Nick & Nora 4 Ever

Over the weekend, Seattlest had the chance to make it the Grand Illusion's showings of Love Crazy (1941) and Double Wedding (1937). (These aren't from the Thin Man series, but we thought more people would twig to a post titled "Nick & Nora" than "Bill & Myrna.") You have until Thursday to see them, at 7pm and 9pm showings.

Both of these pairings of William Powell and Myrna Loy had the tiny little theater in stitches when we went; there's something timeless about their onscreen relationship for one thing, and for the other, they get great lines. In Love Crazy, they play a madly-in-love couple whose relationship goes off the rails abruptly on their fourth anniversary. Powell pretends to have a nervous breakdown to stall the divorce proceedings, and things get a little Cuckoo's Nest-y. It's hilarious, but since Powell's character is a little on the free-range side of the sanity fence, it keeps your emotional interest piqued.

Double Wedding tackles the evergreen conflict between a roving, "Bohemian" soul and one that likes to plan for breakfast the night before. Powell is living in a run-down RV trailer outside of the town's movie theater, calling himself a film director. His romantic nemesis is Loy, whose backstory happens to be diametrically opposed to his footloose history. As you can imagine, even more hilarity ensues before, of course, the double wedding indicated in the title! (Here Seattlest wipes a tear of laughter from our collective eye, recollecting.)

The Grand Illusion is located more or less at the corner of 50th and University Way. Standard ticket price is $7.50, and you can purchase a $25 annual membership that reduces all showings to just $5. If you haven't been before, it's a tiny independently owned space with a living-room feel. You can sit as close as you want to the screen because it's not so big.