Don’t miss! Star-crossed
Nothing says romance on Valentine’s Day weekend like helping your lover bump off her husband for insurance money, right?
That’s the premise of Billy Wilder’s “Double Indemnity,” which adds sexy hard-boiled dialogue to James M. Caine’s novel, inspired by a real-life case in 1927 Queens.
The action has been moved to Los Angeles, where femme fatale Barbara Stanwyck seduces Fred MacMurray into a caper that could land both of them in the gas chamber.
Nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, it’s opening the IFC Center’s “American Hustlers: Grifters, Swindlers, Scammers and Cheats’’ series.
Screening today through Monday at 11 a.m. Sixth Avenue and Third Street. Info: ifccenter.com.
— Lou Lumenick
Hear her talking! A stritch on time
On election night in 2008, I was having a drink in the lobby of the Carlyle Hotel when Barack Obama was declared the winner. A few minutes later, an old lady in a Carlyle bathrobe and slippers dashed out of the elevator waving two small American flags and blowing a kazoo. She ran through the lobby into Bemelmans bar and started singing “God Bless America.”
I thought, boy, that Elaine Stritch sure knows how to make an entrance!
The Carlyle’s not quite the same since Elaine, who lived for many years there, decamped to her native Michigan to be close to her family. But almost as soon as she got out there, she started complaining that it was boring.
Thanks to the new documentary “Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me,” Elaine is back for a few days to promote the film. You can catch her at the 92nd Street Y on Monday, in conversation with Chiemi Karasawa, who made the doc. I hope she brings the kazoo!
7 p.m. at Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street; 212-415-5500, 92y.org. Tickets, $34.
— Michael Riedel
Make a connection! Love train
You: the brunette with bangs reading Adelle Waldman on the L train. Me: the shy guy looking for something to do on Valentine’s Day.
If this feels familiar, get to the Transit Museum’s fourth annual Missed Connections party on Valentine’s Day. The event grew out of the Craigslist section where lovestruck commuters toss a virtual message in a bottle.
“It’s people who saw someone they’re interested in on the train and tried to look them up online,” museum spokesman Eli Rumpf says of the distinctly New York phenomenon. “People take the same commutes every day, so they see the same people every day.”
The party features a DJ, cookie decorating, photos in a vintage token booth and a love poetry workshop hosted by the New York Writers Coalition.
6:30 p.m. at Boerum Place and Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn; 718-694-1600, web.mta.info/mta/museum. Tickets, $15.
— Tim Donnelly
Check it out! Gonna be all right
It’s easy to imagine the songs of Bob Marley appealing to children, especially “Three Little Birds” with its comforting lyrics: “Don’t worry ’bout a thing/Cause every little thing gonna be all right.”
It’s among the tunes in “Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds,” the children’s musical at the New Victory Theater.
The tale of a shy boy, Ziggy, who spends his days watching TV until he’s lured out by a friend, only to encounter a dreadlocks thief, is based on a picture book by the singer’s daughter, 46-year-old Cedella Marley.
Calling “Three Little Birds” one her her favorites, Cedella says, “I have three boys, and it’s a song that could put them to sleep and wake them up, too.” Her book, she says, “was a way to introduce Daddy to a younger generation.”
209 W. 42nd St.; 646-223-3010. Tickets, $14 to $38.
— Frank Scheck
Listen up! Spencer for hire
When NYC’s Jon Spencer Blues Explosion returned in 2012 with “Meat and Bone” (their first album in eight years), it felt like a hug from an old friend. The bass-less rock ’n’ roll trio has another treat in store in April when they release a cover of the Beastie Boys’ “She’s On It” as part of a medley with Link Wray’s “Jack the Ripper” for Record Store Day.
“Our paths often crossed with the Beastie Boys,” Spencer says. “We mixed a good chunk of our last album at Oscilloscope [the Beasties’ studio]. Adam Yauch’s kids and my son even had the same swim instructors!”
The track is something you might hear on Saturday when they play at Brooklyn Night Bazaar. If you struck out on Valentine’s Day, it could be a perfect time to redress the score. “I met my wife at a Jesus and Mary Chain gig in 1985,” says Spencer. Love is not guaranteed, but a good time certainly is. 8 p.m. at 165 Banker St., Greenpoint; bkbazaar.com. Free.
— Hardeep Phull