Turner Classic Movies has put together an annual event that is a delight for film lovers.

The staying power of its TCM Classic Film Festival, now in its eighth year of delivering the goods at revered Hollywood venues, is an amazing feat.

What constitutes a “classic film” is not only subjective but arguably fluid, as many would think that the Golden Age of Hollywood, which started after the end of the silent era, set the foundation of the classic films rooted in the Thirties and Forties.

This year’s TCM Festival, not surprisingly, includes many films from the 1930s and 1940s, including a couple of gems from the brief period of time known as Pre-Code Hollywood that occurred before the imposition of censorship guidelines enforced by the “Hays Office.”

A film does not have to be from the World War II era or the Great Depression to qualify as “classic.”

The more contemporary “Best in Show” delivered a biting satire of kennel clubs and dog shows that fit perfectly with TCM’s theme of “Make ‘Em Laugh: Comedy in the Movies.”

Given the festival’s comedy focus, it should come as no surprise that classic comedians such as Harold Lloyd and W.C. Fields along with the comedy teams of the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy would be featured.

Harold Lloyd’s skilled turn as the comedy king of the silent film experience was on display in 1928s “Speedy,” in which he stars as an ardent baseball fan trying to save the horse-drawn New York trolley line run by his girlfriend’s grandfather.

Yankee fans would enjoy the cameo appearance of Babe Ruth hailing a cab driven by Lloyd, and spotting Lou Gehrig passing by on the street.

The great joy of the TCM Festival is to discover films that may have escaped notice from the general public and even be so rare as to hardly ever be seen by the most dedicated cinephile.

The problem with the TCM Festival, one that is not unique to this year, is the inability either physically see every film or to mentally survive a grueling all-day schedule where it is possible to see at least five movies.

It’s best to go with a mix of catching a few old favorites and exposing oneself to new experiences. For the latter, the default is to watch unfamiliar vintage films that come across so much better on the large screen.

A great find was “Theodora Goes Wild,” a classic screwball comedy from 1936 in which Irene Dunne stars as a small town church organist who has secretly written a bestselling scandalous novel. Melvyn Douglas co-stars as her suitor coping with blue-nosed family members.

A terrific double-bill of Laurel and Hardy laughs came with the short film “The Music Box” and the hilarious mayhem caused when they attempt to deliver a piano. “Way Out West” served as a great Western satire when the duo tries to deliver a gold mine deed to its rightful owner.

A real treat came with the fully restored version of “The Front Page,” presented by film archivists Heather Linville and Mike Pogorzelski who observed that because the film’s copyright had not been preserved copies of it previously seen were of inferior quality.

Though remade several times, the original version of “The Front Page” presented at TCM adheres most closely to the Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur hit stage play, a brilliant satire of the newspaper business.

For fast-paced dialogue, hard-boiled characters and rampant cynicism, you can’t beat watching the unscrupulous editor Adolphe Menjou using every dirty trick in the book to keep his star reporter Pat O’Brien from retiring to get married before covering a sensational execution.

For screwball comedy, famed director Preston Sturges made good with the 1942 gem “The Palm Beach Story,” which starred Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert as a married couple in a financial slump scheming to trick the wealthy Rudy Vallee to invest in McCrea’s invention.

The screwball comedy genre was popular during the Great Depression and thrived into the 1940s, and the TCM Festival highlighted a few other favorites, including “The Awful Truth,” with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne as an estranged couple.

In 1972, director Peter Bogdanovich, showing his love for classic Hollywood comedies, particularly the screwball genre, delivered the absolutely hilarious “What’s Up, Doc?,” a madcap adventure in which Barbra Streisand turns upside down the life of tight-laced academic Ryan O’Neal.

The real find in this great comedy is the feature film debut of Madeline Kahn as O’Neal’s controlling fiancée, a perfect comic foil to Streisand’s meddling with O’Neal’s efforts to win a coveted grant for his musical experiments.

For the introduction of the film, Bogdanovich appeared to tell the attendees that he created a G-rated film with “no socially redeeming value” and that had “no contemporary references that would make the film dated.”

Bogdanovich achieved his objective, though he did note that there was one slightly contemporary allusion that involved O’Neal spoofing his earlier hit “Love Story” at the end of the picture.  

The TCM Classic Film Festival is so much fun that it’s a shame it doesn’t last longer than four days. But the good news is that it will return next year.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.