UCLA Celebrates Burt Lancaster Centennial

Actor Burt Lancaster was born November 2, 1913, and UCLA will be celebrating his centennial with an impressive three-month series.

The series opens this Friday, April 5th, with SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957). I absolutely loved this film and would really enjoy seeing it on a big screen, but unfortunately this series opens the exact same night as the opening night of the Noir City Hollywood Festival, which I've already made plans to attend.

Those who see SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS will have the opportunity to hear from a pair of special guests, Burt Lancaster's daughter Joanna and author James Naremore.

The lengthy schedule also includes appearances by actress Terry Moore (at A CHILD IS WAITING and COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA on April 8th) and the Film Noir Foundation's Alan K. Rode (for THE KILLERS and CRISS CROSS on May 4th).

Among the many interesting evenings are RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP (1958) paired with FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) on April 29th -- anyone still in town for the TCM Classic Film Festival may want to add that to their schedule -- and BRUTE FORCE (1947) and KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS (1948) on June 2nd.

I do wish FIELD OF DREAMS (1989) were included on the schedule; Lancaster has just a small role in that movie, one of the last couple feature films he made, but it was a really lovely end to a long career. Otherwise this is an excellent roundup of over two dozen of Lancaster's best films.

Visit the UCLA Film & Television Archive page on the Burt Lancaster Centennial Celebration for the complete schedule.

April 3rd Update: Kenneth Turan provides an overview of the festival at the Los Angeles Times.