English

Some interesting films on US television: October 17-October 23

Asterisk indicates a film of exceptional interest. All times are EDT.

Saturday, October 17

6:00 a.m. (TCM)--NORTHWEST PASSAGE (1940)--King Vidor's vivid film about Rogers' Rangers, an elite corps opening up territory in pre-Revolutionary America. Spencer Tracy is Rogers, with Robert Young and Walter Brennan. (DW)

6:15 a.m. (HBO Signature)--THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980)--David Lynch's moving film about society's cruelty toward John Merrick, the grossly deformed 'elephant man,' set in the context of the brutality of the Industrial Revolution in London at the turn of the century. John Hurt plays Merrick. With Anthony Hopkins, Anne Bancroft and John Gielgud. (MJ)

7:05 a.m. (TMC)--MARATHON MAN (1976)--Exciting, convoluted spy thriller about stolen jewels, Nazis hiding out in the US, and the CIA. Starring Dustin Hoffman and Roy Scheider. Laurence Olivier is particularly effective as a sadistic Mengele-type dentist. Directed by John Schlesinger. (MJ)

8:30 a.m. (TCM)--The Good Earth (1937)--Pearl Buck's novel about peasants in China brought to the screen and directed by dull and earnest Sidney Franklin. Despite everything, the film is moving. With Paul Muni and Luise Rainer. (DW)

10:00 a.m. (AMC)--Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)--Melodrama set in Hong Kong during the Korean War, with Jennifer Jones as a Eurasian doctor who falls for William Holden. Directed by Henry King. (DW)

*10:45 a.m. (HBO Plus)--FEARLESS (1993)--Jeff Bridges experiences the eerie effects of having survived a jetliner crash. Stunning performance by Rosie Perez. Directed by Peter Weir. (MJ)

*11:00 a.m. (HBO Signature)--SMILLA'S SENSE OF SNOW (1997)--In Copenhagen, a half-Inuit scientist (Julia Ormond) investigates the suspicious death from falling of a young Inuit boy. A quiet, brooding film with beautiful photography of Denmark and Greenland is marred by a conventional melodramatic ending with a conventional corporate villain (overplayed by Richard Harris with evil white hair). Also starring Gabriel Byrne. (MJ)

12:00 p.m. (FX)--NIGHT AND THE CITY (1992)--Fair remake of the superb 1950 film noir by Jules Dassin. In this version, directed by Irwin Winkler, Robert De Niro takes the Richard Widmark part, and the scene is shifted from London to New York City. The shady world of boxing promotion is well captured in the screenplay by Richard Price. (MJ)

12:00 p.m. (AMC)--A Night to Remember (1958)--Well-made film about the sinking of the Titanic, directed by Roy Ward Baker. With Kenneth More, David McCallum, Jill Dixon, Laurence Naismith. Novelist Eric Ambler wrote the script based on the book by Walter Lord. (DW)

1:00 p.m. (TMC)--SERPICO (1973)--Al Pacino plays a loner cop taking on corruption in the New York Police Department. As always, director Sidney Lumet captures the texture of New York City. (MJ)

1:00 p.m. (Sundance)--THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD (1995)--Bizarre crime thriller about horrific revenge exacted by mob boss (played with extreme creepiness by Christopher Walken in a motorized wheelchair) upon local hoods. With Andy Garcia and Steve Buscemi. Directed by Gary Fleder. (MJ)

4:00 p.m. (HBO)--CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)--Steven Spielberg's special-effects-filled take on UFO sighting as a religious experience. Starring Richard Dreyfuss. (MJ)

4:30 p.m. (TCM)--National Velvet (1944)--Elizabeth Taylor is dazzling as teenager determined to enter her beloved horse in the Grand National Steeplechase. With Anne Revere, Donald Crisp and Mickey Rooney; directed by Clarence Brown. (DW)

5:00 p.m. (TNT)--For a Few Dollars More (1966)--The sequel to A Fistful of Dollars. One of the more memorable 'spaghetti Westerns'; with Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Gian Maria Volonte, directed by Sergio Leone. (DW)

