2014 TCM Classic Film Festival to Open with Gala Screening of Newly Restored OKLAHOMA!

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will open the 2014 edition of the TCM Classic Film Festival with the world premiere of a brand new restoration of the beloved Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! (1955). TCM’s own Robert Osborne, who serves as official host for the festival, will introduce Oklahoma!, with the film’s star, Academy Award®-winner Shirley Jones, in attendance. Vanity Fair will also return for the fifth year as a festival partner and co-presenter of the opening night after-party. Marking its fifth year, the TCM Classic Film Festival will take place April 10-13, 2014, in Hollywood. The gathering will coincide withTCM’s 20th anniversary as a leading authority in classic film.

In addition, the festival has added several high-profile guests to this year’s lineup, including Oscar®-winning director William Friedkin, who will attend for the screening of the U.S. premiere restoration of his suspenseful cult classic Sorcerer (1977); Kim Novak, who will participate in a screening of the charming Bell Book and Candle (1958); actor Ryan O’Neal, who will introduce the depression-era comedy Paper Moon(1973); legendary documentarian Albert Maysles, who will return to the festival for a screening of his masterpiece Grey Gardens (1975);  filmmaker Ira Wohl, who will be on hand for his Academy Award®-winning documentary Best Boy (1979); and three-time Oscar®-winning film editor Thelma Schoonmaker (Raging Bull, The Aviator, The Departed), who will participate in a special conversation at Club TCM, the festival’s central gathering point.

Among the many previously announced events slated for the 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival, TCM will honor legendary actor, filmmaker and humanitarian Jerry Lewis with a multi-tiered celebration of his remarkable career. Lewis will have his hand and footprints enshrined in concrete in front of the world-famous TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX. In addition, Lewis will be on-hand for a screening of one of his most memorable films: The Nutty Professor (1963). This year’s TCM Classic Film Festival will also pay tribute to Quincy Jones, who 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; and Richard Dreyfuss, with screenings of two of his most beloved films, The Goodbye Girl(1977) and Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995).

Other previously announced festival events include a screening of the recently restored Gone with the Wind (1939) and a presentation ofThe Wizard of Oz (1939) in its stunning new IMAX® 3D format. Both films are celebrating their 75th anniversaries in 2014. The festival will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins (1964) with a special presentation, while Mel Brooks will appear for his comedy classic Blazing Saddles (1974), along with Maureen O’Hara for the world premiere restoration of John Ford’s Oscar®-winningHow Green Was My Valley (1941), and Margaret O’Brien for Vincente Minnelli’s perennial musical favorite Meet Me in St. Louis (1944).The festival will also include the following world premiere restorations: Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944), which will be celebrating its 70th anniversary; Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil (1958); William Wyler’s Best Picture Oscar® winner The Best Years of Our Lives(1946); the Beatles’ hit A Hard Day’s Night (1964); the Frank Capra comedy-drama Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936); Godzilla: The Japanese Original (1954); and the Lena Horne musical Stormy Weather (1943). In addition, the festival will feature 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, as well as recent restorations of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights (1931) and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger (1927), which will feature the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra performing their original score for the film.

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.

Opening Night Gala – Shirley Jones and Oklahoma! (1955)

The Shirley Jones success story could not have been more perfect if concocted by a studio press agent. Born in tiny Smithton, Pa. (pop. 877), the only daughter of the Jones family (brewers of popular Stoney’s Beer), the feisty and precocious Shirley Mae was an early handful, but showed signs of a particularly mellow vocal range. Her church, her teachers, and her parents were all savvy enough to see her talent and Shirley’s local music lessons opened the door to summers at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.

Someone suggested that 18-year-old Shirley Mae sign up for the “Miss Pittsburgh” competition. It was not Shirley’s passion, but she went along, and took the crown in 1952. Here the plot thickens some, because through all this conspicuous show business calling, Shirley Jones alerted the world around her that she had decided to be a veterinarian. And so, with all other bets off, she enrolled in New Jersey’s Centenary College and prepared for the journey east with a one-week vacation stopover in New York.

