s White Heat (1949) kicks off the festival for me. This would be the first time I see this on a big screen, and it is being presented in a new 35MM print from the Academy Film Archive at the newly renovated Egyptian Theatre. That is exciting, but I hesitate because if I do not attend the Poolside screening of Jonathan Lynn’s Clue (1985) then I will not make it poolside at all this year. Plus, Lesley Ann Warren will be in attendance. I am still leaning toward Cagney but may well make a last-minute switch toward the pool.
Assuming I go to the White Heat screening I’ll stay at the Egyptian for the world premiere restoration of the new-to-me Gambit (1966), directed by Ronald Neame and starring Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine.
Friday, April 19
I seriously considered trying to get a media pass to cover Jodie Foster’s hand and footprint ceremony this year, but I really have a tough time missing screenings. I will have to be satisfied by other people’s coverage and the pictures I will be able to access later. I am beginning my day with the new-to-me The Good Fairy directed by William Wyler starring Margaret Sullavan and Herbert Marshall. The director’s son, David Wyler will introduce the picture.
Although I am satisfied with my choice here, The Good Fairy is screening opposite tough competition including the That’s Vitaphone! presentation in House 6, a 70th anniversary screening of Edward Dmytryk’s The Caine Mutiny (1954) with Kate MacMurray in attendance. Kate is the daughter of Fred MacMurray and June Haver. Also scheduled in that time slot is Disney’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) introduced by Mario Cantone and animation legend Floyd Norman at the gorgeous El Capitan Theatre. Just writing that last choice gave me chills but if I attend that screening, I will miss the next one on my list.
I am following Wyler with Wyler on this day, staying at the Egyptian for a 35MM screening of Bette Davis in The Little Foxes (1941). That will be introduced by the supremely entertaining Mario Cantone. This means though that I will miss the brilliance of Craig Barron and Ben Burtt and Gordon Douglas’ Them! (1954). Tough slot!
For the first time in the thirteen or so years I have been attending TCMFF, I have a complete toss-up timeslot. This will depend on the day. We have The Silence of the Lambs with Jodie Foster in attendance, a Conversation with Billy Dee Williams at Club TCM (leaning here), Jack Lemmon’s film debut and the glorious Judy Holliday in George Cukor’s It Should Happen to You (1954), and a Leonard Maltin introduction coupled with a Ben Model accompaniment for the silent presentations of Dad’s Choice (1928) and Paths to Paradise (1925). I do not know what my choice will be, but after that painful conundrum I will head to the Chinese Theatre for the director’s cut of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). In attendance at that screening will be the film’s director Steven Spielberg and Howard Suber whose impressive resume includes hosting and writing The Power of Film, the fantastic six-part series recently featured on TCM.
I will finish my Friday with the IMAX screening of the world restoration of David Fincher’s Se7en (1995) with the director in attendance at the Chinese Theatre. This one has made me a bit nervous. Although I loved Se7en when it was released, it is a disturbing movie. It is also quite a few years younger than my usual TCMFF choice. But it is so good, the venue so perfect, and the crowd so enthusiastic that I cannot resist.
Saturday, April 20
I am going straight to the Egyptian Theatre for two nitrate prints on Saturday morning. First up is the new-to-me film noir, Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948) directed by John Farrow and introduced by scholar/author/host/charter director of the Film Noir Foundation, Alan Rode. Although less a definitive choice, I plan on the nitrate screening of George Sidney’s Annie Get Your Gun (1950) next. That one is screening opposite Fritz Lang’s unforgettable, The Big Heat (1953) with Dana Delany introducing. As a classics fan, Delany’s introductions are impassioned, and I hate to miss this. This is a tough choice, but I am leaning toward the nitrate musical.
Now I get to the toughest conflict for me. Nancy Meyers introducing the premiere restoration of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959) at the Chinese Theatre is a standout choice. However, the movie I was most excited about when it was mentioned earlier in the TCMFF planning was Leigh Jason’s The Mad Miss Manton (1938) a new-to-me picture in 35MM and featuring two of my favorite actors, Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. I am leaning toward the latter mainly because I have already seen North by Northwest on a big screen. But oh, Cary Grant. Torture!