8:00 p.m. (TNT)--THE STING (1973)--A duo of con men (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) pull an intricate scam on a gangster during the Depression. Good, playful, with lots of surprises. Memorable score made up of Scott Joplin ragtime music. With Robert Shaw. Directed by George Roy Hill. (MJ)

*8:00 p.m. (TCM)--Gilda (1946)--Rita Hayworth is spectacular (singing 'Put the Blame on Mame') in Charles Vidor's drama about a love triangle in postwar South America. George Macready is a shady casino owner, Hayworth his restless wife and Glenn Ford a new employee. (DW)

9:00 p.m. (Sundance)--THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD (1995)--See 1:00 p.m.

*9:00 p.m. (HBO Family)--WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S 'ROMEO + JULIET' (1996)--Inventive and exciting modern-dress version of the play. Starring Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio. (MJ)

11:30 p.m. (Starz)--AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY (1997)--Mike Myers plays a double role in this consistently amusing send-up of James Bond movies and the manners and styles of the 1970s. (MJ)

*1:50 a.m. (Encore)--THE SHINING (1980)--Stanley Kubrick departed from Stephen King's best-selling thriller and came up with a film totally his own about slow madness in a snowbound hotel in the Rockies and the violent dissolution of a family. With Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Scatman Crothers. (MJ)

Sunday, October 18

6:35 a.m. (Cinemax)--The Crimson Pirate (1952)--A swashbuckling adventure, with Burt Lancaster at his most athletic. The German émigré Robert Siodmak directed. (DW)

*8:30 a.m. (TCM)--The Naked Spur (1953)--One of the best Westerns of the 1950s. James Stewart is a bounty hunter in post- Civil War US, bringing in Robert Ryan. Janet Leigh is Ryan's girlfriend. To Stewart, Ryan is simply a congealed amount of cash; apparently he will do anything for the money. Shot beautifully in the Rockies. Directed by Anthony Mann. (DW)

*10:30 a.m. (HBO Signature)--FEARLESS (1993)--See Saturday, at 10:45 a.m.

11:00 a.m. (History)--The Left-Handed Gun (1958)--Based on a television play by Gore Vidal, Arthur Penn directed this off-beat version of the Billy the Kid legend. (DW)

*11:15 a.m. (HBO)--SUPER MARIO BROTHERS (1993)--Underrated, highly imaginative film version of the popular video game, to which it bears only a slight resemblance. The two plumber brothers (Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo) visit an alternate universe in which evolution took a different course, leaving dinosaurs as the dominant species. Dennis Hopper overacts wonderfully as the dinosaur dictator of this world. (MJ)

12:00 p.m. (Cinemax)--Woman of the Year (1942)--Katharine Hepburn as a globe-trotting political commentator and Spencer Tracy as a sports reporter, in their first film together. Entertaining film, directed by George Stevens, marred by a conformist ending. (DW)

1:00 p.m. (TNT)--THE STING (1973)--See Saturday, at 8:00 p.m.

*3:30 p.m. (HBO Signature)--THE PRODUCERS (1968)--Mel Brooks wrote and directed his funniest film, about two producers whose plan--to mount a deliberately awful Broadway musical that will flop and thereby bring them a tax bonanza--backfires. Starring Gene Wilder and the great, rarely seen (because of blacklisting) Zero Mostel. (MJ)

4:00 p.m. (HBO Plus)--GALLIPOLI (1981)--Peter Weir's antiwar film about Australian soldiers caught in a major battle of World War I. With a young Mel Gibson. (MJ)

6:00 p.m. (TCM)--The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)--Lively, eye-catching version of the Robin Hood story, with Errol Flynn, Olivia de Haviland, Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains. Directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, with an award-winning score by Wolfgang Korngold. (DW)

6:25 p.m. (Starz)--AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY (1997)--See Saturday, at 11:30 p.m.

