By the time Sunday comes up during the festival, I’m always ready for a slower pace and this year was no exception. But even though I felt like I was taking things slowly, everything I did go to was absolutely amazing.
To start things off, I skipped the first couple blocks of movies to head over to Larry Edmunds Bookshop for a book signing and conversation between Cari Beauchamp and Kevin Brownlow. As a huge fan of silent film, getting to see Kevin Brownlow in person and hear him discuss his career was nothing less than an honor. There are so many movies I love that I’m able to see because of his work, I’m a huge fan of his documentaries, and he’s done so much incredible work to give silent films the respect they deserve, so I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.
During the conversation, he talked a bit about things like how he got started making connections with people who had been involved in silent films, the perils of meeting people who have zero credibility while doing research, and his ongoing struggles with studios over licensing and copyright for silent films. As many silent film fans are well aware, his 1980 documentary series Hollywood is a tremendous source of information, but has never gotten an official release on DVD or Blu-ray release because of problems over copyright, leading Brownlow to remark that pirates have done a wonderful job of making money off of that documentary.
After that, I grabbed some lunch and went over to the TCL Multiplex for a screening of the 1964 version of The Killers. This isn’t my favorite version of The Killers, but just getting to see the discussion between Ben Mankiewicz and Angie Dickinson was great. One of the strangest things about this version of The Killers is seeing Ronald Reagan play a villain and Angie talked quite a bit about working with him and how he only agreed to do the movie to get out of his contract so he could start focusing on his political career. There is a photo of his character hitting Angie’s which he particularly despised because that wasn’t the kind of image he wanted have for himself going into politics.
Once The Killers ended, I made a dash over to the Egyptian for a screening of A Woman of Affairs with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert and live music conducted by the great Carl Davis. On top of that, there was a conversation between Kevin Brownlow and Leonard Maltin before the movie, so this screening was pretty much a silent film fan’s dream. This was definitely the top screening of the festival I was most excited for this year. Before the schedule was announced, I had really been hoping for some Garbo and was absolutely delighted when they announced A Woman of Affairs because it would be my first time seeing one of Garbo’s silents in a theater. It was a pretty packed house, so I think it’s safe to say lots of other people were just as excited as I was. The real icing on the cake was when it was announced that a french horn player in the orchestra accompanying the movie was the great-grandson of John Gilbert. Now that’s the kind of extra touch that makes me love the TCM Classic Film Festival so much.
Once A Woman of Affairs ended, I got right back in line at the Egyptian for the my last screening of the festival: a nitrate print screening of The Dolly Sisters with Betty Grable and June Haver. I usually like to end the festival on a lighter note so The Dolly Sisters fit the bill perfectly. It had been a long time since I’d last seen it; long enough for me to forget about that unfortunate musical number featuring blackface. But aside from that, those colorful scenes and glamorous costumes were a lot of fun to see on the big screen. It’s the kind of movie that had me already looking forward to next year’s festival as I left the theater.
