It’s that time again! Time for the TCM Classic Film Festival! But wait! Hollywood is shuttered. The country is on lockdown and everything is canceled. But is it? Think again! Leave it to the folks at TCM to find a way around a global crisis to give everyone the comfort and joy of classic film, something so necessary today. The solution is the TCM Classic Film Festival Home Edition!
As he has done for the TCM Film Festival every year for the past ten years (not to mention decades at TCM), Charlie Tabesh, TCM Senior VP of Programming, along with TCM General Manager Pola Changnon, and their incredible team, has put together the “best of the best” from the past 10 TCM Film Festivals up through what would have been screened this year in Hollywood. With interviews and intros from festivals past adding more depth and excitement to the TCMFF Home Edition, films will run round the clock starting at 8pm ET on April 16, 2020 with 1954’s A STAR IS BORN, which opened the very first TCMFF, and finally ending on Sunday, April 19 at the conclusion of VICTOR/VICTORIA which airs at 3:30am ET. (Julie Andrews was slated to appear at TCMFF 2020.)
Although there won’t be a red carpet, and we won’t have all of your favorite TCM hosts chatting it up with the 2020 luminaries at each major screening, Ben Mankiewicz will be doing pre-recorded intros for the films which are airing. And what of our other favorite TCM Hosts – Alicia Malone, Eddie Muller, Jacqueline Stewart, and Dave Karger? We’ll be hearing plenty from them as they will be taking to all of TCM’s social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube – throughout the festival, interacting with the fans and talking about favorite memories and moments from prior festivals and the films themselves. But don’t worry! There is also a “Welcome to TCMFF” video with all five hosts, along with some “memory videos” which will be on social media over the coming days.
Always a joy at TCMFF is bumping into one of my longtime film colleagues, DAVE KARGER. With almost two decades as a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly under his belt, Dave has also been a frequent face on NBC’s Today show as well as hosting talent Q&A’s at Sundance Festival and others in the IMDB room, not to mention serving as a guest entertainment correspondent on Access Hollywood. In 2012 and 2013, he was the Academy’s official red-carpet greeter for the Academy Awards, only the third person to ever have that auspicious post.
Unfortunately, with just a TCMFF Home Edition this year, there will be no elbow-rubbing and chit-chatting, but we made up for that today as Dave took time out of his day and spoke with me at length not only about the upcoming fest, but also about TCM. Dave first began guest-hosting for TCM in 2016 before becoming a full-time host in 2018. It is something he has always been so well suited for and which he does so well. He has rapidly become a favorite with the fans, particularly on the TCM Cruises! And while Dave won’t be doing any film intros over the weekend festival, he did get to do something special on April 14th. Along with Alicia Malone, they hosted the films on TCM’s 26th anniversary night with a salute to Clifton Webb! Adding to the poignancy of hosting on the TCM anniversary night, Dave, who is a pianist, prepared a musical tribute suited to the evening, playing composer David Raskin’s theme from Laura and posting it on social media during the day. (Contrary to what Dave says, he is a wonderful pianist.) And as luck would have it, guess who is hosting the first post-festival night of programming on TCM on Monday the 20th? Dave and Alicia.
During our chat, we talked about TCMFF Home Edition, some of his favorite memories, picks and recommendations from an outstanding line-up, and particularly touching, the magic of TCM and “keeping alive something that is so magical and so important to the cultural history of our country but also the world.”
I have to commend you, Dave. I watched and listened to your playing of the Laura theme video you posted on social media yesterday. You are an excellent pianist.
Thank you very much. I’m very rusty. I used to study piano very seriously when I was a kid. I took lessons for like 13 years, but I have not had a lesson in over 25 years. I’m a little bit rusty, to say the least. But I figured that Laura theme, it was easy enough that I could actually learn it but difficult enough that it would sound good.
It sounded beautiful, Dave. As you said, “It’s easy, but it’s difficult enough” and that’s one of the beautiful things about David Raksin as a composer. And it was so perfectly timed to your hosting Clifton Webb night.
I’m always trying to think of things like that, different things that we could do to promote things on social media other than just putting a picture up and saying, “Watch this.” That’s the fun of it for me.
I’ve got to ask you about hosting last night, TCM “Clifton Webb Night” with Alicia [Malone]. It was the 26th anniversary night of TCM.
It was so much fun! The executives at TCM had an idea, which I love, we all love, which is to have the hosts work together a little more often. And it doesn’t always work with everyone’s busy schedules, but whenever it can work, it’s something that we want to do. Alicia Malone and I were filming the same week, about a month and a half ago. The producers sent a big email and they said, “Would you guys want to cohost?”. Of course, we said yes because we’ve been great friends for years, and they sent each of us the schedules of what each of us was scheduled to be hosting for the month of April. I looked at what Alicia was going to be doing and she looked at what I was going to be doing. And we kind of went back and forth on email and I said, “Well, I love Clifton Webb.” And she said, “Well, I love Jane Russell.” And she was hosting Clifton Webb night and I was hosting Jane Russell night, so we decided those would be our two co-hosts nights. The first one aired last night and then the Jane Russell night that we’re doing together is this Monday. And we’re going to show Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which is the first classic film that Alicia ever watched, but she has great memories of watching that as a little girl in Australia. So we definitely hope to do more of that in the future because we just have so much fun together.
