Famous Film Festival was an American television prime-time movie series that aired Sunday nights from 7:30-9:00 pm (ET) on ABC during the 1955-56 television season.
In 1955, ABC obtained the rights to broadcast 35 British movie titles. These included Great Expectations (1946), Brief Encounter (1945), Odd Man Out (1947), Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), The Red Shoes (1948), and Hamlet (1948). Many of these, such as Hamlet, ran two full hours or longer, and were either drastically cut to fit a ninety-minute time slot or shown in two parts.
Other British films from J. Arthur Rank Productions obtained at the same time were shown as part of ABC's daytime Afternoon Film Festival, which aired weekdays from 3:00-5:00 pm (ET). This show premiered January 16, 1956 and ended August 2, 1957, replaced by American Bandstand, which introduced Dick Clark to network television audiences and went on to become one of daytime's most popular programs, especially for teenagers.
Famous quotes containing the words famous, film and/or festival:
“All film directors, whether famous or obscure, regard themselves as misunderstood or underrated. Because of that, they all lie. They’re obliged to overstate their own importance.”
—François Truffaut (1932–1984)
“[Film noir] experiences periodic rebirth and rediscovery. Whenever we have any moment of deep societal rift or disruption in America, one of the ways we can express it is through the ideas and behavior in film noir.”
—John Briley (b. 1925)
“The surest guide to the correctness of the path that women take is joy in the struggle. Revolution is the festival of the oppressed.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)