A month has passed since the 17th TCM Classic Film Festival, my sixth time attending the annual event in person! As I’ve done in past years, a few weeks after TCMFF ended, here’s my full recap of the fest from my point of view…
Pre-TCMFF
The night before the festival officially began, I attended the live recording of TCM’s The Plot Thickens podcast inside The Blossom Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, which was transformed into Club TCM. Among the movie memorabilia on display this year were a costume from My Fair Lady, an Academy Award for costume design in An American in Paris, and outfits worn by Ann-Margret. But back to the night’s special podcast recording event: Ben Mankiewicz interviewed comedian and actor Patton Oswalt. It was a lively conversation, which you can watch for yourself here (you can even see me in several shots throughout the video, as I was sitting in the front row). Afterward, I went outside for a bit to check out the poolside set-up, where it looked like some final tech checks were being done before the festival got underway the next day.
TCMFF Day 1: Thursday, April 30th
Since I wasn’t able to pick up my TCMFF pass the day before, I did just that first thing in the morning in the lobby of the Roosevelt. As there was some time between then and when the first official event of the festival began, I went back out to Hollywood Boulevard, where just down the street, a special double Walk of Fame ceremony was held for Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci ahead of the release of The Devil Wears Prada 2. I briefly saw the two of them walking down the street, alongside their spouses, John Krasinski and Felicity Blunt, as well as Meryl Streep and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. I did not have a good vantage point of the ceremony itself, so I left the area shortly after my quick glimpse of the stars, though I did hear Matt Damon speaking as I was leaving. It was pretty crazy that all of that was happening on the same day as the opening night of TCMFF, as they got their stars directly across the street from where the red carpet was being set up outside the TCL Chinese Theatre!
I proceeded to go back inside the Roosevelt for the Meet TCM panel at Club TCM. I had considered staying around to check out the special trivia being hosted by Jeopardy’s Ken Jennings, but decided to instead grab a bite to eat before lining up to watch the red carpet. In retrospect, I probably could’ve watched both the trivia and the red carpet, as the turnout for festival attendees was just about the smallest I’ve seen in the years I’ve attended; the only other time I can remember a lower turnout was when we had some inclement weather on the first day of the festival back in 2023. Anyway, while there were plenty of familiar faces walking the red carpet, there also weren’t any huge stars to see, aside from the night’s very special guest, Jane Fonda, whom I was delighted to see for a moment before she entered the theater for the screening of Barefoot in the Park.
After the red carpet, I went back across the street to check out the pre-screening conversation for Grease 2 with cast members Maxwell Caulfield, Lorna Luft, Christopher McDonald, and Adrian Zmed. It was the only chance I had this year to experience a poolside screening, but I only stayed for the first few minutes of the movie itself, as I was finishing a cocktail I got during the little luau before the Q&A. Then I headed down to the Egyptian for my first full screening of the festival: Days of Heaven with Brooke Adams. I actually saw her a few hours earlier on the red carpet alongside her husband, Tony Shalhoub, who was on hand to introduce Modern Times earlier in the evening. Anyway, hearing Adams talk about the making of one of my favorite movies was a pleasant way to wind down the night before entering the first full day of the festival.
TCMFF Day 2: Friday, May 1st
My day started with a 75th anniversary screening of Alice in Wonderland at the El Capitan Theatre, as it’s become my tradition now to go to the classic Disney film screening whenever the festival offers it. It was another amusing conversation hosted by comedian and self-proclaimed Disney fan Mario Cantone, who spoke with animator Andreas Deja. When the screening ended, I made my way over to the Roosevelt, where the lobby was the most crowded I’d ever seen it during the festival, and it was all for the highly anticipated event in Club TCM: a conversation with the one and only Carol Burnett. I quickly joined the line that was spiraling around the lobby and was able to make it inside for the conversation, though by that point, it was standing room only. I was able to snag a spot by one of the tables, so I at least had something to lean against for the duration. And before the conversation began, Dave Karger himself sat down at the table next to me. I didn’t want to bug him then and figured I’d have a better opportunity to say hi later, so I kept my attention on the woman of the hour, who delighted a full room of festivalgoers with stories of her upbringing and making it in show business.
After the Carol Burnett conversation ended, I went over to the TCL Chinese Theatre for Dangerous Liaisons with Glenn Close, who brought along her dog Pip for the interview! And he was so well-behaved the whole time, it was very cute to see. Unfortunately, I nodded off a bit during the beginning of the movie, and since I wasn’t fully locked into the movie as I would’ve liked to have been, I left the screening early and went back to Club TCM for another special event, this time with Dave Karger playing the piano! During the nearly hour-long event, he played some familiar tunes while giving anecdotes about his selected song choices. My favorite was hearing him play the theme for Laura, one of my favorite film scores. I was sitting in the front row, so when the event concluded, I went to say hello to him and was greeted with a lovely hug! It surprises me every time I see him that he remembers me, but I guess I shouldn’t be so shocked by it by now. Again, I didn’t want to take up too much of his time, and I told him I was going to That Thing You Do! next, which was set to start just minutes after Dave’s event ended, hence why he opted not to take up the full hour slot, as he wanted to make sure people had the chance to go to the screening of the Q&A he was hosting. Fortunately for him, his conversation with Johnathon Schaech and Kevin Pollak was after the movie, so he himself wasn’t in as much of a rush as I was, but I made it over there all in good time to see the movie for the very first time.