I’ve seen the two of you gabbing and chatting on the carpet many times, but watching the two of you go back and forth last night – you had a great, great rapport.
Thank you. We just love each other. And as I said, we’ve been friends for a while and we got hired on the same day as TCM hosts. I feel like a big brother to her. I’m crazy about her. We really get along great.
How does it make you feel, you and Alicia both, essentially bookending the TCM Classic Film Festival At Home version. You host last night. Now you’re going to do Monday night after the festival ends. How bittersweet or how special is that for you to be the person doing that, bookending the festival, and on top of that, you host the actual anniversary night for TCM itself.
I know that that was a happy coincidence when Alicia and I decided to co-host Clifton Webb night. She said, “Oh, and it’s also the TCM birthday, so it’ll be even more special that we get to be on on the birthday.” And yeah, I mean, everything going on as bittersweet right now. It’s sad because the film festival is something that we all look forward to every year and it’s a chance for us to really get to know a lot of the most passionate TCM fans. On the flip side, the fact that all this is going on, and so many of us, all of us, are at home looking for something to keep us entertained. I’m hearing more and more from friends, family members and people I don’t know, how TCM is very, very important to them right now. It’s, of course, very sad that we’re not all together in-person, but I do feel like we are together thanks to the network. In the next couple of weeks, we’re going to start filming our stuff here at our homes just so that there isn’t a lapse in any of the hosted programming and that’s something that we’re all going to keep doing for as long as we need to.
Even if it goes for two years?
Oh my God, I don’t think it’s going to go that long, is it? Please! Yes, even if it goes for two years. No matter how long it takes. I have all the equipment I need now. I have good lighting, I have good microphones. I have everything that I need, all the technology to film here at home as long as I need to.
But you also can provide your own musical background if need be.
If it comes to that, then I will host at the keyboard. If it gets to that point, if I get really desperate, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll just sing. Nobody wants to hear that.
Personally, Dave, I would love to see that, to see you doing film intros and films dealing with composers, and you actually playing some of the film score while you’re talking about it.
That’s a great idea. The closest who came to that was a year and a half ago. I was co-hosting with Chris Isaak and after we were done talking about all the movies, we brought in a keyboard and he had his guitar with him and we sang a couple of songs together like Moon River and True Love. It was really fun.
Looking at the lineup for TCM Film Festival at Home, my understanding is you didn’t get to do any new intros or anything for the stay-at-home version, is that correct?
Correct. Ben Mankiewicz is the one who, as I understand it, has filmed all of the intros that are going to air. He was in a studio in LA filming with Peter Bogdanovich. He also filmed all of the intros that are going to air this weekend. The rest of us, Jacqueline, Eddie, Alicia and I, are going to be contributing via social media and giving all our favorite memories of TCM Film Festivals that we’ve been to in the past and people that we’ve gotten to meet and interview along the way.
Do you have specific films that you are going to be jumping in on social media with?
Well, the two that I’m going to be talking about, that I know I’m going to be talking about, one is North by Northwest, which airs on Friday, because I got to interview Eva Marie Saint, maybe you did too, for the carpet one year-
Yes, indeedy!
I was just so excited to meet her. And I’m such a Cary Grant fan, so I had to ask her about that amazing scene where they’re standing so close to each other on the train in North by Northwest, and so that was very exciting. And then I also am going to be talking about Sergeant York. We showed that last year at our brand new TCM Film Festival venue, the Legion Theater at Post 43. It was the first movie that we showed there, ever, and it was just the perfect choice, Sergeant York, to show at the Legion Theater. And we had the real Sergeant York’s son and grandson with us. It was really special to get to know them and interview them about their father or grandfather.
I think those are two fabulous films for you to be doing social media with. Now, will you be doing all platforms, or YouTube or Twitter? How will this work for you so that fans can engage with you?
TCM is going to put those memory videos that I’ve already filmed up on Twitter. Also, all five of the hosts filmed a video together, kind of welcoming all of the fans to this home edition festival and talking about some of our other favorite memories. And that as I understand it will be on Facebook and YouTube.
Now, looking back, because you joined TCM as a host in 2018, although you did guest-hosting back in 2016, how many festivals have you made it to, Dave?
I have been to three TCM Film Festivals. This was meant to be my fourth.
This would have been my 11th.
I started guest-hosting in 2016, just like you said, and then my first TCM festival was 2017.
