TCM Classic Cruise

(Heavy Sigh)Well it took some time for Rochellelynn and I to get over our depression of missing some of our favorite movies shown at iconic Hollywood theatres during the TCM Classic Film Festival 2014 back in April. I’m afraid it’s going to take a bit more time getting over the melancholia settling in over missing the TCM Classic Cruise from October 21 thru the 26th 2014.
Rochellelynn Missed:
Day 1 Singles Mixer and After the Thin Man
Day 2 Meeting Ben Mankowitz
Day 3 Bingo with Ben Mankowitz
Day 4 Key West- and the screening of Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid w/Ann Blyth (maybe she would have given us some insight on the wonderfulness of William Powell)
Day 5 Repeat Bingo with Ben and then back again for the Meet Ben option
Me I Missed:
Day 1 Robert Osborne’s 20th Anniversary
Day 2 Conversation w/Tab Hunter
Day 3 Watching Mildred Pierce w/Ann Blyth and Rory Flynn’s remembrances of her father Errol Flynn
Day 4 Key West the African Queen Boat on Exhibit and the wild and crazy sunset celebration.
Day 5 I would have liked to try my hand at Trivia: So You Think You Know Horror Movies then start off Halloween week with the showing of Poltergeist with James Karen.
Instead I am lamenting the fact that I missed Networking and five sunrises aboard the cruise ship Magic. There is nothing better than the sunrises and early morning strolls on deck maybe even bumping into the likes of: Illeana Douglas, Richard Dreyfuss, Diane Baker, Shirley Jones or maybe even Robert Osborne. I suppose we will just have to wait and see what 2015 brings…

My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic and Music Man

Music Man plays at Club TCM at 8pm On TCM Film Festival DAY TWO, April 11th, 2014

My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic, oddly incorporates a lot of Classic Film references throughout the show. There’s a Gone with the Wind scene, a Star Wars scene, and many more, including this one.

Proof that The Music Man is still relevant( not that we ever doubted)- See the similarities:)

My Little Ponies, Friendship is Magic: The Flim Flam Brothers Song

Music Man: Ya Got Trouble

TCM Film Festival 2014 DAY TWO

BIG SCREEN PICK OF THE DAY APRIL 11th

Our TCM Film Festival Day Two pick is The Thin Man at 9am at the Egyptian Theatre. This is a film that we’ve seen oh so many times but couldn’t pass up the chance to see it on the Big Screen. We would of course watch the whole series and never leave the theater, but alas- TCM did not set it up that way.

After The Thin Man we might have moseyed on back to the TCL Chinese IMAX for the 12:00pm showing of the 1958 Touch of Evil.

Orson Welles was given a B-movie project, based on a pulp novel, with no expectations, and eight weeks to prepare. The miniscule budget allowed that outdoor scenes be filmed only during daylight, for lack of actual lighting or sets. Welles former glory as a Hollywood genius had been quickly overshadowed by his extravagance and unruliness, and he looked to friends to act in Touch of Evil. Thankfully, Marlene Dietrich, and Joseph Cotton pitched in as a favor alongside main actors Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh. Citizen Kane-like low-angle shots, raw off-screen audio interference, and the use of a crane and dolly to propel the camera where it was needed would be used again and again by the likes of Scorsese, Spielberg, De Palma and Hitchcock. Psycho, in fact borrowed heavily from Touch of Evil, even using a few of Welles production assistants for the thriller.  Pretty good for a film that only took 42 days to complete and came in under budget.

Annstj: I’m thinking that after Touch of Evil Rochellelynn and I would have returned to the Hotel Roosevelt for the rest of the afternoon to listen to scheduled conversations with: William Friedkin and Eddie Muller then Quincy Jones and Leonard Maltin at 6:00. Day two evening is a Friday night and ya know what that means? It means Trouble with a capital T, that rhymes with P and that stands for Pool.

So I know where I would be at 8:00pm…in the hotel room fast asleep.  And Ro · chelle · lynn the Li · brar · ian would be at the Pool with a capital P at Club TCM watching that troublesome (with a capital T) pair Shirley Jones and Robert Preston in The Music Man.

Why do I keep thinking ‘My Little Pony’?

 

 

TCM Film Festival 2014 DAY ONE

BIG SCREEN PICK OF THE DAY! April 10th, 2014.