With her week, and her money, spent, Shirley received a call from a friend who told her that the Rodgers & Hammerstein show South Pacific, then on Broadway, would be having open auditions to replace two parting chorus members. And so, Shirley took that fateful bus ride downtown to the St. James Theater and the line of umpteen showbiz hopefuls where the stage had been meticulously set to deliver Smithton’s Shirley Mae Jones not to a veterinary college but to the time and place of her remarkable million-to-one public destiny. Shirley got to the front of the line and sang her song, “The Best Things in Life are Free.”

“Please wait,” the man said.

Another line and another trip out front to sing followed. Finally, almost exhausted, the line whittled down to a handful, a fourth performance, Shirley heard a voice from the back of the darkened theater.

“Thank you, Miss Jones, for being here so long. If you don’t mind, I’d like to call my partner, Mr. Hammerstein, and ask that he come down and hear you.”

“Oh, sure,” the always gracious Shirley said, “And what is YOUR name?”

His name was Richard Rodgers.

Mr. Hammerstein arrived and the Shirley Jones whirlwind began. Put under immediate “personal management” contract to the Rodgers & Hammerstein partners—the first and last time ever—it was not fully a year later that 19 year-old Shirley Mae Jones was screen testing in Hollywood along with the heavyweight likes of Kathryn Grayson, Debbie Reynolds and Jane Powell for the coveted role of Laurey in the 1955 film version of the long running Broadway play OKLAHOMA!. She got the part and many others followed, including roles in Carousel (1956), April Love (1957), The Music Man (1962), an Oscar for her role as Lulu Baines, the prostitute opposite Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry (1960), to the harried head of television’s The Partridge Family.

Her movie, television and stage roles, a record breaking Broadway run, two recent Emmy nominations, and an ongoing career of symphony concerts and speaking engagements world wide has earned Shirley Jones an incandescent place in the heart of all America that doesn’t ever seem to go away. And so, the only question left in the glorious Shirley Jones American icon story is, “Did anybody ever call Centenary College to tell them Shirley isn’t coming?”

Oklahoma! (1955)

4K restoration presented in collaboration with Twentieth Century Fox

Few actresses get to make their big-screen debuts in a film as eagerly awaited as Oklahoma!, but that’s just what happened to Shirley Jones when Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein chose her over Joanne Woodward to star in the film version of their first big hit. The songwriters held up making the film until they could get just the right picture. With the arrival of Todd-AO, Mike Todd’s patented wide-screen process, they finally knew they could reveal the majesty of the frontier in all its glory, including corn as high as an elephant’s eye (16 feet tall, to be exact). But despite the production’s mammoth size, the focus remained simple, detailing the romance of farm girl Jones and cowboy Gordon MacRae. Agnes de Mille re-created much of her stage choreography, which had introduced modern dance to the stage musical, while director Fred Zinnemann brought a surprisingly realistic approach to the production.

This unique 4k presentation, painstakingly restored from 65mm Todd-AO elements by Twentieth Century Fox and Fotokem, will be screened at 30 frames per second—the same frame rate as when the film was originally released in 1955. The original 6-track soundtrack has been also restored and re-mastered at Twentieth Century Fox, in collaboration with End Point Audio and Chase Audio by Deluxe.

William Friedkin and Sorcerer (1977)

For sheer cinematic punch, it’s hard to equal the films of director William Friedkin. The Exorcist (1973), The French Connection (1971), Sorcerer (1977) and To Live and Die In L.A. (1985) are such great yet hard-hitting pleasures to watch, so downright addictive, that it’s easy to forget what a meticulous craftsman Friedkin is on every level.

A veteran of live television in the 1950s, Friedkin trained in documentary filmmaking in the mid-1960s – training that led to the unnerving, you-are-there realism of The French Connection and the terrible beauty of The Exorcist and Sorcerer. “What I try to do before each film is immerse myself totally in many tangential phases of that subject before I make it – so I’m literally swimming in it before I expose a frame of film,” Friedkin has observed.

In 1971, his The French Connection was released to wide critical acclaim. Shot in a gritty style more suited for documentaries than Hollywood features, the film won five Academy Awards®, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Friedkin followed up with 1973’s The Exorcist, based on William Peter Blatty’s best-selling novel, which revolutionized the horror genre and is considered by some critics to be the greatest horror movie of all time. The Exorcist was nominated for 10 Oscars®, including Best Picture and Best Director. It won awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound.

