Turner Classic Movies went through quite a year since the Festival held in Hollywood in the spring of 2023. In the midst of all the cost cutting going on at offices of Warner Brothers Discovery, the parent company of the beloved cable channel, there were rumors that TCM may have been on the chopping block as well. This was thought to be the case when a massive round of layoffs were passed down in the TCM offices. It lead many to speculate that the channel itself was on it’s way towards shutting it’s doors completely, or perhaps be merged into another channel under the WBD umbrella. This worried many fans of the network, and it lead to an unprecedented intervention on the part of high profile figures like Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson personally imploring Warner Brothers CEO David Zaslev to spare TCM. With TCM shedding so much of it’s staff, there was also the worry that some of the collateral of that shake-up could include the end of one of TCM’s greatest yearly traditions; it’s annual Film Festival in the heart of Hollywood. Thankfully, the worries of an end to TCM and it’s Film Festival were relieved when it was announced that the network was going to live on, as well as the Festival. And it’s a great thing that both survived into the next year too, because 2024 happens to be a landmark celebration for both TCM and the Film Festival. This year marks 30 years since TCM first hit the airwaves in 1994 and for the Festival, this is it’s 15th year (though not the 15th edition, since 2 years were cancelled due to Covid). For many classic movie fans who come to Hollywood every year from all over the country (as well as the local ones like myself) this is an especially welcome thing to see happen given how close we all thought it might be coming to an end. I of course have my Festival coverage below, broken up by each day I attended, and I will give you my movie by movie breakdown of this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival, including all the special guests I saw, the experiences of seeing these classics on a big screen, and just my general overall thoughts about the vibe of the Festival. So, let’s get started.
THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2024
Like with the last couple of years, I have had to work my day job during the festivals first two days. This limits me being available only to see the evening and nighttime showings at the fest. Thankfully, the Festival doesn’t actually begin until 6:00pm on Opening Night. So, right as I got off work, I made my way cross town quickly to get to the Hollywood and Highland complex, now called Ovation Hollywood. Here is the home of all the main venues of the Festival; the legendary TCL Chinese Theater as well as the Chinese Multiplex. Thankfully, this year’s Festival marks the triumphant return of another iconic venue to the Festival that has been missing the last couple years; Grauman’s Egyptian Theater. The Egyptian had been closed since 2019 in preparation for a massive remodel to the century old structure, and it’s construction had been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Finally, the theater re-opened last November and it has now been returned to the stable of venues for the TCM Fest. The American Legion Hollywood Post, which had filled the vacancy these last couple years was retired as a venue this year, with no word on if it may be brought back in future Festivals. The Legion is a fine and beautiful theater and it’ll be missed this year to be sure, though I feel a lot of Festival patrons are happy this year that they don’t have to make the half mile trek up the hill any more to get there, with the Egyptian being refreshingly closer. And like year’s past, the Egyptian is also bringing back one of the Festival’s most unique attractions; screenings of ultra-rare Nitrate prints. For this first night, My focus was on some of the smaller screenings in the multiplex.
The first film I chose to start my Festival experience with was a bit of last minute choice. Basically, I needed to pick a movie that started at a time late enough for me to get to from work on time, but not too late to make it harder to fit in another movie after it. So, what I ended up choosing was the Rock Hudson and Doris Day romantic comedy Send Me No Flowers (1964). Thankfully, it worked out on my schedule and I was able to find a seat for this film fairly easily, given that it was playing in one of the Chinese multiplex theaters. The film was introduced by TCM personality Alicia Malone, who gave us some context for the film we were about to watch. This was the third and last collaboration between Hudson and Day, and it was also an early film for one of the rising star filmmakers who would help define the next generation of cinema in the decades ahead; the late Norman Jewison. To conclude her introduction, Malone called on four members of the audience to share any trivia about Doris Day that they’d like to share. One of the four just so happened to be in the middle of writing a book about Ms. Day and he shared his own personal experience about meeting her for an interview. Each person called up was given a TCM Festival pin as a prize, and after that it was ready to get the Festival rolling with the first movie of the night. This was the first movie of this year’s festival that would be a first time viewing for me. I can tell you it’s not my type of movie, but it was interesting to see this very specific era of film in the way it was intended to be seen on the big screen. It’s also neat to see the versatility of Norman Jewison on display, especially comparing this to his later work like In the Heat of the Night (1967) and Fiddler on the Roof (1971). So, a low key but nevertheless successful start to this year’s festival.