If we were at the Film Festival our Big Screen choice would be Oklahoma at the renovated TCL Chinese IMAX Theatre and the discussion with Shirley Jones at 6:30pm. Rochellelynn and I both agree about watching Oklahoma on the big screen however I would be a little nervous about what Shirley would share during her Discussion before the movie. She gave a little TMI in her book: Shirley Jones a Memoir about her sex life. I would be hoping that all of the questions directed at Shirley would be about the technicalities of filming such a huge production as Oklahoma.

Check out our other favorites showing at the same time of Day One. Which one would you have chosen over Oklahoma at the TCL Chinese IMAX? Fifth Avenue Girl with Ginger Rogers and Tim Holt at the 7:00pm, or Cheaper by the Dozen with Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy at the 7:15pm showing at the Chinese Multiplex. Then when you finished watching Oklahoma and listening to the wind come sweeping off the plains which movie would you attend at 9:30pm Bachelor Mother with Ginger and David Niven or the 9:45pm showing of The Heiress with Montgomery Clift and Olivia; all screening at the Chinese Mulitplex? I would still be trying to make up my mind.

Olivia de Havilland Oscar Reunion 2002

We all attend some kind of reunion at one point or another in our life, family, friends or school. What a star studded get together there was for the 75th Anniversary year of the Oscars in 2002. Fifty-nine Oscar recipients all on stage and who better to present them but two time Oscar winner Olivia de Havilland.
Dame Julie Andrews, Kathy Bates, Halle Barry, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Nickolas Cage, Sir Michael Caine, George Chakiris, Jennifer Connelly, Sir Sean Connery, Geena Davis, Daniel Day Lewis, Olivia de Havilland, Kirk Douglas, Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall, Louise Fletcher, Brenda Fricker, Cuba Gooding Jr., Louis Gossett Jr., Joel Grey, Tom Hanks, Marsha Gay Harden, Dustin Hoffman, Celeste Holm, Anjelica Houston, Claude Jarmin Jr., Jennifer Jones, Shirley Jones, George Kennedy, Sir Ben Kingsley, Martin Landau, Cloris Leachman, Karl Maldon, Marlee Matlin, Hayley Mills, Rita Moreno, Patricia Neal, Jack Nicholson, Margaret O’Brian, Tatum O’Neal, Jack Palance, Luise Rainer, Julia Roberts, Cliff Robertson, Mickey Rooney, Eva Marie Saint, Susan Sarandon, Maximillian Schell, Mira Sorvino, Cissy Spacek, Mary Steenbergen, Meryl Streep, Barbara Streisand, Hillary Swank, Jon Voight, Christopher Walken, Denzel Washington, Teresa Wright.

Newest from the year 2002: Peter O’Toole, Catherine Zeta Jones, Chris Cooper, Nichole Kidman, Adrian Brody.

Gregory Peck Academy President 1967

Sometimes the Oscar show is rescheduled due to a National Tragedy which happened April 10, 1968.
The assassination of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968 shocked the nation. The Oscars were programed for April 8th but due to Dr. King’s funeral the show went on, only a couple of days later. Gregory Peck the President of the Academy for 1968 spoke eloquently about ‘the fateful week in the history of our nation’, how ‘we must unite in compassion in order to survive’ and to ‘continue to celebrate in film the dignity of man’. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night two movies out of five dealing with thought provoking issues of racial understanding garnered ten nominations for Dinner with two wins and seven nominations for Night with four wins.
There was a time in the 60’s when nominees tried to get out of attending this award night for various reasons. For 1967 Gregory Peck twisted arms to make sure people showed up. The only nominees that did not attend that year were Katherine Hepburn (who won for Best Actress) because she was in France filming the Mad Woman of Chaillot and Spencer Tracy who had been nominated posthumously. In the Heat of the Night was honored as Best Picture. In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner were both honored for their Screenplay’s one adapted one original.

Marian the Librarian

 

March 31, 1934 Shirley Jones The Music Man
At the start of casting for The Music Man, she was promised the same leading man she had originally been promised for Carousel…Frank Sinatra… alas, it was not to be. Second Choice Cary Grant, also turned down the role, and handed it back to Jack Warner, very verbally calling to allow Robert Preston into the lead instead. Robert Preston, at 44 years old, was transforming himself into a musical comedy genius, after his Tony win in the original Music, and eventually contracts were signed to allow Preston to play Shirley’s leading man. Defining the role of Marian the Librarian, Shirley masters the role, as I imagine perhaps none other than Julie Andrews could. Morphing from the piano teacher behind very closed doors, to the girl we know and love giving in to her impulses on that bridge just before her con man is run out of town, she does us proud in the name of womanhood. Happy Birthday Shirley!!!