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10:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Ladies of the Jury (1932 USA): The wonderfully stuffy Edna Mae Oliver stars in this entertaining RKO mystery with comedic overtones. Edna Mae plays Mrs. Livingstone Crane, a society woman who finds herself assigned to a jury passing judgement on Yvette Gordon (Jill Esmond). Yvette is accused of murdering her wealthy husband, and the evidence provided by maid Evelyn Snow (Helene Millard) is damning indeed. But Mrs. Crane is nothing if not hard to convince, and her refusal to cast a vote of ‘guilty’ leads the jury to take a fresh look at things. It’s a bit like Twelve Angry Men, only with One Stubborn Woman thrown into the mix. Look for Hollywood’s most famous stutterer, Roscoe Ates, as a fellow juror.

Thursday 7/22/10

9:15 AM Flix
Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (1969 GB): The 1920s were much in vogue during the late 1960s (how else to explain Tiny Tim?), and amongst the cultural flotsam and jetsam tossed up by this nostalgic wave was this film. Greatly inspired by Blake Edwards’ bloated comedy-adventure The Great Race (along with 1965’s Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and 1967’s Those Fantastic Flying Fools), TDYMiTJJ stars Tony Curtis as Chester Schofield, a motorist who enters a cross-continental rally for love and money. The comedy is broad, the romantic sub-plot uninteresting, and the cars divine—but most folks will want to tune in for the all-star cast, which includes Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Terry-Thomas, Gert Frobe, Susan Hampshire, Hattie Jacques, Jack Hawkins, Eric Sykes, and a whole bunch of familiar French and German faces you may not be able to put a name to. Perhaps most importantly, TDYMiTJJ airs this morning in widescreen—it’s an unwatchable abomination in pan and scan.

11:00 AM HBO Signature
Schmatta (2009 USA): New York City’s legendary garment district gets the documentary treatment in this terrific HBO original. Directed by reliable if unflashy filmmaker Marc Levin (Soldiers in the Army of God, Protocols of Zion), it surveys the past, present, and uncertain future of "the rag trade", which has of late been hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs along with the rest of the United States. Beginning with the Triangle Factory Fire (in which HBO producer Sheila Nevins' great aunt was killed) and concluding with the outsourcing epidemic of the present day, this is a fine documentary about one of Manhattan's most fascinating ethnic and business enclaves.

8:45 PM Turner Classic Movies
Gregory’s Girl (1982 GB): If there’s one word that best describes this made-in-Scotland rom-com, it’s ‘lovely’. Written and directed by Bill Forsyth (Local Hero), Gregory’s Girl stars geeky John Gordon Sinclair as the titular teenager, a lad with a schoolboy crush on football teammate Dorothy (Dee Hepburn). Gregory is hellbent on winning her heart, but he seems incapable of making a good impression: Dorothy’s even better at football than he is. Enter platonic gal pal Susan (Altered Images singer Clare Grogan), who is determined to give our hero a new lease on life. Gregory’s Girl is a romantic comedy with a difference: it won’t make you throw up in your mouth, and it won’t treat you like a complete idiot. In other words, it’s soooo dreamy.

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