My (Tentative) 2025 TCM Classic Film Festival Schedule

The 2025 TCM Classic Film Festival officially kicks off on the afternoon of Thursday April 24 as attendees pack into Club TCM within the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to meet TCM staffers. The full programming schedule is listed on their website as is information about buying passes or individual tickets. My current schedule at the time of publication is below, although changes are not only possible but very likely. My selection process prioritizes films I’ve never seen, the ability to get into the next screening, special guests, and film formats.

Thursday at the TCM Festival

From the second block, the only films I haven’t seen are David Lean’s Blithe Spirit (1945), the adaptation of Noel Coward’s play about a supernatural love triangle, and Ishiro Honda’s monster movie Mothra (1961). Looking at the start and end times of the films in the first block, if I want to get into Blithe Spirit, which screens in the infamously small House #4, my best chance to get in there is by seeing the theater’s previous film, Karl Freund’s pre-Code musical Moonlight and Pretzels (1933).

Friday

Going to start my day with Norma Shearer’s Oscar-winning performance as The Divorcee (1930) who responds to her husband’s cheating ways with two affairs of her own. John Huston returns to themes he explored in The African Queen in the WWII drama Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) starring Robert Mitchum as a Marine and Deborah Kerr as a nun.

After her hand and footprint ceremony, Michelle Pfeiffer is going to speak in front of The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), her breakout role co-starring with brothers Jeff and Beau Bridges as the titular piano players. Am going to plan an action double-feature with Tyrone Power starring in the swashbuckling The Mark of Zorro (1940) followed by the martial-arts comedy, The Last Dragon (1985) featuring real-life black-belt Taimak.

If not too tired, I will make it to The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). I’ve seen the film countless times but am very curious to hear Barry Bostwick. I was actually hoping to see this without a shadowcast as I am a fan of the movie itself, but for those who never experienced it, augmenting the screening will be the Happy to be Here Club. Hope no one hurts themselves on the stairs doing the time warp.

Saturday

If I get up for the first programming block (no guarantee), I am going to start with Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), which features work by special-effects legend Ray Harryhausen. Going to continue the sci-fi theme with Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) about a supercomputer that sets out to control the world. Although the film was made 55 years ago, the increasing use of artificial intelligence makes it timely.

I don’t know Gunman’s Walk (1958) but this western about a rancher and his disparate sons on a horse roundup sounds ripe for drama. Directed by noted film-noir director Phil Karlson, this screening will be the U.S. premiere of its restoration.

Presented in VistaVision, the Christmas-themed We’re No Angels (1955) is the sixth pairing of Humphrey Bogart and director Michael Curtiz. Bogart and his fellow Devil’s Island escapees (Peter Ustinov and Aldo Ray) help two failing shopkeepers in response to their hospitality. Also in VistaVision is John Sturges’s Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), the second pairing of Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster as gunfighter Doc Holliday and lawman Wyatt Earp respectively.

If not too exhausted, I’ll take in another midnight movie, David Lynch’s Wild at Heart (1990), a love-on-the-run crime drama that evokes movies like Bonnie and Clyde and Badlands filtered through Lynch’s imagination, which is why there are references to The Wizard of Oz.

Sunday

Having to get up early and sit over two hours for Oklahoma (1955) is going to be tough, so if I am going to see something during the first session, the world premiere restoration of film noir The Big Combo seems the best bet with its later start time and shorter run time.

A script by Preston Sturges is enough to have me interested in the biopic Diamond Jim (1935). However, the TBAs for the films that previously turned away patrons, a group I hope to not be counted in, begin to be scheduled in this time block. That makes planning Sunday’s schedule before the mystery titles are revealed on Saturday afternoon difficult. I would like to see Kyle MacLachlan speak before Blue Velvet (1986) and director Michael Mann speak before Heat (1995), but will I?