Sue Sue's TCM Film Festival Tidbit Travel Blog

[Sue Sue Applegate]

David from Seattle, a TCMFF Festival pal, is reporting on his current journey on Route 66 on wordpresss and TCM City.
Follow his antics and read a lovely post from our Lynn here: http://forums.tcm.com/thread.jspa?threa ... 3&tstart=0

He is winging his way to the TCMFF 2013!

[Sue Sue Applegate]

It's here!!! We're back at the difficult decision making process...
http://filmfestival.tcm.com/_pdf/print_schedule.pdf


Hah!
Norman Lloyd-- Dial M For Murder
Jon Voight-- Deliverance!
Jane Withers-- Giant!
Cybill Shepherd-- Flying Down to Rio
Chad McQueen, Derek Bell, Vic Elford-- Le Mans
Walter Mirisch-- The Great Escape
David Wyler-- Ben Hur
Nicola Lubitsch-- Ninotchka


And More....

[Sue Sue Applegate]

David, already I'm making the tough choices....

The first official event of the TCMFF is always an opportunity to meet
the delightful folks who decide what we will see on our favorite cable
channel, and it's always a popular venue. So if you are a first-time
festival goer, be sure to attend the initial event for 2013 at 1:00
p.m. in Club TCM to find out how the process of creating one of the
most popular cable channels is accomplished by listening to comments
from the talent coordinators, programmers, staffers, and headknockers
in charge.

Cher wowed everybody last night according to what I've been reading on
different websites and Facebook pages. Her April Guest Programmer stint
surprised viewers with her salient comments, her enthusiasm for classic
film, and her chemistry with Robert Osborne, the King of Smooth Sailing
through the rough waters of classic film commentary. Her large white
hoop earrings were wiggling everytime she was thrilled to share her
reflections, and folks love her theme month. A Woman's World, The
Defining Era of Women on Film:
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/5 ... April.html

Festival goers are also chatting about the torture of making the tough
choices concerning which events to attend, but almost everyone plans on
seeing Jane Fonda follow in her father's footprints...

Which will now become a Fonda family tradition...

Jane waving to fans...

And I'm wondering will any special friends join her?

Maybe one of her costars?
And then there's the question of..

Barbra, will you be there?

And which films will be anointed as the ever popular TBA's on Sunday?

[Sue Sue Applegate]

A REAL TESTAMENT TO COURAGE....

The Great Escape will be screened at the TCMFF 2013 on Friday at 5:30
at the "TCL Chinese Theatre," formerly known as the artist "Grauman's
Chinese Theatre."

Australian author Paul Brickhill detailed the real-life escapades of
the action-packed The Great Escape in his1950 novel The
Great Escape, and was a trained RAF fighter pilot who was shot
down over Tunisia in 1943 and then sent to Stalag Luft III where he
was imprisoned with other officers. Because of his own claustrophobia,
he did not assist in the actual digging of the tunnel, but did manage to
tell his story in The Great Escape, and two other WWII novels,
The Dam Busters, and Reach For The Sky, all of which
were made into films.

The actual internment camp in the film was entirely recreated outside
of Munich, Germany, and the interior scenes were all filmed at Bavaria
studios while part of the actual escape scene was filmed in a
forested area. The production company thoughtfully replaced 2,000
pine trees which were damaged during the course of filming the action-packed
scenes.

And because of the manner in which directorJohn Sturges organized the
shoot, Steve McQueen is actualy seen chasing himself as he was allowed to
perform several of the stunts in the motorcycle chase scenes. The most
climactic scene when Hilt's character jumps over the barbed-wire fence
was actualy executed by McQueen's good pal, Bud Ekins, who later
appeared in such films as Bullitt , Animal House, The Blues Brothers,
and Electra Glide in Blue. Stunt veterans Loren Janes and Conrad E.
Palmisano will participate in a Club TCM panel at 3 p.m. on Friday entitled
"Taking The Fall."


Sir Richard Attenborough, director, writer, and actor appeared as
Bartlett, "Big X," and was popularly known in England for his portrayal of Pinkie Brown in
the classic Brit Noir, Brighton Rock, while his performance in Jurassic Park, and
his directorial accomplishments like Chaplin, A Chorus Line, Gandhi, and Shadowlands
has endeared him to American audiences. Gordon Jackson, MacDonald, "Intelligence,"
appeared as Hudson in the original Upstairs, Downstairs on the BBC. John Leyton, Willie,
"Tunnel King," had a high-profile career as a pop-singer in the UK, and also starred in Von Ryan's
Express. Charles Bronson and James Coburn eventually had high-profile film careers and Ilya Kuryakin
was in David McCallum's future, as well as his current role as "Ducky," Dr. Ronald Mallard, in NCIS.

In the documentary included as part of the extras in the DVD, Donald
Pleasance discusses his own personal experiences as a POW during WWII,
and how that prepared him for his role as Blythe, "The Forger," in 1963's
The Great Escape. Other cast members also experienced what it was like
as captured POWs during the 1940s, like Hannes Messemer, Von Luger,
"The Kommandant," who was actually interred by the Russians.