It was back to the Egyptian for Shane, which featured a pre-screening conversation with the legendary George Stevens Jr., whom I always love seeing at the festival and other events around L.A. The screening itself was a little late in the night for the 94-year-old, especially considering he was scheduled to help introduce A Place in the Sun early the next morning, but he’s still as sharp as ever, and he did stay to watch much of the movie right behind me. After that, since I thought I had some energy left, I went to the midnight screening of Vanishing Point, with Edgar Wright on hand for the introduction. I’ll admit I definitely dozed off during some of the movie, so I’ll have to revisit it sometime.
TCMFF Day 3: Saturday, May 2nd
Miraculously, I was able to wake up early enough to get to the Egyptian for the morning screening of The Farmer’s Daughter, the sole film being projected on nitrate at the festival this year. It ended up being one of my top favorite viewings of this TCMFF, as the audience was fully engaged with the movie, myself included. I stuck around the Egyptian for my next movie, the campy Technicolor film Cobra Woman, which was the best possible setting for such an odd movie.
The next couple of movies I set my sights on for the day took me to the TCL Chinese Multiplex, first with The Muppet Movie as part of a tribute to one of this year’s festival honorees, Paul Williams. As such, we got to see a special video about his career, which he himself watched from the front row, before participating in a conversation prior to the movie. Then I went to check out another new-to-me movie, I’d Rather Be Rich, which was preceded by a hilarious introduction from Kate Flannery. Despite the silliness within this ’60s rom-com, it was one of the movies I enjoyed watching the most, especially because it was projected on a pristine film print, and the movie itself is not readily available to watch in as great a quality as that anywhere else at the moment.
My fifth and final movie of the day took me back to the Egyptian once more for RoboCop, a fun turnaround from the Sandra Dee movie I had just watched. The screening was preceded by a mini cast reunion between Peter Weller, Kurtwood Smith, and Paul McCrane, which you can watch here. It was a fantastic end to a full, eclectic day of movies, especially since my two favorite screenings of the whole festival happened to bookend this day.
TCMFF Day 4: Sunday, May 3rd
The last day of TCMFF was relatively more lax. Though I skipped the first block of movies on the schedule, I went over to the multiplex nearly two hours early to line up for my first movie of choice for the day: the encore screening of Letty Lynton, which had not been shown to the public for close to a century. I missed the world premiere of the new restoration two days prior, as I went to see Carol Burnett instead. Fortunately, it all worked out that I got to see this pre-code starring Joan Crawford on the big screen after all, and it was well worth the wait. It was another one of my top screenings of the festival, and easily my favorite of the movies I saw for the first time this year.
Next on my agenda was one last trip to the Egyptian for the special presentation of The Towering Inferno with Craig Barron and Ben Burtt, who were as entertaining as always while providing intriguing behind-the-scenes details. Since I had watched the movie at the Academy Museum earlier this year, I only stayed for about an hour of the movie, and took the opportunity to sit down for a meal at 25 Degrees before my final screening. Unbeknownst to me at the time, that would also be my last meal at the eatery in the Roosevelt, as they unfortunately shut down after the festival ended. It was a nice spot to grab a bite during TCMFF, and I’d even gone a few times outside the festival. So I’m sad to see it go, but at least they stayed open long enough for festival attendees to get one last bite.
Back at TCMFF, I lined up early for the last screening at the Chinese, which was one of the most anticipated of the whole festival, as Faye Dunaway would be appearing for Network. We ended up staying in the queue longer than planned, as we were let in about half an hour later than we were scheduled to. But the screening eventually did get underway, and Dunaway herself did finally show up for a conversation with Ben Mankiewicz before the movie. I was pretty tired by this point, with three and a half days of sitting in a theater weighing on me, so I wasn’t quite as locked into Network as I would’ve liked, but I’m glad I got to see it on the big screen nonetheless.
After the film ended, it was off to the closing night party in Club TCM, where I made it just in time for the toast with the five TCM hosts. Though I apparently missed the photo op with them that happened before. However, since I got a good picture with them all last year, I wasn’t too disappointed about not getting another one. Instead, I happened to catch Dave Karger walking in the lobby as I was attempting to take a selfie with the special photo activation for Rope. I could barely speak straight as I was quite exhausted by then, and even apologized to Dave saying so, but he was very understanding and took a good couple of minutes to chat with me as I told him about appreciating his call-out to HAIM in his Q&A for That Thing You Do! As I mentioned in last year’s post, I saw them in concert the day before TCMFF began, where they revealed the title for their latest album, I quit, and I told Dave all about how they played the scene that inspired the name at the show. Before our little interaction ended, I did get a quick selfie with him alongside the illustration of James Stewart in Rope, so it all sort of worked out photo-wise in the end. Considering how drained I was getting, I decided to end my night there, leaving before the party officially closed down at midnight.
Last year and the year before, I watched 16 and 15 movies, respectively. This year, though, I went back to my average TCMFF total of 12, which is still impressive. The great thing I did this year was making room for more discoveries, and it ended up being perfectly split between new-to-me movies and re-watches. As I noted in my post of TCMFF picks (which I deviated from a little), it was a truly stacked schedule this year, and overall, I’m very happy with everything I ended up seeing over the course of the weekend. I’m excited to see how the festival programmers may top all of this next year.
