This where the classic movie faithful converge. The greatest part of the weekend, for me, is reuniting with like-minded people, who speak the same classic movie “language.” Today I realized that this is my tenth festival, and each year I envy the people experiencing it for the first time. In prior years, I have discussed the unrivaled TCM audiences and the special experience of seeing a film here. One of my favorite stories is from several years ago, when Illeana Douglas was introducing Double Wedding and asked if anyone knew how many movies William Powell and Myrna Loy made together. The answer boomed through the Egyptian Theatre, as the entire audience gleefully shouted “FOURTEEN!!!” This kind of enthusiasm is rare, and found in every theater of the TCM Festival. When you’ve experienced it, its absence is palpable anywhere else you go.
The official festival starts tomorrow, Thursday, but I arrived today to attend the media mixer in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The site of the first Academy Awards in 1929, the Blossom Room serves as the meeting place for panels and discussions during the TCM Classic Film Festival, a venue known as “Club TCM.”
The media mixer was an opportunity to hear from the five TCM hosts–Eddie Muller, Jacqueline Stewart, Alicia Malone, Dave Karger, and Ben Mankiewicz–on what they were most excited about for the festival, and to hear a special announcement that was teased to media last night.
The hosts all expressed an appreciation for the fans and an excitement for being back in person for the first time since 2019. Eddie Muller singled out the Doris Day centennial celebration as something he was looking forward to, and Jacqueline Stewart said she might “faint at the sight of Pam Grier” when she interviews her before the screening of Coffy on Sunday. Pam Grier is a special focus of the festival this year. The special announcement teased to the media was revealed at the end of the mixer–the fourth season of TCM’s podcast, “The Plot Thickens,” will focus on Grier.
Dave Karger is particularly invested in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, because Topher Grace is a family friend and Karger knows how special the movie is to him. Alicia Malone wishes she could see the pre-Codes, but she is going to make it a point to see Queen Bee, because it’s “Joan Crawford at her Joan Crawfordest,” in her words. Ben Mankiewicz said that the adrenaline rush of the festival immediately came back to him, a sentiment that many of us feel at this moment.
As with previous festivals, I will be enabling livetweets on the blog so that you may follow along with my activities in real time. Here is a rundown of my plans for the first two days:
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE PART I
THURSDAY:
Trivia with Bruce Goldstein: “So You Think You Know Movies?”
Jewel Robbery (1932)
A Star is Born (1937)
Bruce Goldstein is a mainstay at the TCM Festival, and his trivia show is one of the highlights of the festival for many people. Ruthlessly difficult and loaded with jokes and fun facts, it’s a great deal of fun that I never miss.
TCM did an interesting thing putting Jewel Robbery opposite E.T., the opening night film. On its own, Jewel Robbery would sell out in an instant. Pre-Codes are notorious sellouts at the festival, and Jewel Robbery stars Kay Francis and William Powell, some of the most popular of the stars for festivalgoers. In addition, the intro is by Cari Beauchamp, who gives some of the most popular introductions of the festival. But by scheduling it opposite the opening night movie, the festival organizers essentially increase the value of the film for the high level passholders–the theater will be filled with Classic passes, but only the most diehard Essential and Spotlight passholders will choose to go. It’s an interesting supply and demand issue, tackled TCM-style.
After Jewel Robbery, I will hurry up the hill to the Hollywood Legion Theatre to see A Star is Born. There have now been four iterations of the story (five if you count the inspirational material, What Price, Hollywood?), but the 1937 version holds a special place in my heart. To me, it’s the most tender and gentle. The 1954 version is big and glamorous, perfect for 1950s audiences and for Judy Garland’s enormous talent. But Janet Gaynor and Fredric March have a softness to them, and the early 3-strip Technicolor adds a meditative beauty that doesn’t exist in subsequent versions of the story.
FRIDAY
The Sunshine Boys (1975)
Tootsie (1982)
Queen Bee (1955)
TCM Celebrates Doris Day
The Gay Divorcee (1934)
This is a day where I plan to laugh a great deal. The Sunshine Boys and Tootsie are both films where just about every line is funny–The Sunshine Boys embodies a rapid-fire, vaudevillian style, and Tootsie is intellectual and sharp. I do think Joan Crawford is at her Joan Crawfordest in Queen Bee, and I think it will be particularly fun to watch it with the festival crowd.
TCM Celebrates Doris Day will be a panel discussion in Club TCM featuring several of Doris Day’s personal friends and representatives from the organizations she founded, the Doris Day Animal League and the Doris Day Animal Foundation. It is sure to be a full house. Though Doris Day’s public image was as a wholesome, all-American girl next door, in reality she was a trailblazing woman who led a passionate, vibrant life devoted to improving the wellbeing of animals. She is a particular favorite among many TCM fans, and I’m very much looking forward to this talk.
I was talking to a friend the other day about movies that are simply meant for the big screen. A few years ago when I saw The Umbrellas of Cherbourg at the TCM Festival, I was blown away and moved to tears. Those bright colors, those beautiful faces. It was as though I had been watching a different movie every time I watched The Umbrellas of Cherbourg at home, and I wondered how I could ever see it the same way again. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers on the big screen is a similar experience. There is a reason that audiences were transfixed by them during the Depression. The viewer is transported and taken into their world as they dance. For that reason, The Gay Divorcee is a must-see for me–especially during these difficult times with COVID and war raging, everyone deserves to be taken out of this cruel world and into Fred and Ginger’s. If only for that one moment.
See you tomorrow!
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