It would be lovely if David McCallum could introduce the film along
with Walter Mirisch, as another added guest star to the fabulous TCMFF
2013 lineup this year. Could it happen?

Happy 85th birthday to The Great Escape screen legend, James Garner!

On a personal note, I used to watch this film with my father who was a
Tank Commander in Patton's Third Army as part of the European Theater. He once
helped liberate a concentration camp in Germany as part of the course of his duties.

My father never wavered in his commitment to the fact that he
had never seen anything like that horror in his life, and would recall how happy the
prisoners were to see the Americans and be released. Films like The Great Escape, The Pianist,
and Schindler's List sprang from the realities of the horrors of war, lest we forget...

My father, C.C., and my mother, Dorothy, in 1941, before he had seen some of the horrors of war.

Holocaust Remembrance Day was yesterday, but we need to remember and
struggle against such atrocities every day.

Don't forget to take a peek at David From Seattle's historic blog about his travels to TCMFF 2013 on Route 66:
http://forums.tcm.com/thread.jspa?threa ... 3&tstart=0

[moira finnie]

Well, Christy, if your handsome father never heard anyone mention a resemblance to a gentler Robert Ryan, he sure is hearing it now! And whenever your mother shows up in your posts, I always think she should have been a model--but she looks too intelligent and funny to spend her days posing! Thanks so much for sharing that photo and your remarks about watching The Great Escape with your Dad.

Due to some of the great men I knew as a kid who were almost all veterans, I took some of that movie with a grain of salt, but thought it was great entertainment. After reading your remarks, some memories bubbled up from somewhere (can you explain Herr Doktor!?):

My best friend's father when I was a kid had been a POW in Germany after his plane was shot down. Because he had a big nose, this Irish-American was beaten regularly by a sadistic guard who assumed he was Jewish based on his appearance. Tom H. was a lovely man to me, but I often wondered how he endured that period and knew that his family saw some effects of this experience first hand.

Another father of friends and a good friend to my parents was Jim M., a veteran of the 10th Mountain Division in the grueling Italian campaign. He was among the men surprised by the Nazis when they parachuted into one area. He laid in the snow terribly injured with almost all his comrades dead or dying around him for almost 3 days while hoping that no one detected his breathing. Finally, another group of Allies found them. He lost an arm and an eye, but came back to his town laden with medals he never mentioned to anyone, finished high school, married his girl Esther, had 8 children and was the police dispatcher for the local gendarmes for four decades. (I loved going over to their house, because it was happy chaos, the kids were fun, and they had a police band radio!). All I remember about him was that when he wasn't working, Mr. M. might be lying on couch. His injuries and his appealing personality made him a magnet for me. He'd lie on one elbow, smiling sweetly at me with his glass eye and his one good eye would wink at me conspiratorially as he sipped his beer, watched the ball game on the tube, and showed me exactly how his prosthetic arm could go on and off. He was a beautiful guy and lived a life that I could only hope today's injured vets have a chance to know first hand.

Like your father, my Dad was also involved in the liberation of concentration camps via his job in military intelligence. Since he was fluent in German, French and Yiddish, he also had to interrogate both captors and their poor prisoners. Whenever I asked him about it he would answer rather brusquely, saying only that the smell in the air and the disbelief that human beings could do this to one another were still with him. Eventually he asked me to stop asking any questions about the camps since it all came back to him all over again in dreams whenever he talked about it during the day. (Yeah, he probably should have had some therapy along the way, but since--like millions of other guys--he came home determined to live: with a marriage, a job, and kids one after the other, so everything must have been perfect, right?)

He generally thought that WWII movies were ridiculous, but did say that 13 Rue Madeleine (1945) was one of the few films that more or less accurately portrayed intelligence training. He also hated officers (they kept trying make him an officer, but he was against it on principle), but he loved the French, thought some of the people he dealt with on both sides of the war would have "sold their grandmother for a nickel," and still spoke of the women whose heads were shaved for collaboration with the Nazis with a tear in his eye (he knew how little choice they often had).

I love your idea of David McCallum introducing The Great Escape, and really hope that Jim Garner makes an appearance if he can. I particularly love the storyline that makes Garner and the nearly blind Donald Pleasance partners in escape. It would be great if someone could discuss the films of John Sturges in some detail too, since the director seems to be a relatively neglected figure in Hollywood history who made some compelling films.

I would also like to see TCM feature The Colditz Story (1955-Guy Hamilton) sometime since that is a just as entertaining, often more realistic film about real life prisoners of war too. And it tells the story from a British POV, something that The Great Escape downplayed a bit in order to give the American box office a boost by highlighting Garner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn...but "hooray for Hollywood" and who says movies are history?

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Thank you for such a lovely, wonderful story, Moira! And I don't believe movies are history, but they are wonderful character studies with plots that weave a mystery we enjoy pondering. Jim M. sounds like dear man who had a wonderfully fulfilling life after such a struggle during World War II. What an inspiration!

