2024 Turner Classic Movies Film Festival (#TCMFF) Recap

The 2024 Turner Classic Movies Film Festival (TCMFF) is now history. As always, it went by so quickly that sometimes I wonder if it really happened. I wasn’t dreaming, it did happen. In the four days of the festival, I saw 14 movies.

Below is the movies I saw and where I saw them.

Thursday:

1. Clue 1985 – Poolside at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

Friday:

1. The Good Fairy 1935 – Egyptian Theatre
2. The Model and the Marriage Broker 1951 – Chinese Multiplex #6
3. Rear Window 1954 – Egyptian Theatre
4. It Happened One Night 1933 – Egyptian Theatre

Saturday:

1. Night Has a Thousand Eyes 1948 – Egyptian Theatre
2. Annie Get Your Gun 1950 – Egyptian Theatre
3. The Mad Miss Manton 1938 – Egyptian Theatre
4. Westward the Women 1951 – Egyptian Theatre
5. On the Waterfront 1954 – TLC Chinese Theatre IMax

Sunday:

1. Double Indemnity 1944 – TLC Chinese Theater IMax
2. The Big Heat 1953 – Chinese Multiplex #6
3. The Searchers 1956 – Egyptian Theatre
4. The Goat/Sherlock Jr. 1921/1924 (counting these two silent movies as one)

 

Festival Highlights

All of the movies above I had seen before…some I even own on DVD. But several like Night Has a Thousand Eyes, The Big Heat, and Westward the Women, I hadn’t seen in decades. For those films it was like seeing them for the first time.

I was disappointed that On the Waterfront was scheduled at 10 p.m. at the TLC Chinese Theatre IMax. The theatre wasn’t even half full which was disappointing.

I think I had the most fun during the screening of The Good Fairy. The movie has an amazing pedigree but it’s been mostly forgotten, even by the most ardent classic movie fans. I’m hoping that the festival screening will change that.

The 70MM restoration of The Searchers was stunning. It was one of the most beautifully filmed movies and to see it looking brand new was amazing.

Clue was the first movie that I saw at the Roosevelt Hotel Pool. I’ve always avoided the pool screenings because the weather in LA during the festival can be chilly at night. But this year it was relatively mild and they had gas heaters strategically placed around the pool. But my real motivation to attend this screening was to see Lesley Ann Warren. Warren was probably my first childhood crush. It was love at first sight when I saw Cinderella on television at eight years old. Dave Karger introduced and interviewed her before the screening. She looked beautiful and talked about the fun she had on the set with her talented co-stars.

Another favorite movie was The Model and the Marriage Broker. Like The Good Fairy, the movie also has a great pedigree but it too has been so what lost to movie history. Another reason to see this film was the fact that my friend Christy Putnam, who is writing a biography of Thelma Ritter (one of the film’s stars) coming out next year, was interviewed by actress Diane Baker.

Now that the 2024 TCM Film Festival is a memory, I’m looking forward to 2025!