My view from the red carpet
From Thursday, April 25th through Sunday,
April 28th, I attended the 4TH ANNUAL TCM CLASSIC FILM
FESTIVAL. The events took place at and around
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, at several of the smaller Chinese
Theatre multi-plex screens, with additional events at Grauman’s Egyptian and
the Hollywood Arclight aka the Cinerama Dome.
It was my first time, and I was
overwhelmed by all of the screenings, activities, and choices that had to be
made.
This is an event for people who are passionate about
the movies, and eager to see them on a big screen, often in 35mm, always with
someone of note giving an introduction.
But how do you choose when GIANT, ON GOLDEN POND, THE BIG PARADE, THE
TRAIN, THEY LIVE BY NIGHT and GUYS AND DOLLS are all showing at once?! It is truly an embarrassment of riches.
I caught as many movies as I could, but I only
managed to catch four on one day, Saturday, which made me a piker by the
standards of most attendees. Chatting
while standing on line, I met folks from Kansas City, Missouri; Illinois;
Arlington, Virginia; Florida; and Cincinnati, Ohio. A couple I met waiting to get in to see
DELIVERANCE were from outside Raleigh, North Carolina, and confided, “We want
to see it on a big screen, so we can recognize our relatives,” then quickly
added, “only joking,” in case I was dense.
Interestingly, I didn’t meet a soul from L.A., and the one couple I met
from San Diego turned out to be recent transplants from Kentucky. And none of them were first-timers: on
average they were back for their third year.
It was delightful to be surrounded by so many people
who were so enthusiastic, and knowledgeable, about classic film. Waiting for BONNIE AND CLYDE to start,
someone uttered the name Strother Martin, and a dozen voices piped in with
their favorite Strother Martin performances.
The event is pricey. The
costliest package, featuring VIP entry to everything, meet-and- reets with
stars and TCM hosts, and all manner of extras, costs $1599. There are a lot of in-between packages, with
the least expensive, at $249, getting you admission to only the big-screen
venues, the Chinese and Egyptian. You
can also buy single event tickets for $20, but be aware that they are ‘stand-by’,
and a lot of shows fill up, though most at the huge Chinese and the Egyptian do
not.
I’d picked up my media credentials (when did they
stop being ‘press credentials’?) the day before, and hadn’t read their many
emails closely enough to realize that I had to apply separately for credentials
to cover Thursday night’s gala, featuring the world premiere of the digital restoration
of FUNNY GIRL at the Chinese. I realized
my stupidity late Wednesday night, and emailed, begging to be let on the red
carpet. Well, sometimes stupidity pays
off: they not only gave me a spot on the red carpet (see the picture), since I
was the very last dope to ask, I got the very last spot, which gave me a
perfect view straight down the center of the famed ‘footprint’ courtyard. The first star to come my way was Barbara
Rush. Best known for her role in TV’s
PEYTON PLACE, she’s starred in many movies and guested in many series, her best
western role being Audra in HOMBRE, opposite Paul Newman.
Barbara Rush
Next was Coleen Gray. She first made a splash as the good girl
opposite carny grifter Tyrone Power in NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947). She got her feet wet in westerns the next
year, co-starring with Victor Mature in FURY AT FURNACE CREEK, then entered the
big-leagues playing John Wayne’s romantic interest in the Howard Hawks classic
RED RIVER. She’s appeared in numerous
western and civilian films since then, guest-starring on nearly all of the
major western series, and starred opposite Hugh Marlowe in a frequently
overlooked top-of-the-line oater, Charles Marquis Warren’s THE BLACK WHIP.
Coleen Gray
She was followed by Jacqueline White, best known for
noirs like CROSSFIRE and THE NARROW
MARGIN, but who starred with Randolph Scott in RETURN OF THE BAD MEN, and with
Tim Holt in RIDERS OF THE RANGE.
Jacqueline White
Looking much as she did in MIDRED PIERCE was
beautiful Ann Blyth, who would be attending screenings of both PIERCE and
KISMET during the festival. Her only
feature western is Zane Grey’s RED CANYON, but she appeared on five episodes of
WAGON TRAIN. I asked her if she had a
favorite western role among them. “That’s
always so hard to just pick one. I’ll
get back to you on that.”
