TCMFF 2024: Updates From the Field

This afternoon, Wednesday, April 17, I attended the media event. As this is only my second TCMFF and my first with media credentials, I had never attended this event. I didn’t know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the crowd size in the Blossom Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel was moderate and the appetizers and refreshments were complimentary. The event was scheduled to run an hour. The first half hour was for mingling. I enjoyed seeing all the new costumes and props in Club TCM–including one of Errol Flynn’s costumes from The Adventures of Don Juan, his cape from The Adventures of Robin Hood, and one of Olivia de Haviland’s silk dresses from ‘Robin Hood.’

Ben Mankiewicz came out promptly on the half hour mark and introduced his four co-hosts. Before introducing the other hosts, Ben took time to remark that this year’s lineup of guests was one of the best ever–even better than the year they had a dog who looked like Lassie. Lol. Taking inspiration from Eddie Muller’s title, “The Czar of Noir,” each co-host was introduced as the “Czar” of something. Eddie was “The Czar of Noir,” Jacqueline Stewart was “The Czar of the Academy Museum,” Dave Karger “The Czar of All Things Hollywood,” and Alicia Malone “The Czar of Maine.” After this, Ben asked each co-host what movie they were most looking forward to introducing at the festival. I was happy to learn that Eddie will be introducing Double Indemnity which I plan to see. Ben joked that he was introducing my favorite film, The Long Long Trailer. As awesome as that would be, I’m fairly certain someone else has been lined up for that honor (4/23/24 UPDATE: Ben Mankiewicz DID introduce The Long, Long Trailer at the festival!!). Dave stated that he was excited to introduce The Prisoner of Shark Island, a 1936 film starring John Carradine. John’s son, Keith Carradine, will be on-hand to discuss the film. Dave stated he’d never even heard of this film and neither had TCM’s Senior Vice President of Programming, Charles Tabesh.

The big reveal for the media event was that season five of “The Plot Thickens” podcast is debuting on June 6. This season will be devoted to director John Ford and is titled, “Decoding John Ford.” The podcast will feature extensive, unheard audio clips and it will even discuss the search for a lost John Ford film. While much of the podcast will feature John Ford telling his own story, there were some documents unearthed, written by Ford, that needed to be performed to be included in the episode. Tapped for the honor of playing John Ford was Eddie Muller, who reportedly went “method” for his voice performance as Ford. He joked that he stopped short of wearing Ford’s signature eye patch, as it interfered with his ability to see the script. The discussion then turned to why Ford wore the eye patch. The answer was that Ford supposedly suffered from “undisclosed eye issues.”

“The Plot Thickens” will debut on June 6, the 80th anniversary of D-Day. John Ford was one of the Hollywood directors tapped to create films for the War Department during World War II. The podcast’s debut will be celebrated with a two-day marathon of John Ford’s films on June 5 & 6 on TCM. Ford’s grandson, Dan Ford, will co-host the marathon with Ben Mankiewicz.