Sue Sue's TCM Film Festival Tidbit Travel Blog

[Lzcutter]

Big Announcement today from TCM regarding a special guest at this year's Film Festival:

Are you ready, wait for it,

Kim Novak


The 2012 TCM Classic Film Festival will honor actress Kim Novak with a multi-tiered celebration of her extraordinary career. Among the events, Novak will have her hand and footprints enshrined in concrete in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater. She will also join TCM host Robert Osborne for an in-depth conversation to be taped in front of a live audience for airing on TCM later. And she will introduce a screening of Alfred Hitchcock's suspenseful classic Vertigo (1958).

Follow this link for the entire update and Kim Novak biography!

http://news.turner.com/article_display. ... le_id=5986

[MissGoddess]

Boy, until now I didn't feel too bad about missing the fest yet again this year...cancel that. I would adore to be in attendance for Miss Novak's appearance and to see Vertigo. Sigh. Enjoy, everyone. She is a great star, a real woman and I wish I could be more like her.

[JackFavell]

That's fantastic!

[Lzcutter]

More Updates:

The 2012 TCM Classic Film Festival has unveiled another spectacular lineup of special guests and events for this year's four-day gathering in Hollywood. Among the newly
announced participants for this year's festival are five-time Emmy® winner Dick Van Dyke, Oscar® winner Shirley Jones, two-time Golden Globe® winner Angie Dickinson, six-time Golden Globe nominee Robert Wagner, seven-time Oscar nominee Norman Jewison, longtime producer A.C. Lyles and three-time Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker. In addition, the festival will feature a special three-film tribute to director/choreographer Stanley
Donen, who will be on-hand for the celebration.

As part of its overall Style and the Movies theme, the festival has added several films featuring the work of pioneering costume designer Travis Banton. Oscar-nominated costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis will introduce the six-movie slate, with actress and former Essentials co-host Rose McGowan joining her for one of the screenings.

Other festival additions include a screening of The Wolf Man (1941), with an appearance by Academy Award®-winning makeup designer Rick Baker; a special screening of A Night to Remember (1958), commemorating the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic; a collection of 3D rarities; and much more.

For the more, go here: http://i.cnn.net/v5cache/TCM/Files/Dyna ... 120206.pdf

[JackFavell]

I wouldn't mind schmoozing with Dick Van Dyke and Thelma Schoonmaker.

[pvitari]

I got to meet Thelma S. at the big Powell and Pressburger festival in Memphis a few years ago (2006, I think). She is super-nice!

Thank goodness my boss doesn't mind me going to the TCM fest this year even though it's literally our busiest week of the year because I have had a MAD CRUSH on Dick Van Dyke for lo on 50 years or so (even as a zygote I could pick 'em) and the thought of actually seeing him in person is thrilling. Now if only they'd get Julie Andrews too. :)

[CineMaven]

Saaay, didn't you catch Julie Andrews at the festival last year? She sat and talked with Robert-O?

[kingrat]

TCM seems to have gone all out for guest stars this time, or perhaps the stars realize what a fantastic gig this is--wall-to-wall adoration by knowledgeable fans.

[Rita Hayworth]

TCM seems to have gone all out for guest stars this time, or perhaps the stars realize what a fantastic gig this is--wall-to-wall adoration by knowledgeable fans.

Well said, Kingrat ... I second that too!

[Sue Sue Applegate]

The costume party at the Basil Rathbones' required one to dress as someone you most admire, so Marlene Dietrich had Travis Banton devise this lovely costume for Marlene, and as Leda, she couild be draped by a lovely swan all evening.

To Marlene's left is Clifton Webb, but I will have to check my archives for the name of the woman to her right, who obviously chose Marlene as the person she most admired.

It is supposed to be one of Banton's most admired creations, on or off the screen.

I just love to play dress up, and think about how much fun that wacky party had to be!

[moirafinnie]

Hi Christy,
The lady next to Marlene is Elizabeth Allan, an English rose who seems to have been much more of a saucy minx than she ever got to play in movies. She was imported by MGM in the early '30s because of her air of refinement--though she often sounds more interesting and adventurous in real life than she ever was on screen. Allan played a tragic figure in the groundbreaking medical drama starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy in Men in White (1934), David's thoughtless but charming mother in David Copperfield (1935), Lucie Manette in A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Nichette, the girl who became a bride instead of a courtesan in Camille (1936) and, perhaps just to get out of those costumes, she slummed a bit in Mark of the Vampire (1935) enjoyably, (as seen below with her leading man, Bela), and she was terrific as a British woman who surprised herself by her resolve and grit in Went the Day Well (1942).


