My (Tentative) Plan for 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival

The schedule has been released, yippeee!!!  Now the difficult task of picking and choosing has begun.  There are so many wonderful films that have been selected for the festival this year, which just makes the planning process that much more difficult.

So here is my tentative plan for this year's festival, we shall see how much this alters as we get closer to the festival.

Thursday
I've got Thursday afternoon under control, basically because there are no decisions that need to be made-
Meet TCM: Special Edition at the Egyptian Theater
Sons of Gods and Monsters
Welcome Party/TCM at 20 Exhibit

Now my first issue, I'm not that jazzed about the opening night movie: Oklahoma, I don't know why, but it's not one of my favorite musicals and there isn't anything that's making me go: "Wow! I gotta see that."  But, I kind of feel guilty about it since I did buy the Essential Pass and I usually LOVE going to the red carpet opening night movie.  It would be the first year that I skip it, but, if I do skip it, I will probably go to the screening of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? instead, but I'm gonna keep hemming and hawing.

Then if I don't get my Vanity Fair party hook-up (like last year) I will most likely go to the screening of Bachelor Mother, it'd be interesting to hear what Greg Proops has to say about it.  I saw him introduce a screening of Lifeboat a few months ago.  He does a wonderful Tallulah Bankhead impersonation.

Friday
Friday is filled with a few tough choices, but I think I have it under control.  I plan to start with the screening of The Thin Man at the Egyptian.

After that I'm leaning towards A Conversation with Richard Dreyfuss and Illeana Douglas, but that would mean I'd miss 2 blocks of movies, so if I skip that I will probably go with Touch of Evil, since I don't want to weep through Make Way for Tomorrow.  And after that I would like to see A Matter of Life and Death introduced by Thelma Schoonmaker.

And then I'll finish out the day with Double Indemnity followed by Blazing Saddles, since I can't miss an opportunity to see Mel Brooks.

Saturday
Saturday is my day of super tough choices.
I desperately want to see City Lights, but I kind of wish it were in the Egyptian or Grauman's and it's hard to pass on Father of the Bride and have a chance to see Spencer Tracy.  I will probably end up seeing City Lights, since that was one of my must-sees when it was first announced.

Next up will probably be Mary Poppins at the El Capitan, because that will be awesome.

Then I plan on The Goodbye Girl because of reasons, which include it being introduced by Richard Dreyfuss and that movie is amazing.

Then the next block of movies is my biggest conflict, but I think I have made my decision.  When they first announced having Kim Novak on hand for a screening of Bell, Book, and Candle, I knew that I had to see that and I felt the same way about the screening of A Hard Day's Night.  So, of course, the powers of be had to schedule both of those at the same time.  I think that I'm going to go with A Hard Day's Night, because it's The Beatles on the big screen! And I had the great luck of getting to see Kim Novak speak before a screening of Vertigo at the 2012 Festival.  Definitely a tough decision.

For the next block of movies I was going to see The Women, even though I had seen it at the 2012 Festival, but the draw this time was that it's obviously awesome and it was going to be introduced by Anna Kendrick.  But, after going through the schedule with my father, he strongly, strongly recommended The Pawnbroker, and he convinced me that it would be worthwhile to see a new-to-me movie, plus I'd get to have an opportunity to see special guest Quincy Jones.

I'm intrigued by the midnight screening of Freaks, if I'm able to stay up I may partake in my first film festival midnight screening.

Sunday
Sunday is always interesting because there are a couple of slots with screenings that are TBA'd, but even without those movies listed I think I have a good idea of how my day will go.

First up will be Sunday in New York.

I'm then leaning towards Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, because of the young Paul Newman factor, but I'm also interested in the Judy Garland discussion at Club TCM.

Then I will probably go for Easter Parade, since I don't have that many musicals happening this year, but I'm still interested in the TBA at the time slot and I'm also interested in the 20 Years of TCM On-Air presentation.

For the final time slot of the festival I will likely go for The Wizard of Oz screening.  I avoided the 3-D, Imax release last year, but having it at the festival might be the push I need to see it in that format.

I will then party hard at the Official Closing Night Party, I'm excited this year because I don't have work/school the next day so I won't feel like I have to rush home.

So there's my tentative plan of attack, we'll see how closely I stick to this.  No matter how you look at it there are really no bad choices at the TCM Classic Film Festival.  It's really just a choose your own adventure and each adventure offers something wonderful.

Here are some other blogger's plans of attack:

Out of the Past

Backlot's will have their schedule up soon

I'm sure Will McKinley will share his schedule any day now

(Updated 3/29) The plans keep rolling on in:

Elise's Rambling

Cinephiled

Aurora's Gin Joint

Blog of the Darned

Another one from Joel's Classic Film Passion


How's your schedule shaping up?  Any similar choices?  Let me know.