2026 TCM Classic Film Festival Recap: Days 3 and 4
May 14, 2026
Welcome to my Saturday and Sunday recap of the 2026 TCM Classic Film Festival! For my thoughts on Thursday and Friday’s events, click HERE.
Saturday started at the Egyptian Theater for the one and only nitrate screening of the festival, The Farmer’s Daughter (1947). This was another new-to-me title, one I incorrectly assumed was a drama all these years! Star Loretta Young famously upset Rosalind Russell (Mourning Becomes Electra) for the Best Actress Oscar for this film, and while I’m not a huge Young fan outside of some of her pre-Code work (everyone watch 1933’s Midnight Mary), I really enjoyed her performance in this. Actually, the entire main cast was delightful, especially Ethel Barrymore as congressman Joseph Cotten’s mother and Charles Bickford as the family’s butler (!). I also had no idea the film took place in the political world, and it is incredibly relevant today—from Young advocating for livable wages to dirty politics to Barrymore and Bickford kicking out a candidate for detailing what he means by 100% American. Watching The Farmer’s Daughter with a crowd of 500 elicited a strong reaction—several rounds of applause throughout—and it was easy to see why this film connected so well with post-War audiences in 1947 with its hopeful ending.
Where The Farmer’s Daughter felt very relatable, my next selection, also screening in the Egyptian, was 100% not. I did not know anything about Cobra Woman (1944) but it sounded fun! Leonard Maltin and writer Luis Reyes were on hand to discuss the film and Maria Montez, a Dominican actress who was a huge star at the time. Cobra Woman was the third pairing of Montez, Jon Hall, and Indian actor Sabu, and it was a resounding hit. The Technicolor was lush, but the whole murderous twin sister/cobra tale was absolutely outrageous. That said, it was a fun flick; I really enjoyed Lon Chaney pop up here and there and a mischievous/life-saving/island-hopping monkey that I honestly thought was going to be the hero at the end.
A mere fifteen minutes separated Cobra Woman at the Egyptian and Bamboo Blonde (1946) in Theater 4. I was pretty positive I would not make the B-movie due to the walk and the fact that it was in the tiniest theater, but I made it in the nick of time! Author Jeremy Arnold, who has introduced a few B-movies at the fest over the last several years, gave some backstory on this movie, which was directed by Anthony Mann, best known today for his noir and Western films. Leading lady Frances Langford was hugely popular at the time, especially with soldiers, much more so than Jane Greer, who has a small part as the deliciously evil fiancée of the GI Langford falls for. This is the kind of amusing musical comedy that I likely would not have sought out on my own, so I’m glad that TCM programmed it and I got to discover it at the fest on the big screen!
Dana Delany and Gigi Perreau before There's Always Tomorrow. (Photo by Kim Luperi)
I hopped back in line afterward for There’s Always Tomorrow (1956), the last of Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray’s four films together. (Their first pairing, 1940’s Remember the Night, is one of my favorites, their best-known movie was 1944’s Double Indemnity, so it’s wild to see them in completely different roles a decade later.) While I’ve seen this film, I can’t pass up a Stanwyck movie on the big screen, and it was a pleasure, if not a little heart wrenching, to see with an audience. TCM superfan Dana Delany and co-star Gigi Perreau chatted before the screening, which I’ll cover here at a later date.
My final film of the night was another picture I’ve seen before. Nights of Cabiria (1957) is my favorite Federico Fellini movie, and I’ve actually watched it recently in a theater, so the impetus here was more so to see Bruce Goldstein receive the Robert Osborne Award. Goldstein is the artistic director of Film Forum, my favorite New York City theater, and the leading force behind popularizing the pre-Code period in the 1980s, among many other things. It was lovely seeing the reel TCM prepared on him, hear John Turturro speak about him, and listen to Goldstein and Ben Mankiewicz chat/playfully spar before the screening. I hope to cover this event in more detail at a later time, so look out for that. As for the movie itself, it was captivating, which I already knew. I usually get pretty tired after watching five films in a day, and ending with a two hour long subtitled movie was going to be a challenge—I thought. I stayed awake for the whole thing, enraptured, as everyone else was, by Giulietta Masina’s vivacious performance, even though I've witnessed it before! Seeing this beautiful restoration on the big screen with a packed house was a moving experience and a great way to end the second full day of the fest.