In a noted legal wrangling of the thirties, Allan sued MGM and Louis B. Mayer personally for slander and "damage to her career" after her replacement by Rosalind Russell in The Citadel (1939) [Allan won the case initially which was eventually overturned by a Court of Appeals]. She had annoyed MGM by repeatedly rejecting scripts and doing what she liked in her personal life (which reportedly included involvement with Clark Gable and perhaps the mysterious Dietrich), but she remained married to the same very understanding man, agent Wilfred O'Brien, from 1932 until 1977 when he died. She also had a long career in Britain in the post-war period too.

In the picture with Dietrich and Webb it is Allan who asked Marlene to help her copy the German performer's gender-bending masculine gear.

Btw, you can see Allan suffering beautifully in Men in White (1934) on Monday March 19 @ 07:30 AM on TCM. Went the Day Well (1942) can be seen here online.

[JackFavell]

I've always been a big fan of Elizabeth Allen. It's not easy playing those sweet heroine roles in the costume dramas, and I always thought she brought a little more to her roles than the average starlet might. I like her quiet lilting voice and gentle demeanor, and I think she was one of the prettiest actresses of the thirties.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Moira, absolutely fascinating background info on Elizabeth Allan! Thank you so much! You are a font!

And all of you TCM FILM FEST lovers, check out all the TCM panel updates:
http://i.cnn.net/v5cache/TCM/Files/Dyna ... 121057.pdf

I love classic film fashion, so I am pleased to learn about the upcoming exhitibits:

The Art of Costume Design:

Sketches from the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library

TCM is proud to present this selection of sketches from the archives of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, reflecting the art of costume design. From Travis Banton to Edith Head, these sketches represent the contribution of costume designers who help create the vision of these film characters. Special thanks to Anne Coco, Randy Haberkamp and the Academy for their support of this exhibit.





And, TAH-DAH, the Hubert de Givenchy dress from Sabrina donated by the Audrey Hepburn's Children's Fund! (http://www.audreyhepburn.com)

[Rita Hayworth]

And, TAH-DAH, the Hubert de Givenchy dress from Sabrina donated by the Audrey Hepburn's Children's Fund! (http://www.audreyhepburn.com)

I'm a big fan of Hubert de Givenchy's fashion ... this dress/gown is divine! I wished more ladies wear them to formal occasions ... they are so lovely to look at. Thank you for posting this!

[Sue Sue Applegate]

It must have been Kismet!

( Marlene Dietrich, in a photo-op from Kismet, whose costumes weren't designed by
Travis Banton, but the talented Irene)

But in retrospect, one of the most iconic pairings in Hollywood must have been Marlene Dietrich and Travis Banton as far as couturier conspiracies are concerned.

During one legendary moment of insipration,Marlene retooled a previous Lombard lame' gown as Banton panicked because the Head Office demanded test stills for The Devil is a Woman, directed by Josef Von Sternburg.

Using one of her shawls normally draped over her piano and commandeering some "cheap veiling" encountered in the fitting rooms to form some loose fitting gloves, Banton told Dietrich that she couldn't wear her creation just to appease the boys in the front office."It is ghastly!" he claimed. Banton looked ill, and the horrified wardrobe girls stared.

But Dietrich did it anyway, and usually the way she wanted it done. Somehow the film wiggled its way through the censors, the front office, the Spanish government, and the depths of the legendary costumer's lair at Paramount, who destroyed the original print after its initial run, and The Devil is a Woman remained out of circulation until 1959 where it was tucked away in a vault, protected by Dietrich herself, because she claimed it was her favorite film in Maxilmilian Schell's documentary, Marlene.


She "shoulda been a directuh." But her personal life was so.....busy.



And no matter her personal opinions, peccadillos and tangled social calendar, she was an American and did what she could to help us win World War II by her appearances in several dangerous areas performing with the USO, and at one time was aligned with Patton's Third Army, where my father was stationed as a tank battalion commander, but Dad was never able to see one of her shows, but he did see a few others.


My parents, C.C. and Dorothy, walking down Main Street in Houston,Texas. Since Hold Back the Dawn, with Olivia de Havilland and Charles Boyer was released on 9-26-1941, and Honky Tonk with Clark Gable and Lana Turner was released on October 1, 1941, the folks were strolling along about five months after their marriage.

They loved going to the movies, and they made sure that I did, too!