While my first movie was playing, the Festival was having it’s official opening night kickoff in the iconic Chinese Theater. Those opening night shows in the Chinese are limited to just the highest level pass holders, and even among them it’s a hot ticket event. Being someone who solely goes through the standby lines, I of course go in knowing those shows will be closed off to me. I can, however, take a look at the pre-show red carpet for that screening, albeit from the opposite sidewalk across Hollywood Boulevard. I didn’t see much in the way of famous faces, though I did find it interesting that this year they included a spectator bench to the Chinese Theater courtyard for a select number of fans to watch the celebrities as they arrive; ala what they do in a similar way at the Oscars. For this year, the big event is the 30th anniversary screening of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994), with John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, and Harvey Keitel as the special guests. But, I needed to quickly make my way to the next and final show of my night. This one was going to be tricky, because it was playing in the smallest of theaters at this festival; Chinese Multiplex Auditorium #4. Capacity in this venue is only 150 seats, so a standby ticket is hard to come by. Remarkably, I was able to get one of the very few available. Once inside, I could see that the room was nearly full, and I grabbed the closest single seat I could find. The pre-show discussion was already started, which for this movie included a sit down interview between TCM host Jacqueline Stewart and character actor Stephen Tobolowsky. Tobolowsky was there to talk about the movie we were about to watch, the Oscar winning Grand Hotel (1932), and more specifically about it’s star, Greta Garbo. As a self-professed Garbo fan, he talked at length about what the movie meant as part of her legendary career, including giving her the most famous quote of her movie career, “I want to be alone.” One of the other perks of getting a covet seat in Theater #4 is that it is one of only two venues playing film prints at this festival, the other being the Egyptian. It was a first time viewing for me, and though the print was very scratched up, I am grateful that I saw it with fresh eyes the way it was meant to be seen, on celluloid. This was a great way to start off this year’s fest and there are still three more to look ahead to.
FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2024
After another work day, I planned to spend the following evening trying to catch at least another two movies. Instead of heading straight to the venues from work, I decided to focus on the late night showings on my second festival day. Unfortunately, I missed out on a lot of great movies on this Friday, including a screening of 101 Dalmatians (1961) at the El Capitan Theater across from the Chinese (the only use of that venue for this festival), a screening of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) at the Chinese with Jodie Foster as the special guest, and another Chinese Theater screening of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) with Steven Spielberg as the special guest. A lot of sadly missed opportunities that I had to skip because of work, but this Friday night still offered some important screenings that I was eager to attend. Chief among them was a 9:45pm screening of the horror thriller Se7en (1995), with director David Fincher as the special guest. I made sure I got myself in line early for this one, because even though it’s a late night show, a big ticket attraction like this one still could turn into a sold out show. Thankfully, being prepared worked out and my placement in line was early enough to get a standby ticket for the show. What I found interesting was that the Chinese Theater’s IMAX screen was fully opened up without masking, meaning we were going to get this film shown in an IMAX format. I didn’t even know that there was an IMAX version of Se7en, but apparently there is. Though there was a good amount of people in the theater, it turned out not to be a sell-out, and I was able to get a good seat not too close to the massive screen (the largest in North America according to the festival’s fact sheet).
There was a little hope in me that we would get a surprise special guest from the movie to join David Fincher on stage, similar to how George Clooney joined director Steven Soderbergh in the last minute at the screening of Ocean’s Eleven (2001) at last year’s festival. Actor Morgan Freeman was scheduled to be at the Festival for the Saturday afternoon screening of The Shawshank Redemption (1994), so I thought there might be a chance he’s show up to this one too, but alas it was not the case. Still, our screening still had David Fincher who was definitely worthy of the wait in line to see this night. He talked about how this movie helped to save his directing career after the disaster that was his debut with Aliens 3 (1992). He also talked about the difficulty of convincing the studio to keep the identity of the actor playing the villainous John Doe a secret in the marketing, so that it would be a surprise when it’s revealed to be Kevin Spacey. It was an interesting interview, conducted by Noir Alley host Eddie Mueller, and helped to give us some interesting insight into the movie we were about to watch. In IMAX format, I can definitely say that Se7en looked pretty incredible. Even after nearly 30 years, the movie look pristine and the IMAX presentation really made the film feel even more engrossing, which could be very spine-tingling given the subject matter of the film. Unfortunately, because the movie started so late into the night, I had to make a tough choice; do I stay and watch the whole movie and have it be my one and only movie for the day, or do I duck out early to catch the midnight screening happening in the multiplex? It was not easy, but I wanted to get another movie in before I left for the night, so I chose to leave with ten minutes left in the movie. Unfortunately, those are the most famous ten minutes of the movie Se7en, the “what’s in the box?” scene, which turns the film into a tragic masterpiece. But, I’ve seen the movie before so I knew what I was going to miss and was fine with my choice.