Ann Blyth
Marvin Kaplan
Comedian Marvin Kaplan of IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD
WORLD was next, and then I was talking to former child star Jane Withers, who
would be the special guest at her film, GIANT, the next night. Of all the stars entering the Chinese that
night, she was probably the only one who would be walking by her own footprints
in cement. I asked her which was her
favorite western, SHOOTING HIGH, with Gene Autry, or GIANT, with Rock Hudson
and James Dean. “Oh, bless your heart
for knowing about both! I did five
westerns as a kid, and I loved them all, oh gosh, because cowboys are my
favorite people in the world. Monte Hale and Gene Autry and Roy and Dale
were always very close friends. Roy and
Dale and I became neighbors years later; our kids all went to church and Sunday
School together. I’ve had the most
unique and interesting life of anyone I know.
And I’m so grateful – I’ve just had my 87th birthday, and Fox
Home Entertainment is rereleasing all my early Jane Withers films from the ‘30s
and the ‘40s, and I’m just thrilled.”
Jane Withers
Jane's footprints
Next came the great Theodore Bikel, who appeared in
episodes of HOTEL DE PAREE, WAGON TRAIN, RAWHIDE, GUNSMOKE, and LITTLE HOUSE ON
THE PRAIRIE. When I asked him what his
favorite was, he said, “I can’t tell you.
Some of them I liked.”
Theodore Bikel
When I asked Karen Sharpe Kramer about her favorite
western, she might have said MAN WITH A GUN (1955), where she starred opposite
Robert Mitchum, or JOHNNY RINGO (1959), her western series, but I wasn’t
surprised at her answer. “HIGH NOON, of
course.” She’s the widow of
producer/director Stanley Kramer, who made HIGH NOON. “I like THE SEARCHERS, I like TRUE GRIT as
well. But HIGH NOON has something to
say, which I think is important. So I
would always search out a movie that would leave you with something, instead of
just being entertaining.”
Karen Sharpe Kramer
I next saw Wink Martindale, DJ and game show host
who, a few decades ago, had the number one record in the country, not a song,
but a spoken recording. I asked him, “When
are you going to do another recording like A
Deck of Cards?”
Wink Martindale
“Oh, I don’t know!
That was one of those rare ones – you don’t find those very often. Would you believe that was recorded in
1959? Or was it 1859?”
“Off-subject, let me ask you, what’s your favorite
western?”
“I think it would be HIGH NOON, without any question
at all, because I loved Gary Cooper’s performance in that; great story.”
Next came beautiful Anne Jeffreys, Marion Kerby to
those of us who grew up watching TOPPER, still lovely at ninety. “Which is your favorite of all your westerns?”
Anne Jeffreys
“Ahh…NEVADA (1944), with Robert Mitchum.”
“Terrific.
Any favorites among you Wild Bill Elliot films?”
“No, except with Gabby Hayes.” There are eight of those to choose from.
Mitzi Gaynor
By then the staffers were trying to hurry the guests
into the theatre – we glimpsed Mitzi Gaynor, Marge Champion, France Nuyen, Tippi
Hedron , Robert Hays, Eva Marie Saint and film historian Kevin Brownlow zipping
by. Although Barbra Streisand lives in
town, she didn’t attend the screening.
She was in New York, at another event, presenting an award. Cher filled in for her, doing the
introduction to FUNNY GIRL.
Marge Champion
I rushed off to see a movie, chose ROAD TO UTOPIA, a
north-western comedy set in the Klondike Gold Rush, starring Bob Hope, Bing
Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. It was
introduced by Greg Proops, one of the improvisational comedians from WHOSE LINE
IS IT ANYWAY?, who gave an excellent talk about the chemistry of Hope and
Crosby in the ROAD pictures, and that underscoring the humor was the
ruthlessness of their attempts to cut each other off in the pursuit of both
money and Lamour. It was hysterical.
France Nuyen
Next week, in Part 2, I’ll discuss the screenings of
RIVER OF NO RETURN, HONDO and DELIVERANCE.
LEE VAN CLEEF IN ‘THE GRAND DUEL’ ON DVD
Blue Underground has just released a beautiful new
version of 1972’s THE GRAND DUEL, starring Lee Van Cleef, directed by Giancarlo
Santi from Ernesto Gastaldi’s screenplay. It’s one of the best of the Spaghetti
Westerns from the end of the cycle. This was Santi’s first film as a director,
but he’d made his bones as assistant director to Sergio Leone on THE GOOD, THE
BAD AND THE UGLY and ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, as well as the excellent DEATH
RIDES A HORSE. Screenwriter Gastaldi has
a staggering 121 writing credits, from cult horror favorites like VAMPIRE AND
THE BALLERINA and WEREWOLF IN A GIRLS’ DORMITORY to Westerns like the ARIZONA
COLT and SARTANA series, but is probably best known for MY NAME IS NOBODY – he even
did uncredited script-work on Leone’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA.
