Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will pay tribute to one of the entertainment industry's most celebrated figures – Quincy Jones – during the 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival next spring. Jones will appear at multiple events during the festival, including a 50th anniversary screening of Sidney Lumet's powerful drama The Pawnbroker (1964), which marked Jones' debut as a film composer. Entering its fifth year, the TCM Classic Film Festival will take place April 10-13, 2014, in Hollywood. The star-studded event will coincide with TCM's 20th anniversary as a leading authority in classic film.
In addition to the Quincy Jones tribute, the 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival will feature three world premiere restorations. The slate includes two movies considered to be among the greatest films noir ever made: Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944), which will be celebrating its 70th anniversary, and Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958). Also joining the festival lineup is the world premiere restoration of William Wyler's Best Picture Oscar® winner The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).
Previously announced films on the 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival lineup include the recently restored Gone with the Wind (1939) and a presentation of The Wizard of Oz (1939) in its stunning new IMAX® 3D format. Both films are celebrating their 75th anniversaries in 2014. The festival will also include a screening of the Harold Lloyd comedy classic Why Worry? (1923), with legendary silent-film composer Carl Davis conducting the live world premiere performance of his new original score.
Passes for the 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival can be purchased exclusively through the official festival website: http://www.tcm.com/festival. Descriptions for the newly announced additions to the festival lineup are included below. Additional screenings and events for the 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival will be announced over the coming months.
A Tribute to Quincy Jones
The TCM Classic Film Festival will pay tribute to entertainment legend Quincy Jones, who will participate in multiple events, including an on-stage interview and a 50th anniversary screening of the movie that marked his debut as a film composer, The Pawnbroker (1964). Celebrating more than 60 years in the entertainment industry, Jones is an impresario in the broadest and most creative sense of the word. He has forged an extraordinary, multi-faceted career as a composer, record producer, artist, film producer, arranger, conductor, instrumentalist, TV producer, record company executive, magazine founder, multi-media entrepreneur and humanitarian. A master inventor of musical hybrids, Jones has shuffled pop, soul, hip-hop, jazz, classical, African and Brazilian music into many dazzling fusions, traversing virtually every medium. In the early '60s, Jones turned his attention to the world of film scores, an area that had essentially been closed to African-Americans. He made his debut with Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker, the first of nearly 40 motion pictures he has scored. His credits also include scores for In Cold Blood (1967) and In the Heat of the Night (1967). In 1985, he co-produced Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, which garnered 11 Oscar® nominations, introduced Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey to film audiences and marked Quincy’s debut as a film producer.
The Pawnbroker (1964) – 50th Anniversary screening from newly struck print and presented in collaboration with Paramount Pictures
Sidney Lumet broke new ground with this powerful drama that marked the first major American film ever to depict the Holocaust from the perspective of a survivor. Rod Steiger stars as a Harlem pawnshop owner who has closed himself from the world emotionally as the result of losing his family during the Holocaust. Geraldine Fitzgerald co-stars as a sympathetic social worker, with Brock Peters as a pimp using the pawnshop as a front and Jaime Sánchez as a kind-hearted shop assistant. Quincy Jones provides a memorable and haunting jazz score in his first outing as a film composer.
Newly Added Screenings
Double Indemnity (1944) – World Premiere of 70th Anniversary Restoration
Fully restored from the original negative and presented in collaboration with Universal Studios
Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler fashioned this quintessential film noir from a novella by James M. Cain. Fred MacMurray stars as an insurance salesman lured into a romance with the wives of one of his clients. When she suggests a plan to murder her husband for the insurance money, the stage is set for all kinds of schemes and double-crosses. Edward G. Robinson co-stars as MacMurray's suspicious boss. Intricate plotting, razor-sharp dialogue, tight editing and a terrific score by Miklós Rózsa help make this one of the all-time greats.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) – World Premiere Restoration
Fully restored from the original negative and presented in collaboration with Samuel Goldwyn Films
This heartfelt drama from director William Wyler takes on the difficult issues soldiers face when coming home from World War II. The extraordinary cast includes Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo and real-life injured veteran Harold Russell. A huge hit at the box office, The Best Years of Our Lives took home a total of seven Academy Awards®, including Oscars® for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (March) and Best Supporting Actor (Russell). The Academy also gave Russell an honorary award "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance."
Touch of Evil (1958) – World Premiere Restoration
Reconstructed from the original camera negative and presented in collaboration with Universal Studios
Orson Welles took film noir to its darkest depths with this story about a border-town nightmare. Charlton Heston stars as a Mexican drug-enforcement officer helping American detectives investigate a car bomb explosion at a border crossing. Janet Leigh is his young wife, and Welles is the corrupt American detective heading the case. Also starring are Akim Tamiroff, Marlene Dietrich, Joseph Calleia, Keenan Wynn, Joseph Cotten, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Mercedes McCambridge. Though Welles' original cut is lost to history, this version includes the 1998 reconstruction by producer Rick Schmidlin and editor/sound designer Walter Murch using Welles' 1958 notes and a new, painstakingly restored original negative.
2014 TCM Classic Film Festival – Passes & Venues
For the fifth consecutive year, thousands of movie lovers from around the globe will descend upon Hollywood for the TCM Classic Film Festival. The 2014 festival is set to take place Thursday, April 10 – Sunday, April 13, coinciding with TCM's 20th anniversary as a leading authority in classic film. Over four packed days and nights packed, attendees will be treated to an extensive lineup of great movies, appearances by legendary stars and filmmakers, fascinating presentations and panel discussions, special events and more.
The theme for the 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival will be Family in the Movies: The Ties that Bind. Throughout the four-day lineup, the festival will showcase on-screen clans of all types – big and small, happy and imperfect, musical and dramatic. In addition, the festival will spotlight the first families of Hollywood and the filmmaking dynasties that have entertained generations. And it will explore the kinship that connects close-knit groups of professionals behind the camera, such as the stock companies of classic Hollywood.
Passes for the 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival can be purchased through the festival website at http://www.tcm.com/festival. Pass availability is limited, so those wishing to attend the festival are encouraged to buy their passes quickly.
The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, which has a longstanding role in movie history and was the site of the first Academy Awards® ceremony, is set to serve as the official hotel and central gathering point for the TCM Classic Film Festival for the fifth consecutive year. The Hollywood Roosevelt also offers special rates for festival attendees. Festival screenings and events will be held at the TCL Chinese Theatre, the Chinese 6 Theatres and the Egyptian Theatre.
