The four-day feast of vintage movies, panel discussions, receptions, special events and appearances by Hollywood royalty begins Apr. 28, 2011 with a 60th anniversary screening of the newly-restored Gershwin scored An American in Paris, the beloved Oscar-winning musical that launched Caron’s international stardom.
Mickey Rooney, Debbie Reynolds, Roger Corman Among Special Guests at TCM Classic Film Festival
As with last year’s inaugural festival, the 2011 event will be based out of the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, site of the first Academy Awards. Screenings will be across Hollywood Boulevard at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and at other nearby venues. TCM’s Robert Osborne will again lord over the weekend as official host.
Caron’s participation is another feather in the festival’s growing cap of big-name stars from Hollywood’s heyday. The lineup so far includes Mickey Rooney, Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Shirley Jones and groundbreaking latter-day indie producer-director Roger Corman. If 2011 is anything like last year, the roster of notables will grow logarithmically in the weeks leading up to the festival.
Already, more than 50 films are scheduled to screen, most digitally restored and remastered. At the festival, Powell will introduce her 1954 classic Seven Brides for Seven Brothers; Reynolds will unveil 1964’s The Unsinkable Molly Brown; Jones will introduce her 1956 film Carousel; and Corman will set the stage for a screening of his 1960 cult horror/comedy goof The Little Shop of Horrors, featuring a young Jack Nicholson as a masochistic dental patient.
Film Historian Kevin Brownlow Will Introduce Erich von Stroheim's The Merry Widow
The festival also will pay tribute to legendary composer George Gershwin and his lyricist brother, Ira. Besides An American in Paris, the homage includes a screening of 1943’s Girl Crazy, introduced by its star, Rooney. The festival's other Gershwin musical: the 1937 Astaire-Rogers vehicle Shall We Dance? It features great numbers including They Can't Take That Away From Me and the title song, used at the finale as Ginger look-alike chorus girls bedevil Fred until the real Rogers shows up.
For silent film aficionados, one particular guest will stand out: movie historian Kevin Brownlow. It’s been a heady few months for the Briton, who picked up an honorary Oscar last November at the Motion Picture Academy’s Governor’s Awards presentation in Los Angeles.
Brownlow’s achievements in preserving silent film and illuminating the era are remarkable, starting with his landmark 1968 book The Parade’s Gone By… His many television documentaries include the definitive 13-part history of silent film, Hollywood, the three-part series Unknown Chaplin and Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow, the stand-alone documentary Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces and many others.
At the festival, Brownlow will introduce director Erich von Stroheim’s 1925 drama The Merry Widow. The classic will be accompanied by a ten-member orchestra playing the North American premiere of an original score by Dutch composer Maud Nelissen, who will conduct.
Citizen Kane, Fantasia, Dodsworth Among Classics Also Scheduled at TCM Fest
Other special events at the festival include the 70th anniversary screening of the restored Citizen Kane, part of a tribute to legendary film composer Bernard Herrmann. And a salute to Disney’s film music legacy will feature 1940’s Fantasia and a screening of Silly Symphonies shorts hosted by historian Leonard Maltin.
Among other great films to screen at the Apr. 28-May 1 festival include Dodsworth, A Streetcar Named Desire and La Dolce Vita.
Last year's event drew fans from all over the world. Passes for the four-day affair range from $299 to $1,199 and can be ordered through the cable network's website, www.tcm.com.
Barry M. Grey - Barry M. Grey is a non-fiction TV writer-producer in Los Angeles whose love of classic film borders on the dangerously obsessive.
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