The story revolves around wanted man Philip Vermeer
(Peter O’Brien aka Alberto Dentice), hunted for murder by ex-Sheriff Clayton
(Lee Van Cleef), and a passel of bounty hunters. The dead man, Samuel Saxon, referred to as ‘The
Patriarch,’ and only seen in dramatic black & white flashbacks, has three
sons, a businessman; a lawman; and a flamboyant, syphilitic pock-marked ne’er-do-well,
all of them obsessed with Vermeer’s capture and punishment. Clayton is convinced Vermeer is being framed,
and they join forces to learn and expose the truth.
Shot in unfamiliar and striking locations by Mario
Vulpiani, edited by Roberto Perpignani, who also cut LAST TANGO IN PARIS and IL
POSTINO, the film is full of striking compositions and sequences, among them Van
Cleef slyly tipping Vermeer to the location of the bounty hunters, a remarkable
chase shot from overhead, a nighttime attack on a stage-coach stop, and the
wonderfully staged ‘grand duel’ at the end of the film. There is also a sometimes haunting, sometimes
thrilling score by Luis Bacalov and Sergio Bardotti.
The degree of corruption in the town is striking,
and because this is so common to the sub-genre, over the years, many American
viewers have bristled at the sense that many Spaghetti Westerns are
anti-American. I think this is a
misreading of the intent. I think the
corrupt and degenerate brothers who run the town, like the hooded thugs in
DJANGO and the homosexual ‘Zorros’ of DJANGO KILL! are not references to
America at all, but to Italian Fascism, which had, until a short time before
these films were made, enslaved Italy.
from the duel
It would be disingenuous of me not to also mention
that screenwriter and film historian C. Courtney Joyner and myself provide a
commentary track, which has been well-reviewed (I didn’t realize that people actually reviewed commentary tracks) and here
are a couple of links for reviews of this version of THE GRAND DUEL: from 10K BULLETS, and from DVD LATESHOW. Also included is a Spaghetti Western
Trailer Reel featuring some of Blue Underground’s other fine releases. The official release day is May 21st. The price is $14.98. You can learn more HERE.
50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ‘HUD’ AT AUTRY
SATURDAY, MAY 11TH
On Saturday at 1:30, HUD will have its 50th
anniversary marked with a screening at the Autry as part of their What is a Western ? series. I’ve never seen HUD, but I’ve been hearing
about it for years. It earned three
Oscars, for Best Actress Patricia Neal, Best Supporting Actor Melvyn Douglas,
and Best Black & White Cinematography by James Wong Howe. It stars Paul Newman as a selfish and
reckless cowboy who risks his family’s ranch over a feud with his father. Curator Jeffrey Richardson will introduce the
film, discussing HUD’s unflinching social commentary as part of the Western
genre’s transformation in the 1960s.
“FILL YER HAND BRADLEY COOPER, YOU SUNUVABITCH!”
More headaches for the trouble-plagued set of JANE
GOT A GUN, the new western starring and co-produced by Natalie Portman. First, on the day the cameras were to roll in
April, director Lynne Ramsey was a no-show. Then lead villain Jude Law quit
because Lynne had quit. He was replaced
by Bradley Cooper – right after his SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK success. But now Cooper is leaving because of his
previous commitment to David O. Russell.
More details coming soon!
THE WRAP UP
That’ll have to do for today. Happy Cinco de Mayo, and happy birthday to my
mom, to Monica Lewis, and to Will ‘Sugarfoot’ Hutchins. With Saturday being Stephanie’s and my 28th
wedding anniversary, I’m a little surprised I got this posted and written
tonight. Next week I’ll have part two of
my TCM Fest coverage, and soon I’ll have reviews of a Pat Buttram biography, the home video
release of BORDERTOWN, and ‘HOWDY KIDS!! A Saturday Afternoon Western Round-up’
from the Shout Factory.
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Contents Copyright May 2013 by Henry C.
Parke – All Rights Reserved
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