So, leaving the main show behind, I made my way quickly to the Chinese Multiplex Auditorium #6, which was hosting the midnight show for this evening. The movie selected was a pre-Code era sensationalist film called The Road to Ruin (1934). This was one of those cautionary tale movies to teach audiences about the evils of a debaucherous lifestyle, while at the same time indulging in it for the shock value on screen. The movie was introduced by Quatoyiah Murry, an author for the TCM Underground and a former channel manager for TCM’s YouTube page. She gave an interesting rundown about the movie’s history, and how it skirted the restrictions of the Hays Code by positioning itself as “educational.” Thus far, I have to say since I started attending the midnight showings at the TCM Film Fest in these post-pandemic years I’ve had the most interesting mix off films. In 2022, I watched an 80’s apocalyptic thriller and last year I saw a Mexican sexploitation super hero movie. This pre-Code film era film is another interesting choice for a midnight show, and it is a fascinating relic of it’s time. I was shocked to see a movie, made just shortly after sound became mainstream in Hollywood, that had a scene where a woman is shown topless. That kind of moment in a film of that era is shocking to see, knowing how much the Hays code cracked down on anything deemed remotely sexual in any way. It really gives you a sense of just how much the art of film was allowed to go in it’s early days before things changed and censorship became the norm. The movie itself kind of reminded me of Reefer Madness (1936), with the way it exploits it’s subject for shock value, while also lecturing the audience with it’s heavy handed morals. And with that, a second day is finished. The next two will be where the bulk of my Festival experience will take place as I have the weekends off from work.
SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2024
Day 3 is typically where my TCM Film Festival experience really ramps up, and this year was no exception. I began the morning later in the day after sleeping in because of the midnight show from the night before. One of my goals this year was to attend one of the few screenings using a nitrate print. These rare and fragile film prints made on the highly flammable film stock are always an interesting thing to see screened, and I’m very happy they have returned this year, along with the theater that hosts them; the Egyptian. This isn’t my first time back in the Egyptian Theater. I paid a visit back when it first re-opened in November 2023 and saw a screening of Bradley Cooper’s Maestro (2023) there. Suffice to say, the remodel is spectacular and the Egyptian finally looks the way it should with it’s interiors finally restored to their original ornate glory. The seating has been greatly improved as well, with more space and cushioning. Eye levels are also much better, and the theater’s acoustic levels are amazing. This year’s festival only has their Nitrate screenings on Saturday in the Egyptian, so I had to choose the later to fit in my schedule. The nitrate movie I ended up seeing was the 1950 musical, Annie Get Your Gun, starring Betty Hutton and Howard Keel. Before the movie started, host Eddie Mueller brought up the manager of the theater to speak about the safety precautions we needed to know before the start of the screening. Essentially she reassured us that the film was in the hands of trained professionals, but in the case of a fire breaking out, she pointed to the nearest exits. It was good to know that they were adamant about letting us know the risks involved in screening these rare, volatile prints. The screening itself was interesting, given the condition of the print. It’s definitely an old copy, likely from it’s first run in theaters, and it’s got all the scratches and stains to show for it. In some ways, this improved upon the experience because you are in a way going back in time watching a movie this way.
With the first show of the day complete, and one of my must sees scratched of the list, it was time to head over to the Chinese for my second show. This one would be a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959), a movie that I’ve seen a dozen times, but never on the big screen before, so it was something I was looking forward to. The problem at the same time is that many other people also had the same goal. When I got in the standby line, there were already 50 other people in front of me. There was a chance that this would be my first sold out show of the festival. Thankfully, I was able to get in, but it took quite a while to funnel us standby ticket holders inside the Chinese Theater, because there were so many pass holders getting in there first. I found my seat pretty close to screen and off to the side. The auditorium was close to the fullest that I have ever seen, which is pretty remarkable for the 912 seat venue. Given the lengthy amount of time it took us to get in, the pre-show discussion was already in full swing. TCM host Alicia Malone was present and her guest was writer/director Nancy Myers. She was there to mainly talk about the film’s star Cary Grant. While I missed most of her interview, I was able to catch perhaps the highlight at the end. Myers talked about her early days as a writers assistant, and one of her jobs was working with legendary film critic Gene Siskel. Siskel just so happened to be granted a sit down interview with Cary Grant and somehow Nancy Myers got roped in to assist, and she recounted how she was able to spend a whole weekend in the company of Cary during the whole interview process. That’s quite a story to hear, and I’m glad that I was able to catch at least this part. Of course, seeing North by Northwest on the giant Chinese Theater screen was worth it too, and it’s definitely the kind of movie that was made for this kind of venue.
