TCM Classic Film Festival (part one)

2015 TCM Classic Film Festival

This time a couple of weeks ago I was attending the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood. Here's
how that went.

Before getting into that, however, I arrived in Los Angeles on a Wednesday evening, a little later than I hoped. After checking into my LA home away from home, the fantastic Petit L'Ermitage, I went out to Runyon Canyon Park for an incredible run. The park is high in the famous Hollywood Hills, just off Mulholland Drive. This huge park contains the Griffith Observatory, which several movies have featured prominently (Rebel Without A Cause comes to mind). The park features an incredible hiking/running trail that traverses some pretty significant elevation. About midway through you gain an incredible panoramic view of the entire city, which I was blessed to enjoy at sunset.

The next day, after working much of the day, I made it to the Festival. For those who remember my posts last year, the Festival features classic movies from the 1930s-70s, though this year they screened several 1980s movies (even the 1993 Apollo 13). The festival takes place primarily at three classic old Hollywood movie palaces: the Grauman's Chinese Theater, the El Capitan Theater, and the Egyptian Theater, as well as the Chinese Theater multiplex. The Festival headquarters is located at the old Roosevelt Hotel, within easy walking distance of each theater. They present a discussion before each movie, usually featuring one of the movie's stars, crew, or someone otherwise associated with the movie. For example, Keith Carradine spoke before The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; his father John Carradine starred in the movie. Often the discussion will take the form of an interview. Ben Mankiewicz, for example, interviewed Sophia Loren before Marriage Italian Style. For me, these presentations represent the true reason to attend the Festival. I sat within about 50 feet of Sophia Loren, and could scarcely believe it. This year I saw many other movie legends in person, intelligently discussing their work before sophisticated yet adoring audiences.

LA from Runyon Canyon Park

The Festival opening event, replete with red carpet, featured a joint Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer appearance preceding The Sound of Music. Sadly, one had to have a premium pass to attend that showing, and the price was so steep it simply didn't make sense to buy it just to attend that one event. I skipped it. I did catch part of the red carpet, from a distance. Though I was looking for Julie Andrews I missed her. I did catch glimpses of Shirley Jones, some guys from Grease, and Peter Fonda. Someone standing next to me said they saw Gretl (or whoever played Gretl), but I missed it.

The aforementioned Sound of Music was for the richey rich crowd in tuxedos and Valentino gowns. The $500 extra cost priced it out of the range of anyone who wasn't "industry" or could write off the expense. Instead, I saw Liberty Valance. This is another great John Ford movie, but underrated. It extols the virtues of civilization and law, set against the romantic Wild West. Introduced by Keith Carradine. His father, John Carradine, who had starred opposite John Wayne many times, including Stagecoach, played Maj. Cassius Starbuckle, a scoundrel and demagogue who opposed James Stewart's hero character at the Territorial Statehood Convention.

Before the next movie I had dinner at a steak place in the complex, and sat by these two guys, brothers as it turns out (Will and "Gron") from San Jose. We exchanged stories of festivals past, what are you seeing this time, etc. They gushed about The Party, a 1968 swinging farce directed by Blake Edwards and starring Peter Sellers. It would be shown the next night poolside at the Roosevelt, but unfortunately that put it against Apollo 13, and there was no missing Apollo 13 this year.

Illeana Douglas

Then it was on to My Man Godfrey, as lovingly introduced by Illeana Douglas. She positively gushed about director Gregory LaCava and read out details of his career. Among her points, you could draw a line from Carole Lombard to the women comic actresses of today. Obviously she loves the classics and well versed. And I must say, I've always loved this little-known movie. The incredible William Powell stars as a to the manor born 1 percenter, mistaken for a Depression-era "forgotten man" and hired as the butler for an absolutely insane Park Avenue family. Hilarity ensues. But with a social conscience. I first saw this movie maybe 30 years ago at the Texas Union Theater when I went to college and it really stuck with me. I loved the opportunity to watch it on a big screen, with a theater full of laughing fans.

The next day, after more work drudgery, I made it back to the festival and initially saw
Woody Allen's Purple Rose of Cairo with Leonard Maltin introducing. This will never be one of my favorite Allen movies, but its still entertaining, and even thought provoking in this celebrity obsessed age. How many of us live "dream lives" or "fantasy lives" where we crave a movie star lifestyle? Would we really want that if we had it? Unfortunately, the festival showed a pretty beat up print, which really detracted from the experience, but the audience still seemed to enjoy it.

Ann-Margret

Later that day, I met up with my friends Donna and Jim, my Festival partners for the rest of the day and Saturday. We saw Ann-Margret introduce the incredible Cincinnati Kid, starring herself and Steve McQueen, along with Edward G. Robinson in a spectacular, out-of-character performance as "the Man" gambler McQueen challenges. Karl Malden also stars as Ann-Margret's unlikely loser husband. Even Cab Calloway shows up...hi de hi de ho! Ann-Margret looked fantastic, though she moved kind of slowly to and from the stage. She talked about her love of motorcycles, all the while in a very soft spoken voice. She related a story of driving up to 120MPH on Mulholland Drive. As I mentioned above, I was up there and its an incredibly winding road in a heavy residential area. So basically she was a damn fool. She stated that she has been married for 48 years, and is now taking care of her husband Roger Smith. of Steve McQueen she had only praises, and when asked to describe him, could only say that he had a real "animalism." Of course, we already knew that. I'd never seen the movie before, and loved it. McQueen brought that real intensity for which he's always been known, and the confrontation with Edward G. Robinson was gripping. Ann-Margret was just sex personified, but still brought real personality to the role as the scheming bad girl.

Capt. James Lovell and Bill Paxton

Then, naturally, for a Houston boy who grew up during the Apollo years, and with Donna's father having been an important Apollo project member, we were gonna see Apollo 13 no matter what. Alex Trebek introduced and interviewed the mission commander, Capt. James Lovell (whom Tom Hanks played in the movie).  This guy, wow. Two Gemini missions, two Apollo missions. Member of the Apollo 8 crew, the first men to go to the moon. An American hero in every possible sense of the word. He related a number of stories about the mission I've heard many times. Then Bill Paxton, who co-starred in the movie, joined them both on stage as a surprise appearance. The movie itself had been remastered and looked absolutely incredible on the big screen. We really enjoyed it tremendously.  

I think I'll break it here and cover the rest of the fest in the next post.