TCM Fest: Good god! Peggy Cummins heats up “Gun Crazy”

Film
It was a wild ride watching “Gun Crazy” (1950) projected on the humongous screen of the Egyptian Theatre yesterday afternoon at TCM Fest. Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo’s pulpy film-noir concerns a pair of newly weds; played by John Dall and Peggy Cummins, they’re just doin’ what newly weds do. They’re livin’, lovin’, workin’ … and they’re ...

TCM Fest: “Frankenstein’s gonna bite me and kill me,” said 5-year-old Mel Brooks 1

Film
In conversation with Turner Classic Movies creative exec, Tom Brown, prior to the TCM Fest screening of his great comedy classic, Young Frankenstein (1974), director Mel Brooks dug deep into his memory bank. Asked by Brown what spurred his ribald take-off of the James Whale horror flick, Brooks recalled: “In 1931, I was five years ...

“Travis Banton inspired my dressing Cher,” says Bob Mackie at TCM Fest

Fashion · Film
In a curtain talk with costume historian Deborah Nadoolman-Landis prior to a TCM Fest opening-night screening of Cleopatra, Bob Mackie described an early influence. It was designer Travis Banton’s amazing costumes for Claudette Colbert in Cecil B. DeMille’s at-turns-camp, at-turns-sumptuous Roman romp. “I was thirteen, I lived in Inglewood, there were three movie theaters there. An ...

Turner Classic Movies launches pre-festival: Road to Hollywood

Dance · Film
The amazing, generous-spirited, movie-loving peeps at Turner Classic Movies are launching a fun nation-wide program of FREE screenings in ten cities across the country en route to the third annual TCM Fest in Los Angeles, April 12 – 15, 2012. There’s a centralized ticket reservation website and it is here.

“West Side Story” 50th anniversary special screenings nationwide 8

Dance · Film
Robert Osborne, Marni Nixon, George Chakiris and Walter Mirisch discuss “West Side Story” at the TCM Classic Film Festival. Credit: Mark Hill / TCM NCM Fathom and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) are presenting The West Side Story 50th Anniversary Event in 400 cinemas nationwide Wednesday, November 9, at 7 pm local time.  The West Side ...

Movie musical talk with George Chakiris

Dance · Film
I had the wonderful good fortune to interview singer/dancer/actor George Chakiris at TCM Fest this weekend. The resulting Los Angeles Times piece here. A few leftover niblets to follow… His passion for musicals when growing up: I used to love every movie musical I saw. There was one that stood out, The Barclays of Broadway ...

Chatting with Chakiris today … 2

Dance · Film
I’m interviewing the great actor/dancer George Chakiris today. I only can use a sound bite from him and, believe me, it’s going to be devoted to his memories of working for Jack Cole! Read Chakiris’s stellar curriculum vitae … He was one of the dancers in Marilyn Monroe‘s “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” number ...

My favorite brother of seven, Matt Mattox 3

Dance · Film
Last night at TCM Fest: my first big-screen viewing of Stanley Donen’s “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” Especially fun since Jacques d’Amboise was just in Los Angeles on a book talk. He spoke quite a bit about making the film. Indeed d’Amboise’s name, well-known considering he’s “just” a dancer, buzzed around the TCM Fest screening ...

Music and dance contribute to early Disney animation

Dance · Film
In this clip from a talk at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival last summer, the amazing Marge Champion, 91, chats with the Pillow’s Director of Preservation, Norton Owen, about her participation in Walt Disney’s Snow White (1937). The occasion was the publishing of Mindy Aloff’s super book, “Hippo in a Tutu: Dancing in Disney Animation.” Mindy, ...

Even in 1924 Peter Pan wouldn’t grow up 2

Film
 So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things, and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land! — J.M. Barrie I’m very excited to see PETER PAN (1924), the delicious silent film offering of the Los Angeles Conservancy’s annual summer film fest, ...