Friedkin’s action movie To Live and Die in L.A. won the Audience Award at the Cognac Film Festival. Starring William Petersen and Willem Dafoe, the movie was a critical favorite and drew comparisons to Friedkin’s own The French Connection.

Friedkin started directing operas in 1998 with a widely acclaimed production of Berg’s Wozzeck at Maggio Musicale in Florence. He followed that in 2002 with a double bill of Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi at Los Angeles Opera. In 2004 at Los Angeles Opera, he directed R. Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos. Other operas include Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah at the New Israeli Opera, Tel Aviv, and Verdi’s Aida at the Teatro Regio Torino in Torino, Italy, in 2005; Duke Bluebeard’s Castle/Gianni Schicchi for the Washington National Opera at The Kennedy Center and Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, Germany, as well as new productions of Strauss’ Salome and the world premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s Das Gehege in 2006 and 2007; and a double bill of Suor Angelica/Il Tabarro at Los Angeles Opera in 2008. Friedkin returned to Maggio Musicale, Florence, in 2011 with Leos Janácek’s The Makropulos Case. And in 2012, he directed Offenbach’s The Tales Of Hoffmann at Theater An der Wien, Vienna, Austria.

Sorcerer (1977) – U.S. Premiere Restoration

Presented in collaboration with Paramount and Warner Bros.

This adaptation of the novel by Georges Arnaud, which also inspired Henri-Georges Clouzot’s suspense classic The Wages of Fear (1953), is director William Friedkin’s favorite of all his films, mainly because it came closer than any other to his original vision. This tale of four men in a South American backwater who sign on to drive a cargo of dynamite through perilous terrain started as a low-budget film. As Friedkin expanded his vision to include nail-biting sequences as the trucks cross a rickety rope bridge and navigate treacherous mountain roads, the budget rose to $22 million. Initially a critical and box-office failure, partly because of overwhelming competition from Star Wars (1977), the film has enjoyed a critical renaissance in recent years. Now hailed as one of the masterpieces of the ’70s, the film has been praised for its economical storytelling, lavish production values and Friedkin’s expert manipulation of the themes of fate and human responsibility.

In 2013, the director supervised this new, digital restoration that premiered to great acclaim at the Venice Film Festival.

Kim Novak and Bell Book and Candle (1958)

Audiences have always understood and loved Kim Novak, yet many critics misjudged her work as too simplistic when compared to actors whose stylized performances are now viewed as outdated. In retrospect, Novak’s work is receiving more acclaim with the passage of time. She is being recognized and honored for her acting ability. Novak’s most recent awards include the prestigious Golden Bear for lifetime achievement at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2003 Novak was presented with the Eastman (Kodak) Archives Award for her major contribution to film (prior honorees include Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn, James Stewart, Martin Scorsese and Meryl Streep).

Novak was also the recipient of a special tribute from the American Cinematheque in Hollywood where her films were shown at the Egyptian Theatre in January 2004. She made a rare personal appearance with a Q&A onstage between the showings of Bell Book and Candle (1958) and Vertigo (1958).

In 1956 Novak became the #1 box office star in the world and held that position for three solid years of outstanding filmmaking. Knowing that nothing lasts forever and not wanting to fall prey to the tragic endings that often resulted when stars and sex symbols got lost in identity crises, Novak made a decision to walk away from Hollywood. It took great courage to turn her back on a successful and lucrative career when she was at her peak, but she felt the need to go in search of herself to learn what she really wanted out of life. Novak moved to a cliffside dwelling along the wild coast of Big Sur, Calif., with the purpose of creating a new lifestyle in harmony with nature while combining it with her love of painting and writing poetry. One of her poems was made into a song and recorded by the Kingston Trio and Harry Belafonte.

Novak was born Marilyn Pauline Novak in Chicago, the daughter of a history teacher who, during the Depression, became a railroad freight dispatcher. In her mother’s attempt to help Novak overcome her shyness and become more outgoing, she encouraged her daughter to join a teenage club where she soon began modeling. She job appearing in two movies along with 20 other models when she was discovered by an agent and signed to a contract at Columbia Pictures.

