2018 Turner Classic Film Festival (#TCMFF) Day 1

It’s hard to believe that the 2018 TCM Film Festival is over. My anticipation builds as soon as the weather turns chilly here in Chicago. Dreaming about the film festival and warm days and nights in Los Angeles helps me get through the winter. Plus it’s great reconnecting with friends from all over the country and the world.

This year’s festival began for me on Thursday, April 26. Flying out of Chicago’s Midway airport in the morning and arriving in LA four hours later…in the morning! After leaving the airport and heading for the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel where fellow classic movie fans gather in the Blossom Room—the room where the very first Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929—to hang out and chat, celebrity watch, and watch everyone arrive. After the couple of hours of meeting and greeting, it’s check in time at the Air B & B; this year barely a block away from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Score!

After checking in, it’s back to the Hollywood Roosevelt for the hardest movie trivia game ever, “So You Think You Know Movies,” hosted by Bruce Goldstein, repertory program director of New York’s Film Forum. I think my knowledge of classic movies is pretty good, but every year, this event just crushes me. We assembled a good team, but we came up extremely short.

As usual I opted for the Classic Pass, which doesn’t include the red carpet presentation movie (this year Mel Brooks’s The Producers). The bump in price has never seemed worth it and there are plenty of movies to choose from while the celebrities mingle with ordinary folk on the red carpet at the Chinese Theater. The first movie I saw was To Have And Have Not (1944) directed by Howard Hawks. I’ve seen bits and pieces of this film over the years, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it from beginning to end. The film that introduced Lauren Bacall to film audiences starred Humphrey Bogart who would end up marrying his 19-year-old leading lady the next year. The 35MM print provided by Warner Bros. Classics looked great on the big screen at the Egyptian Theatre and was the perfect movie to start my 2018 TCMFF.

The next movie on my agenda was The Sea Wolf (1941) directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino, and John Garfield. The supporting cast includes Gene Lockhart, Alexander Knox, and Barry Fitzgerald. Besides being a fan of all three stars, this movie went through a restoration. In 1947, Warner Brothers paired The Sea Wolf with The Sea Hawk (1940) on a double bill. In order to get more screenings in, Warners cut 14 minutes from The Sea Wolf. Those 14 minutes were thought lost forever until a 35MM nitrate print was discovered at the Museum of Modern Art. What we saw at the Chinese Multiplex House # 6 was a beautiful digital restoration that looked brand new. The performances of Robinson, Lupino, and Garfield are extraordinary. Robinson’s performance is especially good; it’s hard to believe he was never nominated for a competitive Oscar—neither was Lupio; Garfield was nominated twice: Best Supporting Actor in Four Daughters (1938) and Best Actor in Body and Soul (1947). By the time The Sea Wolf ended, it was nearly 11:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. Chicago time!). Time to get some shuteye and plan on what movie to see Friday morning. Here are my three choices: The Merry Widow (1934), Strangers on a Train (1951), and Intruder in the Dust (1949). Which movie would you pick?

Mitzi Gaynor is on Twitter!

Movie and stage legend Mitzi Gaynor joined Twitter this August! The star of the classic movie musicals, There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954), Les Girls (1957), The Joker Is Wild (1957), and probably her most famous role, Ensign Nellie Forbush, USN, in South Pacific (1958).

Gaynor was signed to a contract by Twentieth Century-Fox at age 19 and soon found herself in the musical  My Blue Heaven (1950) alongside Betty Grable and Dan Dailey. She quickly followed that with a featured role in Take Care of My Little Girl (1951) starring Jeanne Crain. Now on her way, Gaynor had her first starring role in Golden Girl (1951), a musical set against the backdrop of the Civil War. Next was the all-star romantic comedy We’re Not Married (1952) featuring, among others, Ginger Rogers, Fred Allen, Marilyn Monroe, and Paul Douglas. Other starring roles followed, including Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952), The I Don’t Care Girl (1953), Down Among the Sheltering Palms (1953), and the western Three Young Texans (1954). Her last film for Fox was There’s No Business Like Show Business, the studio’s first musical filmed in Cinemascope.
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In the mid-50s, Gaynor secured a contract with Paramount Pictures. Her first picture for that studio was Anything Goes (1956) also starring Bing Crosby and Donald O’Connor. She followed that up with The Birds and the Bees (1956), a musical remake of The Lady Eve (1941), with Gaynor playing the role Barbara Stanwyck created in the original. Probably her most famous role at Paramount was in the film The Joker is Wild (1957) costarring Frank Sinatra and Jeanne Crain, another former Fox contractee (Crain starred in Take Care of My Little Girl featuring Gaynor). While filming The Joker is Wild, Gaynor auditioned for and won the role of Nellie Forbush in South Pacific (1958). The film was a blockbuster at the box office, making it the biggest moneymaker that year and the highest grossing Rogers and Hammerstein musical until The Sound of Music (1965). Gaynor’s performance was nominated for a Golden Globe Award (Best Actress- Comedy or Musical) and the actress became an international star overnight.

Gaynor closed out the 1950s with the romantic comedy Happy Anniversary (1959) costarring David Niven. The film is notable for an early screen performance by Patty Duke (she played the daughter of Gaynor and Niven) who would go on to win an Academy Award for her next film, The Miracle Worker (1962)). Next up for Gaynor was the Stanley Donen directed comedy, Surprise Package (1960) costarring Yul Brynner and Noel Coward. Gaynor’s last screen role was in For Love or Money (1963) costarring Kirk Douglas.

With the end of the studio system and the demise of movie musicals, Gaynor put together a Vegas Act and concentrated on live stage performances as well as television specials. Today Gaynor is actively involved with charities, including The Professional Dancers Society. Gaynor has been president of that organization since 2003.

#TCMParty friends and others, why don’t you welcome Gaynor to Twitter (@TheMitziGaynor) by following her? You can also like her on Facebook and visit her official website.


Note: Some of the details for the above was taken from Ms. Gaynor’s official website.

My Twitter pal, Monica Lewis

Actress and singer Monica Lewis passed away June 12, 2015 at the age of 93. Monica started her singing career in the 1940s as a vocalist with Benny Goodman’s orchestra. In 1950, she signed a singing and acting contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she recorded albums and appeared in films with Mickey Rooney and Red Skelton.

Perhaps Monica is best remembered as the voice of the Miss Chiquita Banana cartoon character—who advised us not to put our bananas in the refrigerator—a job she held for 14 years.

One on Monica’s recent tweets

But to me, Monica will always be @songbirdmonica, her Twitter handle. I love how she would tweet old publicity photos of herself with contemporary captions. Via Twitter I learned that she was from Chicago, the city where I live, and that she sailed the Long Island Sound with her husband, Jennings Lang. I grew up on Long Island and spent many a summer by, near, and in the Sound.

On Twitter, Monica was always engaging and fun. She would often favorite a tweet of mine and she always kindly responded to questions I posed to her. Those of us who tweet with the #TCMParty hashtag have had the pleasure of viewing tweets and interacting with Monica. She was the liveliest 93-year-old I have ever encountered.

I will miss you, Monica. Rest in peace. Amen.