Palm Springs Cultural Center Brings Tribute to Legendary Film Director Stanley Kramer to Camelot Theatre Today

The Palm Springs Cultural Center announces a new addition to its annual line-up of cultural programs and special events -- The Stanley Kramer Film Festival will debut at Camelot Theatres today, November 15th and run through Sunday, November 17th. The 2013 event, which is designed to coincide with other Stanley Kramer Centennial events taking place this year, will include special screenings of six of Stanley Kramer's best-known films. It will also feature special events, and special appearances with actress KAREN SHARPE KRAMER, Stanley Kramer's widow, and his daughter, the actress and singer, Katharine "Kat" Kramer.

"We are so thrilled that The Palm Springs Cultural Center has elected to create this annual celebration of Stanley's films, as well as his legacy," said KAREN SHARPE KRAMER. "And having it launch during his Centennial celebration makes it even more special to us."

The inaugural edition of The Stanley Kramer Film Festival will open with 1958's THE DEFIANT ONES, starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier as two escaped convicts who are shackled together, and must learn to get along in order to elude capture.

"THE DEFIANT ONES was ahead of its time, as were so many of Stanley's films," continued KAREN SHARPE KRAMER. "Set in the American South against the specter of segregation, the two men, one white and one black, are at first motivated to cooperate with one another purely to survive, but gradually, they begin to respect , and even like one another. This was powerful story-telling. Can you imagine that film playing in 1958?"

The second film in the schedule is 1967's GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER, starring Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Hepburn. The film contains what was, at the time, a rare positive representation of the controversial subject of interracial marriage (which was still illegal in 17 states), right up until June 12, 1967, when the Supreme Court struck them down ( just two days after Tracy died). "Katharine Hepburn never saw the completed version of GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER," said Katharine "Kat" Kramer (Hepburn's god-daughter and namesake). "She said the memories of Spencer Tracy were just too painful for her."

THE WILD ONE (1953), starring then-heartthrob, Marlon Brando, opens Saturday's Festival schedule. Often lauded as the first of the "outlaw biker film" movie genre, THE WILD ONE provides a gritty, somewhat romanticized version of the lives and loves of the rebel motorcycle-riding clubs that became popular in California after World War Two. THE WILD ONE was based on a short story that loosely chronicled an actual event.

Saturday evening takes audiences from the world of outlaw gangs into the mad, mad world of comedy with the ever-popular film, IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD. Produced and directed by Stanley Kramer in 1963, the epic comedy centers on the search, by a crazy and colorful group of characters, for $ 350,000 in stolen cash. Led by veteran actor Spencer Tracy, IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD features an all-star ensemble cast, including the likes of Edie Adams, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, and Jonathan Winters.

Sunday morning, November 17th, opens with the powerful drama, JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG, which chronicles the events of the Holocaust, and the post-World War II complexities of the Nuremberg War Trials. Stanley Kramer produced and directed this monumental film, which stars such film greats as Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, William Shatner, and Montgomery Clift. JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, won two (Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay), and earned Stanley Kramer the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.

The last film of the festival is THE CAINE MUTINY, starring Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson, Jose Ferrer, and Fred MacMurray. Set during World War II, and based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Herman Wouk, THE CAINE MUTINY was a huge box office success in 1954, and received seven Oscar nominations. It has also been described as featuring Humphrey Bogart's last great film performance. When the U.S. Navy was hesitant to endorse the film, it was almost lost to history. No studio, at the time, would touch it. Finally, Stanley Kramer, determined to tell the story, purchased the rights to Herman Wouk's novel himself and set about to produce the film.

"The 2013 The Stanley Kramer Film Festival will include a number of wonderful special events," said Janie Hughes, Project Manager for the festival. "There's a private Tea with the Kramers for All Access Passholders, an over the top pre-opening party, and a birthday celebration complete with a giant birthday cake. We plan on making this quite an event."

Tickets and All Access passes for The Stanley Kramer Film Festival will be available at the Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs, and online, starting Tuesday, October 8th.To purchase tickets in-person, visit the Camelot Theatres Box Office (Open Daily, Call for Hours), 2300 E. Baristo Road, Palm Springs, CA, 92262, Box Office: 760-325-6565. For telephone orders, call: 888-718-4253, or order on-line at: www.camelottickets.com.

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