What favorite memories do you have, some of your favorite memories from the prior festivals, not only that you hosted, but that you might have watched clips and videos of with a lot of Robert and Ben sitdowns with talent, the intros before screenings, engaging with the fans?
Well, one highlight for me, last year we had Kurt Russell and John Carpenter come for a screening of Escape From New York. And I don’t think either of them really understood until we got into the theater of how excited and passionate the TCM fans are. I think they were happy enough to be there, but they really got excited when they saw the enthusiasm of the fans, and it was a really fascinating conversation. And they hadn’t seen each other in a while and it was a great reunion for them. And then I would say as far as something that I wasn’t involved in, most years TCM likes to try to show a silent film with a live orchestra company. Last year they showed A Woman of Affairs (1928) with a live orchestra at the Egyptian Theatre. It was so special. I felt like I had walked back in time to a moment where this type of screening would go on. One of the orchestra members was the grandson of John Gilbert, who was one of the stars of the movies. That added a little extra appeal. But that was really special. And then also, I remember the first TCM Festival I ever went to, one of the first things I ever attended was a Cinerama screening of the documentary, This is Cinerama, which introduced the Cinerama concept to the audiences, and Leonard Maltin hosted that. Just to sit there and listen to him talk about the history of Cinerama and just do it in his own wonderful way, that was a thrill. I felt like I was really watching film history in front of me.
I was there for that one and that was amazing. And I remember last year, you and I were just chatting in-between stuff and I remember how excited you were about Escape From New York with Kurt and Bogdanovich. You were like a kid in the candy store!
I know it! I do a lot of interviews with actors and directors, and I love it. But a lot of the time it’s people who are on the press tour or on the award season campaign and they’re doing dozens of interviews every week. But at the TCM Film Festival, a lot of these people are stars that haven’t been in the public eye in a while, haven’t done that many interviews, you can sense their excitement as much as you can sense the excitement of the fans.
Are there any films out of this huge lineup of films – I mean, my gosh, 24 hours a day of TCM Film Festival at Home for four days – are there any films other than the two that, so far, you’re going to be providing social media input on, is there anything you’re very excited about or that you think people really should make sure that they tune in and watch?
Well, if you’ve never seen Network, I know you have, but anyone who’s never seen Network, that’s a “must see” and that’s on Saturday afternoon. It’s the last movie that earned five acting Oscar nominations. No movie has done that since. And it’s a movie that even though it’s almost 45 years old, it feels just so relevant today. That’s one that I would really recommend. I’m excited that we’re showing Metropolis. I’m excited because I love silent films, so I’m excited we’re showing that and I’m really excited that we’re showing Safety Last!. I actually dressed up as Harold Lloyd for Halloween on the TCM Cruise last October, so I have a newfound appreciation for him. This is the famous movie where he’s hanging from that clock. Those are the ones that I would point people to.
You’re right. I have seen Network. Network was the very first movie review I did. January 1977 for a Philadelphia paper and I got paid. It was also the very last movie I saw in a theater with my father because he said movie tickets were too expensive, so he wouldn’t pay to go to the movies anymore. And that was in January ’77.
Oh my God! That’s amazing.
I have great affection for Network. I’m so tickled that you said that one. But yeah, Safety Last! As Suzanne Lloyd knows, it’s one of my favorites of Harold’s.
Oh, that’s so great.
So, what is the magic of TCM for you, Dave? You’re part of the newer generation coming into TCM versus old-timers like me. What is the magic about TCM, and being part of the TCM community and family?
Yeah, I feel like we’re keeping alive something that is so magical and so important to the cultural history of our country but also the world. And I’m so grateful that I’ve found a network like TCM that is so lined up with my philosophy, which is, I just care about the creative process. I care about how these people do what they do. I’m in awe of actors. I’m in awe of dancers and composers and filmmakers. It’s beyond my understanding how they can do what they do. I considered the piano. I can pick a song out if I hear it, and I’m proud that I have that skill. But I look at these other abilities that all these other people have and they just blow me away. The fact that I can help keep alive these classic films and these classic stars, it’s a privilege, honestly. I’m definitely having a blast. We’re just really excited now because we have this group of five hosts and we got to shoot together a couple of weeks ago and do this Zoom shoot together yesterday. The five of us just have so much fun together. It’s a great team. I’m just happy to be a small part of it.
by debbie elias, exclusive interview 04/15/2020
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will present the TCM Classic Film Festival: Special Home Edition, a celebration of TCM Classic Film Festival movies and moments from the past decade that fans can enjoy from the comfort of their homes. Airing April 16-19, this special remote edition of the Festival will feature 24 hours a day of Festival films, TCM Hosts, special guests, and additional events on-air and online yet to be announced.
For more information including a complete schedule and film information: http://filmfestival.tcm.com/special-home-edition/
