Laura's Miscellaneous Musings: The 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival in Review

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

The 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival in Review

Another wonderful TCM Classic Film Festival has now come to an end!

The festival opened on Thursday evening, April 13th, and closed on Sunday night, the 16th.

In between the opening and closing night festivities, festival-goers experienced just over 72 hours of marvelous films and presentations. The only difficulty was making hard choices from among so many wonderful options!

As was the case last year, screenings were held at five theaters, as well as poolside at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. (The first of the three poolside screenings, on Thursday evening, had to be moved indoors to Club TCM due to inclement weather.) I managed to see something in every venue except the pool. I'm happy to say the shuttle vans to the Legion Theater returned this year and made getting to that theater a very pleasant experience.

I largely stuck to my planned schedule; I debated what to see on Saturday until the last minute and finally decided to see THE CRIMSON CANARY (1945) and SORRY, WRONG NUMBER (1948) instead of THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948). The TCM Classic Film Festival is all about difficult choices such as that!

The biggest schedule switch was Sunday, when I changed my original plans for THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1956) and CASABLANCA (1942) in the big Chinese Theatre to HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1943) and THE RED SHOES (1948) in the more intimate multiplex. As has occasionally happened for me in the past, those last-minute choices ended up being two of the screenings which meant the most to me; I found them both deeply moving experiences.

Also of special note for me this year was the presentation of WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (1951) by Craig Barron and Ben Burtt. Oscar-winning sound designer Burtt (STAR WARS) rigged up his own version of Sensurround, which he jokingly called "Bensurround," and the Legion Theater was rocking when the world began exploding and the spaceship took off! It's a good thing they warned us in advance so that we wouldn't mistake the vibrations for an earthquake.

This year I saw 15 films, although I did leave OCEAN'S 11 (2001) early due to a combination of the very late hour and poor sound quality in the area I was sitting in the cavernous Chinese Theatre. I hadn't seen that film in many years and am finishing it at home on DVD this week!

I saw four films in 35mm this year, in the Legion Theater and in Theater 4 of the Chinese multiplex, with the rest of the films shown via DCP. Four of the films seen at the festival were brand-new to me; of the seven repeat watches, four of them were first-time big screen watches.

As usual, I'll be discussing some of the films at greater length in daily recaps and/or individual film reviews as time permits. Lots more photos to come!

Previously reviewed films seen at the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival, listed in the order viewed: SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943), FOOTLIGHT PARADE (1933), THE KILLERS (1946), WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (1951), UNFINISHED BUSINESS (1941), HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1943), THE RED SHOES (1948).