Cinecon Classic Film Festival Opens in Beverly Hills August 29th

The 2025 Cinecon Classic Film Festival opens in Beverly Hills on Friday, August 29th.

This year's festival, the 61st edition, will run four full days, from Friday the 29th through Labor Day, September 1st.

For the second year in a row the fest will take place at the Writers Guild Theater at 135 South Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills.

I really enjoyed attending the festival from 2017-2019; links to my coverage of those years are at the end of this post.

While I ended up unable to attend last year's festival as hoped, I've already bought a day pass for Saturday, the 30th, and I'm likely to buy one for September 1st as well.

This year's in-person Cinecon guests will include Ann-Margret, Juliet Mills and her husband Maxwell Caulfield, Pat Boone, and Mamie Van Doren. Nancy Kwan will have a book signing on Saturday, the 30th.

Cinecon focuses on rare, hard-to-find films; the majority shown are from the silent era through the '40s. I'm particularly excited about some rare 20th Century-Fox "B" films this year, including:

*CITY GIRL (1937) with Ricardo Cortez and Phyllis Brooks

*SHARPSHOOTERS (1938) with Brian Donlevy and Lynn Bari, introduced by John DiLeo

*INSIDE STORY (1942) with Michael Whalen and Jean Rogers, directed by Ricardo Cortez

*RIGHT TO THE HEART (1942) with Brenda Joyce and Don DeFore

A few additional interesting titles:

*TAXI! TAXI! (1927) a silent film starring Edward Everett Horton and Marian Nixon

*IT'S A WISE CHILD (1931), a rare pre-Code starring Marion Davies

*LITTLE MISS ROUGHNECK (1938) with Edith Fellows, Leo Carrillo, and Julie Bishop

*GANGS OF CHICAGO (1940), a Republic Pictures "B" film starring Lloyd Nolan and Lola Lane

*THAT'S THE SPIRIT (1945), a Universal Pictures musical with Peggy Ryan, Jack Oakie, and June Vincent (BLACK ANGEL)

*GUNS, GIRLS AND GANGSTERS (1959) with Mamie Van Doren, Gerald Mohr, and Lee Van Cleef, a minor film I've seen and thoroughly enjoyed

*THE PLEASURE SEEKERS (1964), a variation on the classic 20th Century-Fox "three girls looking for husbands" story starring Ann-Margret, with favorite Gene Tierney in support

*DANCE OF THE BOOTLEGGER (2025), a short film about our friend Woody Wise, who was the projectionist at the Lone Pine Film Festival for many years

Visit the Cinecon site for links to purchase full festival or day passes at the Eventbrite ticket site.

For more on this year's Cinecon Festival, please visit my friend Kim Luperi's preview at I See a Dark Theater.

Previously: Cinecon 53 (2017), Cinecon 54 (2018), Cinecon 55 (2019), Cinecon Classic Film Festival Opens in Beverly Hills August 29th (Cinecon 60 2024 Preview).

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