Where I spent the previous two mornings at the Egyptian, Sunday began in line for a pre-Code, Looking for Trouble (1934), in Theater 4—typical Kim behavior at TCMFF! As usual for a rarely-seen pre-Code in Theater 4, many people were turned away from this screening. (Pre-Codes proving their popularity once again!) I was lucky to make it in, hear Leonard Maltin’s intro, and enjoy this little-seen William Wellman comedy/crime caper. I’m not the biggest Jack Oakie fan, but I liked his pairing with Spencer Tracy, and Constance Cummings was solid, too, though she didn’t have as much to do as the guys. (Arline Judge delivered a fun, wisecracking performance, as well.) Things got a little chaotic near the end with the whole earthquake subplot and a truly dramatic/partly outrageous scene involving Tracy and Oakie desperately trying to plug in their phone in the rubble to get a dying person’s confession, but there were some amusing pre-Code moments in between. Suffice it to say I’m very glad I got to see this!
A Swedish poster for Trouble in Paradise.
Next up: Another pre-Code! Shocking, I know. I hopped in line for Theater 1 to see the Ernst Lubitsch classic Trouble in Paradise (1932), which was also a full house. A pleasant surprise was TCM staffer Lindsey Griffin giving a shout out to Pre-Code Essentials and our book signing that afternoon (since Trouble in Paradise is one of the films we wrote about) before bringing comedian Julia Sweeney out, who introduced the film. When Sweeney asked the audience who had not seen Trouble in Paradise, it was a staggering number, prompting her to melodramatically throw out her original intro and dive deep into the Lubitsch touch! (I may share more from her intro at a later time.) Comedies are always a joy to watch on the big screen with an enthusiastic audience, and getting to experience a sparkling pre-Code Lubitsch comedy in a theater is really the cherry on top. It was a delight hearing the audience react to all the smart, sly lines and situations.
My next stop was The Towering Inferno (1974) at the Egyptian. I had no idea this film was almost three hours long! Because it would have ended after my book signing, I never intended on staying for the screening but made it a point to catch Ben Burtt and Craig Barron’s engaging presentation on the sound and visual effects. I’ve long been a fan of their compelling talks, and they seem to step it up year after year; this time around, they produced a humorous intro video and entered the theater in firefighter uniforms! I’ll definitely go into more detail on this special event soon, so be on the lookout for that.
Danny and I at the book signing in Club TCM. (Photo by Sean Savage)
Afterwards, I headed over to the Roosevelt for our book signing! We got to share Club TCM with Leonard and Jessie Maltin (Family Movie Night Menus) and John Malahy (Rewinding the ‘80s), which was a blast. I enjoyed getting to see and chat with fellow pre-Code fans, including the Allegheny alum I mentioned in my last post, a woman I ran into at Starbucks that morning, and a young woman I met in line last year who mentioned how inspired she was by us! The signing was definitely a very special experience, and I’m so happy TCM asked us to be part of it.
My boyfriend and I enjoyed a post-signing dinner at Miceli’s before getting in line for the closing night film at the Egyptian, Ernst Lubitsch’s Lady Windermere’s Fan (1925) with a live score by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. It’s always a pleasure to enjoy a silent film on the big screen, but watching one over a century old with live accompaniment in a beautiful, historic venue (that is also over 100 years old) with 500 fellow fans—that’s extra special. Despite the fact that we both realized we had seen the movie already (!), it was a magical way to close out an unforgettable festival.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks (and months!) for more coverage from the special presentations and intros from TCMFF 2026!
thanks for stopping by!
I See a Dark Theater is a website dedicated to classic movie-going—and loving—in the City of Angels. Whether it's coverage on screenings, special presentations, or Q&As around Los Angeles that you're looking for, or commentary on the wonderful and sometimes wacky world of classic cinema, you've come to the right place for a variety of pieces written with zeal, awe, and (occasionally) wit. Enjoy.