From there, I had my eye on one of the more unique programs at this festival, which was a special presentation called Back from the Ink: Restored Animated Shorts. Apparently the UCLA Film Archive and The Film Foundation have collaborated on restoring old animated shorts from the 30’s and 40’s that had deteriorated into poor condition and this festival was going to premiere the results of their efforts. Most of the shorts were from the now defunct Fleischer Animation studios and were languishing in the public domain, so quite a few of these have been largely forgotten and unseen by audiences. This special program was going to be hosted by animation historian Ben Model and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. It was something that I was looking forward to seeing, but alas, this became my first sell out of the Festival. Probably should have seen it coming given the near sell out that I experienced at the Chinese. This was in the smaller Multiplex screens, so it makes sense that high demand among pass holders made this a hard to get into program. So, I went with my back up showing, which was in the same multiplex. It was a screening of Ernest Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner (1940) which I chose as a back up because it was yet another movie I hadn’t seen yet. No special guests, other than an intro by Eddie Mueller. For the final film of the night, I chose to see Federico Fellini’s La Strada (1954), mainly because it was the next earliest screening available. The screening was the easiest to get into, as the 300 seat Auditorium #1 only got half full. Thankfully, we had a special guest for this screening; British film director Mike Newell. Newell is famous for movies as varied Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) which had anniversary screening at the Festival, as well as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2004). He had an interesting talk about Fellini, as well as noting that his wife once acted in one of Fellini’s films, which is where he managed to encounter him. While the movie played, we unfortunately had a mishap as the fire alarm started blaring. The movie was paused and everyone had to evacuate. Thankfully, it was a false alarm but it made for a odd finale to my third night of the Festival
SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 2024
So, here’s the conundrum that I found myself in on my final day of the Festival. My favorite movie of all time, Lawrence of Arabia (1962) was being screened in the morning, inside the magnificent Egyptian Theater with a pristine 70mm print. How could I pass up an opportunity like that. Well, I did. It was very tempting to see Lawrence in the best imaginable presentation, but given the movie’s 3 hour an 40 minute run time, it would’ve left me with very few other options for the rest of the day, and I wanted to spend that day watching as many movies as I could. So, I chose to use the same amount of time watching two other films that I hadn’t seen before. My first show of the day was a 9:00 am screening of the movie National Velvet (1944) starring Mickey Rooney and a then 12 year old Elizabeth Taylor. The special guest for this screening was Ms. Taylor’s personal assistant during her last several years, Tim Mendelson. It was interesting to hear him talk about being in the legendary actress’ inner circle towards the end of her life. One of his main duties was to help her with the management of her perfume line, White Diamonds, which he generously brought free samples of for the whole audience. Of the never seen before movies that I saw at this year’s festival, this may have been the best discovery. I found it to be an especially charming little film with incredibly beautiful Technicolor cinematography. It was also crazy not just to see Elizabeth Taylor so young, but also her co-star, the late Angela Lansbury, who was a teen when she made this. My second movie of the day was in the Chinese Theater. It was a 70th anniversary screening of Billy Wilder’s Sabrina (1954). The special guest of this screening was not anyone associated with the movie, but more so a famous fan. Actor Kin Shiner of General Hospital fame was there to introduce the movie, and mainly to talk about actress Audrey Hepburn, whom he had gotten to meet on several different occasions during his career. Again, it was great to have my first experience with this movie on a screen as big as the Chinese, and while it isn’t exactly top tier Billy Wilder like Double Indemnity (1944) or Sunset Boulevard (1950), it was still a fresh and funny little romantic comedy.