Novak’s first assignment was opposite Fred MacMurray in Pushover (1954), a moody film noir directed by Richard Quine. She was the breakout performer and that film and it led to her second film, playing a beautiful Broadway playgirl in the George Axelrod comedy, Phffft(1954), opposite Judy Holliday and Jack Lemmon. 5 Against the House (1955) followed, after which she was loaned to independent producer-director Otto Preminger for The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) in which she played the compassionate concerned girlfriend of a drug addict, played by Frank Sinatra. Even more spectacular were her starring roles as the small-town country girl in the film version of William Inge’sPicnic (1955), directed by Joshua Logan, and as the socialite wife of Tyrone Power in The Eddy Duchin Story (1956).

In Jeanne Eagels (1957), opposite Jeff Chandler, Novak portrayed the title role of the tempestuous Broadway star of the 20s. In the Rodgers and Hart musical, Pal Joey (1957), she starred with Rita Hayworth and Frank Sinatra. In 1958 she starred with James Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, a film the Library of Congress named as a national treasure, picked the first time the National Film Registry decided to start adding 25 films a year to the Library. She followed Vertigo with a comedy Bell Book and Candle, again opposite Stewart and Jack Lemmon. In her next film, Middle of the Night (1959), she played a much less glamorous love interest of her aging employer, Fredric March, and she really shone as an actress. Her films in the early 1960s displayed her versatility in Strangers When We Meet (1960), with Kirk Douglas, and the off-beat comedy The Notorious Landlady (1962), with Jack Lemmon again.

In a landmark move for all the actors to come after her, Novak was the first actor (and woman) to negotiate an ownership deal of her own product, as soon as her original Columbia contract ended. The deal was negotiated by her long-time agent, Norman Brokaw, now chairman of the board of William Morris. She formed her own production company and did Boys Night Out (1962), and then flew to Ireland to star in the third version of Somerset Maugham’s novel, Of Human Bondage (1964), with Laurence Harvey. Her next film, Billy Wilder’s Kiss Me, Stupid(1964), shocked the Legion of Decency when it was released, but it was rediscovered and acclaimed for its forward thinking in 2001, and has been playing special engagements in art houses ever since to rave re-reviews, particularly for Novak’s performance as “Polly the Pistol.”

Novak returned to England to star in The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965), and married her co-star Richard Johnson. In The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968), Novak again played a dual role (which seemed to be a theme in her work) as an early day screen star and the younger actress chosen by an obsessed director to recreate her. Following The Great Bank Robbery (1969), Novak returned to Big Sur.

Though Novak’s first priority is her private life, she has never lost the love of acting because she views it as another expression of her art. She has occasionally left “the wilds” for a project such as Just a Gigolo (1978) opposite David Bowie, or The Mirror Crack’d (1980), with Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and Tony Curtis. Several years later she worked with Ben Kingsley on The Children (1990), then later on appeared in Mike Figgis’ Liebestraum (1991).

Over the past few years, Novak has chosen to express herself through her art. Her paintings are primarily impressionistic and extraordinarily emotional. She had her first public exhibition of her art in 2012 at the Historical Museum of San Francisco.

Bell Book and Candle (1958)

Presented in collaboration with Sony Pictures

The same year James Stewart and Kim Novak co-starred in Vertigo, which was recently declared the greatest movie ever made by the British Film Institute, they also teamed for this amiable romantic comedy with a supernatural twist. The two very different films are closely associated, as Paramount and Columbia worked out a deal to cast Stewart in this film and use Novak’s services on the Hitchcock picture. Novak stars as a Greenwich Village witch who casts a love spell on Stewart to steal him from an old college rival. It’s hard to believe she would need magic to make a man fall in love with her, particularly with James Wong Howe’s cinematography capturing her at her most beautiful. And as if Novak weren’t alluring enough to turn anyone to the dark arts, she has a family of delightful eccentrics – brother Jack Lemmon and aunt Elsa Lanchester – to sweeten the deal. A year before he shot to stardom in Some Like It Hot (1959), Lemmon steals all of his scenes as a mischievous warlock who plays bongos at the local jazz club and uses his magic to punk passersby.