Come to think of it, the next slot is no easier than the last. The exciting big-ticket choice is the 30th anniversary screening of Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption (1994) with the film’s stars in attendance. Then you have historian Jeanine Basinger who is receiving this year’s Robert Osborne Award, introducing William Wellman’s new-to-me Westward the Women (1951) alongside Alexander Payne. This picture sounds interesting. However, I cannot seem to take my eyes off the quieter, insignificant to most, double entries scheduled at this time in tiny House 4. The first is the nutty pre-code International House (1933) directed by A. Edward Sutherland, introduced by Bruce Goldstein, and starring comedy geniuses. After that one of my all-time favorite musicals, Summer Stock (1950). How can I not get happy?! Wonderful stars in Gene Kelly and Judy Garland, an enjoyable supporting cast, and iconic numbers presented in 35MM. Charles Walters directed it, I have never seen this on a big screen, and I do not think I can miss it. Why is it in House 4?
Although making a midnight screening is difficult for me, I am beyond excited to see Millie De Chirico introduce Saturday’s night offering, Lawrence Dane’s Heavenly Bodies (1984). De Chirico is missed as presenter and curator of the weekly late-night cult film series TCM Underground. I expect she will be warmly greeted at this festival, and we really should show support by making this midnight screening a standing room only event.
Sunday, April 21
As always, Sundays are a bit of a mystery for festivalgoers as the TBA slots are not filled in until news is delivered of what may have sold out earlier. That said, unless I am closed-out of something, I think I will make my planned screenings for the day.
I will kick off the final day of TCMFF with the restoration of Edward L. Cahn’s Law and Order (1932) in House 6. I have never seen this and love Walter Huston who stars alongside Harry Carey, Andy Devine, Russell Hopton, with Walter Brennan in an uncredited role. This is a script by John Huston considered the best screen version of the Wyatt Earp tale and, I believe, the first movie to depict the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.
My initial intent was to go to another pre-code next with Phil Goldstone’s The Sin of Nora Moran (1933) with former child star Cora Sue Collins slated to introduce. Cora Sue will celebrate her 97th birthday during this year’s festival. As Laura of Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings pointed out on Twitter this week, we will not get many more chances to see actors that appeared in movies this old. That said, at this writing I am leaning toward the Club TCM presentation, It Had to be Gus…and Groucho, Too! The Life and Songs of Legendary Lyricist Gus Kahn in this time slot. For one, this will ensure I make at least one Club TCM presentation if I decide against the Billy Dee Williams Conversation the previous day. Secondly, I love Gus Kahn’s music. Thirdly, Andy Marx, grandson of Gus Kahn and Groucho Marx, who will present this tribute, is likely to have fantastic stories to tell.
The Club TCM event will also set me up nicely for what I believe will be one of this year’s most popular screenings, a world premiere restoration of John Ford’s The Searchers (1956) in 70MM. I am really looking forward to this screening introduced by writer/director Alexander Payne.
For the festival’s final time slot, TCM has scheduled a slate of films that are sure to please cinephiles of every age and persuasion. You have John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle (1950), which is among the best cast films noir ever made and that is according to Eddie Muller. Vincente Minnelli’s An American in Paris (1951), a best picture winner that must be stunning on a big screen. Then you have the legendary Mel Brooks with Ben Mankiewicz at the Chinese Theatre presenting the official closing night offering, Brooks’ own Spaceballs (1987). That is a spectacular event by anybody’s estimation. However, as much as I adore Mel Brooks and I adore Mel Brooks, I am not sure I can miss looking back one hundred years to celebrate with Buster Keaton in Sherlock, Jr. (1924) with live accompaniment by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.
Those are my choices, and I am sticking to them…until I run into someone else excited about something I did not think of. One other thing may affect my proposed scheduled, something that occurred to me when I saw the news of Louis Gossett, Jr.’s death – I should not pass up opportunities to see legends up close when they present themselves. As I think about that in the days to come, my planned schedule may look quite different once I am in Hollywood. Hope to see you there.
This year, as in previous years, I will be attending the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival as a member of the media. Follow me on social media wherever @CitizenScreen is found for spontaneous updates and news.
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Once upon a screen... 
Although I have not made my plan yet, this all sounds awesome, Aurora.
Hard to tell until we get there. 🙂
Enjoy yourself Aurora! I hope to see you in August at Capitolfest.
Thanks, Caren! Me too