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8:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Two Heads on a Pillow (1934 USA): Dapper Neil Hamilton stars in this frothy, independently produced romantic comedy about the difficulties a man faces when living with a professional woman. Neil is attorney Jack Smith, whose former wife Evelyn (Miriam Jordan) is also a practicing lawyer. Years after their separation, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the same high-profile divorce case. Can someone else’s unhappiness bring the couple back together again? Look for Henry Armetta in one of his trademark working-class ethnic roles.

Thursday 9/29/11

2:40 AM Starz
The Illusionist (2010 FRA): Directed by Sylvain Chomet, whose delightful The Triplets of Belleville was an art-house hit and multiple Academy Award nominee in 2004, The Illusionist tells the story of Tatischeff, an aging French magician plying his trade in the disappearing world of vaudeville circa the early 1960s. It’s a world of decaying theatres, drafty dressing rooms, and audiences more interested in the big beat sounds of Billy Boy and the Britoons than in a man who can pull a rabbit out of a hat.

Finding work in Paris increasingly hard to come by, Tatischeff eagerly accepts a sozzled Scotsman’s invitation to entertain at his Highland local. While there, our hero meets Alice, a poor young scullery maid in whom he takes a fatherly interest and, after his pub engagement ends, the unlikely couple depart for Edinburgh, where they share lodgings in a hotel populated by other down-and-out music hall entertainers, including a suicidal clown and an alcoholic ventriloquist.

Chomet lived in Edinburgh during the film’s long gestation period, and the final product is as much a love song to his adopted home as it is to the genius of chief inspiration Jacques Tati. Using hand-drawn flat animation (and less reliant on the Bakshi-style grotesqueries of Belleville), The Illusionist captures the essence of that chilly, hilly city. It also features the most memorable bunny to hit the big screen since Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a fish and chip shop that serves both deep-fried chocolate bars and Lobster Thermidor, and even Tati himself: when Tatischeff briefly ducks into the appropriately named Cameo Cinema, the great man’s Mon Oncle is playing on the big screen. Melancholic and droll in equal measure, this is a film that will be treasured by anyone who loves classic animation, Jacques Tati, or men in kilts.

4:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
...One Third of a Nation... (1939 USA): In its time a shocking expose of the horrors of early 20th century tenement life, One Third of a Nation also marked the film debut of a 15-year old lad named Sidney Lumet. Young Sidney has a talking role as Joey Rogers, a New Yorker who takes a tumble from a faulty fire escape and suffers serious injuries as a consequence. Advised to take legal action against the building’s owners for negligence, Joey discovers that the fire-trap is part-owned by his sister’s boyfriend Pete (Leif Erikson) - and to make matters worse, learns that the building’s pre-20th century provenance precludes it from modern building codes and safety laws. Produced by the Federal Theater at a time when government was considered not the root of all evil but a force for good, this little picture was shot on Manhattan and Long Island with the avid support of progressive Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and the New York City Fire Department.

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