As previously noted here at TVFMF, Canadian specialty channels continue to stray ever farther from their original mandates. Parking Wars Marathon on TVTropolis? Garage Gurus Week on Discovery? Lordy.
Meanwhile, down in Hollywood, Turner Classic Movies continues to show specialty channels on both sides of the border how to stick to your brand and delight your viewers.
The Atlanta-based channel, a division of Time-Warner, is hosting its first-ever TCM Classic Film Festival through till Sunday. If you’re reading this blog and live in/or can get to Los Angeles this weekend, forget Cary Grant’s last film title and run, don’t walk.
Thursday night, they had Frank Capra III on stage at Mann’s Chinese to introduce a 35mm print of his famous granddad’s 1931 feature “Dirigible.” Earlier today, Mel Brooks introduced a print of “The Producers” and Tony Curtis was on hand for a screening of “The Sweet Smell of Success.” Saturday, there’s a 70mm screening of Jacques Tati’s 1967 masterpiece “Play Time” at the Egyptian Theatre (an even older Hollywood movie palace than the Chinese). Angelica and Danny Huston salute their famous director/father John and actor/grandfather Walter at a Graumann’s screening of “The Treasure of the Seirra Madre” and Leonard Maltin introduces a series of selected shorts–including some Robert Benchley gems from the ’30s and ’40s–as well as something called “Star Night at the Coconut Grove” (1934). Yowza.
Get more information about the TCM festival screenings and special guests here. For the rest of us, TCM is providing glimpses into the premiere and party scene between their usual weekend schedule of uninterrupted movie delights at their “Club TCM.”
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