Tony Curtis, Robert Osborne, to Wow Sedona Film Festival Crowd in a Night of Classic Films

[Nicholas Snow]

“Some Like It Hot” will be featured at 4:00 p.m., and “Sweet Smell of Success” will debut at 7:00 p.m. at Harkins Sedona Six Theatres. The event kicks off a weekend celebration entitled “Tony Curtis: Legendary Actor, Legendary Artist” featuring the films, a special gallery exhibit at The Goldenstein Gallery and appearances and book signings at the Sedona Arts Festival. Curtis will appear live, in person, for screenings of 'Some Like It Hot' and 'Sweet Smell of Success'; TCM host Robert Osborne will be on hand to host films and Q&A discussions.

The Sedona International Film Festival is proud to welcome legendary Oscar-nominated actor Tony Curtis to town for special screenings of “Some Like It Hot” and “Sweet Smell of Success” on Thursday, Oct. 8. Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne will be hosting the films and conducting live Q&A discussions with Mr. Curtis following both screenings.

“Some Like It Hot” will be featured at 4:00 p.m., and “Sweet Smell of Success” will debut at 7:00 p.m. at Harkins Sedona Six Theatres. The event kicks off a weekend celebration entitled “Tony Curtis: Legendary Actor, Legendary Artist” featuring the films, a special gallery exhibit at The Goldenstein Gallery and appearances and book signings at the Sedona Arts Festival.
“This is a big coup for Sedona and for anyone who is a Tony Curtis fan,” said Patrick Schweiss, festival director. “To get to experience his films the way they are meant to be seen — on the big screen — and then get to meet the actor himself and enjoy a Q&A with classic movie master Robert Osborne and Mr. Curtis simply goes beyond description. It is Hollywood movie magic at its finest … live, right here in Sedona!”

Director Billy Wilder’s Oscar-winning sensation “Some Like It Hot” will be featured at 4:00 p.m. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards (winning one for Best Costume Design) and won three Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture.

Two penurious musicians, Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon), witness what looks like the Saint Valentine's Day massacre of 1929. When the Chicago gangsters see them, the duo flee for their lives. They escape and decide to leave town, only to find the sole out-of-town jobs available are in an all-girl musical band headed to Florida. The two disguise themselves as women, calling themselves Josephine and Geraldine (later Jerry changes his pseudonym to Daphne), join the band and board a train. Joe and Jerry both become enamored of "Sugar Kane" (Marilyn Monroe), the band's sexy vocalist and ukulele player, and struggle for her affection while maintaining their disguises.

In Florida, Joe woos Sugar by assuming a second disguise as a millionaire named "Junior", the heir to Shell Oil. An actual millionaire, Osgood Fielding III, becomes enamored of Jerry in his Daphne guise. One night Osgood asks Daphne out to his yacht. Joe convinces Daphne to keep Osgood ashore while he goes on the yacht with Sugar. That night Osgood proposes to Daphne who, in a state of excitement, accepts, believing he can finagle a large settlement from Osgood immediately following their wedding ceremony. Hilarious comedy ensues as the men — or women — try to get out of the mess they’ve gotten themselves into.

“Sweet Smell of Success” will follow at 7:00 p.m. Press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) has been unable to get his clients a mention in J.J. Hunsecker's (Burt Lancaster) influential newspaper column because he has been unable to make good on his promise to break up the romance between Hunsecker's younger sister Susan (Susan Harrison) and Steve Dallas (Martin Milner), an up-and-coming jazz guitarist. Falco decides to spread false rumors about Dallas in a rival column and then encourages Hunsecker to rescue Dallas's reputation and make Dallas choose between his integrity and owing something to Hunsecker, for whom he has no respect. The plan works, in a way; Dallas insults Hunsecker, and Susan breaks up with Dallas in order to protect him from her brother. Hunsecker, however, deciding to leave nothing to chance, and against Falco's advice, orders Falco to plant reefers on the musician and have him arrested and roughed up by Harry Kelly, a corrupt police officer.

Osborne and Curtis will conduct Q&A discussions following both shows, specifically relating to each film.

Starring in over 140 major motion pictures, an American icon Tony Curtis first gained attention in a Greenwich Village stage production of "Golden Boy." Not long after his discovery, he was offered a seven year contract by Universal Pictures. In 1948 he headed for California where his screen debut had him dancing with Yvonne de Carlo in Criss Cross (1948). Universal realized it had a rising star.

Curtis first earned top billing rights in The Prince Who Was a Thief (1951). Although under contract with Universal, Paramount cast Tony in the role of Houdini (1953,) which cast him opposite Janet Leigh. It was in 1958 when Curtis and Sidney Poitier starred in Stanley Kramer's social drama The Defiant Ones (1959) which earned both men Academy Award nominations and was among the most acclaimed and profitable films of the year. Riding on the crest of Some Like It Hot, Curtis got to work first hand with his idol Cary Grant in Blake Edward's comedy, Operation Petticoat (1959), another massive hit.

For director Stanley Kubrick, Curtis co-starred in the 1960 epic Spartacus, followed a year later by The Great Impostor. What followed was an acting career that spanned more than four decades and included a long string of mega-blockbusters that earned Curtis the mega-star status he still enjoys today.

Curtis is now enjoying a successful second career as a fine artist, painter, assemblage creator, and sketcher. His work can command more than $50,000 a canvas now and it is on this he now focuses rather than movies. Curtis’ paintings are featured in prominent galleries all around the world, including in Las Vegas, Carmel, Maui, Whistler, London, Paris, and New York. In 2007 his painting The Red Table went on display at the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan.

Tony Curtis with wife Jill

Curtis will also host gallery receptions at The Goldenstein Gallery and appearances at the Sedona Arts Festival while he is in Sedona. This special weekend of Tony Curtis events and these films are made possible by generous support from the title sponsors L’Auberge de Sedona and The Goldenstein Gallery as well as White Tie Transportation and the event partner, the Sedona Arts Festival.
The classic films will be shown at Harkins Sedona Six Theatres on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 4:00 and 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $20 or $16 for Film Sedona members. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased in advance at the Sedona International Film Festival office, 1785 W. Hwy. 89A, Suite 2B, or by calling 282-1177.

For more information, visit: www.SedonaFilmFestival.com.