ERASERHEAD
TCM, 4:00 a.m. ET
David Lynch directed Eraserhead in 1977, when almost no one had heard of him. It’s a film that’s so weird – and so, well, Lynchian – that it would be understandable if no one ever did hear of him. But one of the people who did see Eraserhead back then was Mel Brooks, who was so taken by its originality and tone that he hired Lynch to write and direct his already risky Brooksfilms dramatic movie, 1980’s The Elephant Man. Watch Eraserhead now, in this restored version presented super-late at night on TCM, and see what you think. The stars, by the way, include two players who would resurface on Lynch’s ABC Twin Peaks series in 1990: star Jack Nance (who, as Pete Martell, would find Laura Palmer’s body, wrapped in plastic, in the opening scenes of Twin Peaks) and Charlotte Stewart (Betty Briggs).