Well, Christy, if your handsome father never heard anyone mention a resemblance to a gentler Robert Ryan, he sure is hearing it now! And whenever your mother shows up in your posts, I always think she should have been a model--but she looks too intelligent and funny to spend her days posing! Thanks so much for sharing that photo and your remarks about watching The Great Escape with your Dad.

Thank you!

I miss those two every day of my life. And my Dad lived long enough to see my son reach his third birthday in 1994. That was a blessing. (I have a video of Dad reading "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" to my son.) Mom passed in 2008. Fond, warm memories!

[JackFavell]

You two have brought tears to my eyes, with your discussion of your dads and their brothers in arms. My parents were too young for WWII, but my dad had relatives in Europe who were all killed during the Holocaust. I wish I could thank your dads in person (though I am quite sure they would be uncomfortable with that thanks) for fighting and helping liberate the camps.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

She earned the nickname "The Helen Hayes of Television" for her many
award winning performances, and we know her as Maddie Hayes' mother
from Moonlighting and Roz Doyle's Mom from Fraser, but her titled
nickname comes from some of her more heralded performances in
television's heyday like Actor's Studio, The Prudential Family
Playhouse as Edith Cortright in Dodsworth, The Plymouth Playhouse,
Studio One in Hollywood, The Goodyear Playhouse, Omnibus, G.E.
Theater and many others.

But her more heralded roles in film have also made memorable
impressions on the film-loving public like Eve Kendall in North By
Northwest, her Oscar winning role as a supporting actress opposite
Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront, her portrayal of Nell Gaither in
Raintree County, and Kitty Fremont in Exodus, as well as her roles
Grand Prix, The Russians Are Coming the Russians are Coming, and many
others. Actors she has worked with include Lillian Gish, James Mason,
Carl Reiner, Jo Van Fleet, Paul Newman, Cary Grant, James Garner,
E.G. Marshall, and has been directed by Alfred Hitchcock and Elia
Kazan.

She is currently filming Winter's Tale with Russell Crowe, Will Smith,
Colin Farrell,Graham Greene and Jennifer Connelly, and plays Willa as an adult from
the 1983 novel by Mark Helprin.

Personally family means a great deal to her. She is still married to
the man she wed in 1951, has three grandchildren, and has campaigned to
ban cell phone use by persons operating a motor vehicle.

By now I am sure you have guessed I am describing the woman Robert
Osborne will interview at the Turner Classic Film Festival 2013...the
Emmy awarded and Oscar winning Eva Marie Saint.

She'll have plenty to tell us.

I first saw Eva Marie Saint at the 2010 TCMFF at the Vanity Fair party. She was the first celebrity I met personally at
the festival, as she and her husband, Jeffrey Hayden, were leaving the party as I was going in. A very sweet,
kind lady.

[Rita Hayworth]

Sue Sue ... this is the first time I ever heard that Eva Marie Saint was called the Helen Hayes of Television and I can clearly see why ... thanks for sharing this. This is very interesting observation ... I can relate to that.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Thank you, kingme.

More festival news...

Leonard Maltin called Safe in Hell, a 1931 precode, an "extremely seamy tale" that "pulls no punches" as Dorothy Mackaill plays New Orleans call girl Gilda Karlson. Maltin also states that it is a "remarkably frank precode drama." Directed by William Wellman, Safe in Hell will be featured at 9:30 p.m. at the Chinese Multiplex 4 and in attendance will be actor, producer and director William Wellman, Jr., son of the director, and Donald Bogle, author, film historian, and professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and the University of Pennsylvania.

Hailed for it's unusual camera work, principal black characters not in stereotypical roles, and Dorothy Mackaill's riveting performance as a prostitute, a hidden early feminist gem with a shocking conclusion is another fascinating film passholders might not want to miss.


Bill Wellman, Jr., at TCMFF 2012 with a popular passholder who is a fan of
Bill Wellman, Sr., Bill Wellman, Jr., and TCM !

[JackFavell]

Oh man, now that I'd love to see... Safe in Hell is one of my favorite pre-codes.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Good point, David.
Glad you like the movie star with Bill Wellman, Jr.!

And we have updates.

To visit the Festival 101 facts, follow this link:
http://filmfestival.tcm.com/attend/festival101.php

And we have more updates that include Burt Reynolds, Malcolm McDowell, John Boorman, Rose McGowan, and Rob Marshall.

This just in from the TCM Newsroom:

More Celebrity Appearances Announced For the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival

With just over a week left to go before the launch of the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) continues to expand the roster of special guests for the four-day event, which will take place April 25-28 in Hollywood. Burt Reynolds and filmmaker John Boorman will join the previously announced Jon Voight at a screening of Boorman's Deliverance (1972). Director Rob Marshall is set to appear at a screening of his Oscar®-winning film Chicago (2002), starring Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta Jones, Richard Gere and Queen Latifah.

Actress Rose McGowan, a past co-host of TCM's Essentials showcase, will be on hand for a screening of Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious (1946), starring Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant and Claude Rains. And actor Malcolm McDowell will appear at a screening of Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), starring James Cagney.

[JackFavell]

Am I not getting something about Malcolm MacDowell and Yankee Doodle Dandy? It just seems weird to me.