The next movie that I had planned for the day was a 70mm screening of John Ford’s The Searchers (1956) at the Egyptian. My hope was to get in one more screening at the festival inside the returned venue, and to also get the opportunity to see this classic in pristine 70mm. Unfortunately, this was another extremely popular event at this year’s festival. The pass holder line pretty much filled up the entire Egyptian courtyard, which has also been beautifully restored. My place in the standby line was number 69, so it was going to be a miracle if I got in. Not only did a miracle not happen, but not a single person in standby made it into the screening. I believe even a few pass holders were even turned away. So, my number of sell outs numbered 2 this year. But, there was one more goal that I had yet to complete, and this was perhaps priority number one for the entire Festival itself for me. The closing night show in the Chinese Theater was going to be a screening of Spaceballs (1987), and director Mel Brooks was going to be attending. I knew this was going to be a big deal showing, given that Mel is now 97 years old and you don’t really know if he’ll ever come to one of these Festival screenings ever again. I could fit another movie in between as a back up for my sell out at The Searchers, which might have likely been the current screening of Chinatown (1974), also in the Chinese Theater. But, seeing that would mean getting into the standby line for Spaceballs too late. So, I decided to cut my total number of movies short at 11 total instead of 12, and I took my place in line a full 3 hours before showtime. There were already two other people there before me with the same idea. We ended up killing our time in line by talking movies, so thankfully I wasn’t standing there bored. That’s one of the great things about the TCM Festival is that it’s easy to find strangers in line with the same passionate love for movies as I do, making small talk easy to participate in before the movie starts. Despite what looked like an impossibly long line of pass holders giving us the impression that we might be in for another sell out, they did thankfully let in standby guests, and my lucky number 3 paid off.
The theater looked as full as the North by Northwest screening the day before, and there were plenty of people seated close to the front, likely in anticipation of seeing Mel up close. I was seated a few rows back, with a good enough view of both the stage and the screen. Before the start of the interview, TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, who I realized was absent from every one of my screenings at this festival until this one, came up to the podium and gave shout outs to all of the behind the scenes staff who put the festival on this year. Of course, the moment of the evening was here and Ben brought out Mel Brooks to thunderous applause from the 900 strong in the Chinese Theater audience. Mel, for someone of his advanced age, still looked fantastic and in great spirits. And most importantly, he still has the power to make us all laugh. During the interview, he mentioned how he got his first role by having a great impression of a cat, which he hilariously demonstrated. The he said he also does a great Hitler too, to which he pulled a comb from his pocket and held it up to his nose making it look like the dictator’s distinct mustache. The interview was a blast to listen to, especially with all of Mel’s hilarious tangents. I especially liked his summation of the Star Wars movies, saying it’s got a lot of “zaps.” I’m sure the interview could have gone on for as long as both Ben and Mel wanted, and Ben seemed almost emotional as he thanked Mel for being there, but they had to end the interview so they could start up the movie and bring the Festival to a close. It was my third time seeing Mel Brooks at the TCM Film Festival, the other times being for screenings of The Twelve Chairs (1970) and High Anxiety (1977). I’m grateful for every time I get to see one of my heroes like Mel Brooks live in person, and I feel that this one will be especially monumental, because it could very well be the last time. The movie of course was great, and though I’ve already seen it many times before, this was a first on a big screen. It’s also always great to end the TCM Film Festival on a comedy, because of that high of laughing together with a crowd of other film lovers in an amazing cinematic venue like the Chinese Theater.
So, there you have my chronicle of my experience at the 2024 TCM Classic Film Festival. Though I was disappointed that I missed my record goal of 12 movies in total, I still got up to 11 movies overall, and even better, I got into my top priority events as well. I was especially happy to be back at the Egyptian this year. The Egyptian was very much missed over the last couple Festivals. While it’s too bad that a great venue like the Legion Theater was left out to make way for it’s return, I don’t feel like the shuffling up of locations deterred the overall experience. I also managed to catch at least one movie in each of the venues at this year’s festival, including the elusive Auditorium #4 at the multiplex. I was also able to see some great special guests at the Festival this year, with Mel Brooks and David Fincher being the highlights. One thing that I still wish was available are the program books. Those always made great souvenirs from each festival. Sadly, all they give out now are fold-up schedules that don’t tell you anything about the movies. Instead, you have to look up the details on the app. Even still, there is little to complain about with this festival and I commend TCM on their organization and flawless presentation. It’s just such a great experience spending four days out there in the heart of Hollywood mingling with other die hard cinephiles and sharing our love of cinema. It’s also a great way to make new discoveries with movies that are new to me at each festival, helping to keep my love for classic cinema burning brightly. I hope the big wigs at Warner Brothers Discovery are taking note and seeing the value of the TCM brand and how beloved this Festival is to so many. I will definitely be looking forward to next years Festival, and I feel confident that the TCM Classic Film Festival will remain an essential part of Hollywood’s annual festivities.