10:45 p.m. (Encore)--BLUE VELVET (1986)--This is the quirky film that launched director David Lynch's career. It was then a short jump to his influential, idiosyncratic TV series 'Twin Peaks.' Then he flickered out like a shooting star. With Dennis Hopper. (MJ)

*11:55 p.m. (Starz)--THE GRIFTERS (1990)--One of the best adaptations of Jim Thompson's gritty, bleak novels, this one about mother-and-son con artists, played by Angelica Huston and John Cusack. With Pat Hingle. Directed by Stephen Frears. (MJ)

12:45 a.m. (HBO Family)--CONTACT (1997)--An intelligent, refreshingly non-xenophobic film on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Jodie Foster plays the single-minded astrophysicist in this adaptation from the novel by the late Carl Sagan. Unfortunately, toward the end the film becomes mushy-minded and tries to make its peace with religion. (MJ)

1:55 a.m. (HBO)--FACE/OFF (1997)--Hong Kong action director John Woo lets out all the stops in this exciting, humorous, and (of course) preposterous film about a government agent (John Travolta) and his terrorist nemesis (Nicolas Cage) exchanging faces. (MJ)

2:30 a.m. (AMC)--Days of Wine and Roses (1962)--Somber film by Blake Edwards about alcoholic Jack Lemmon who drags Lee Remick into his orbit. (DW)

Monday, October 19

*6:05 a.m. (HBO Signature)--SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)--Billy Wilder's classic about illusions hanging on, and the old Hollywood versus the new. A once-glamorous star of the silent screen living in a gothic Hollywood mansion takes a younger, cynical screenwriter as a lover. One of the great films. With Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Eric von Stroheim, and Buster Keaton. (MJ)

*7:00 a.m. (Showtime)--SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)--See 6:05 a.m.

6:45 p.m. (HBO Plus)--BREAKDOWN (1997)--Suspenseful thriller in which the wife of a meek computer programmer (played by Kurt Russell) disappears during a cross-country trip. One of the last performances by the late, great character actor J.T. Walsh. (MJ)

*12:30 a.m. (TMC)--THE SHINING (1980)--See Saturday, at 1:05 a.m.

*5:15 a.m. (Showtime)--LONE STAR (1996)--John Sayles wrote and directed this well-done, politically astute film about the ethnic divisions in Texas. Unfortunately, it suffers from a contrived, hard-to-believe ending. With Chris Cooper and Elizabeth Pena. (MJ)

Tuesday, October 20

6:00 a.m. (AMC)--Wings (1927)--Silent film, directed by William Wellman, about two American flyers, in love with the same girl, who enlist in US forces during World War I. Flying sequences are famous. With Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Richard Arlen, and Gary Cooper. (DW)

6:45 a.m. (Cinemax)--THE SUN ALSO RISES (1957)--Star-filled adaptation of the Hemingway novel. Glossy and inadequate. Directed by Henry King. (MJ)

10:00 a.m. (AMC)--The Enchanted Cottage (1945)--Robert Young, as a disfigured man, and Dorothy McGuire, as an unattractive woman, who grow beautiful in an enchanted locale. Directed by John Cromwell. (DW)

1:15 p.m. (TCM)--THE BODY SNATCHER (1945)--One of the Val Lewton-produced thrillers, with Henry Daniell as a doctor forced to deal with the nefarious Boris Karloff to obtain cadavers for his work. Based on the Robert Louis Stevenson short story; directed by dull Robert Wise. (DW)

1:30 p.m. (Sundance)--THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD (1995)--See Saturday, at 1:00 p.m.

3:00 p.m. (AMC)--Seven Sinners (1940)--Lively film, with Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne, about the US sailors somewhere in the tropics. Dietrich is definitely one of the sinners. With an excellent supporting cast, including Broderick Crawford, Mischa Auer, Billy Gilbert. (DW)

*3:00 p.m. (History)--Reds (1981)--Warren Beatty's account of the life and times of John Reed, American socialist and author of Ten Days that Shook the World, the authoritative chronicle of the October Revolution of 1917. With Diane Keaton and others. (DW)

3:30 p.m. (HBO Plus)--LOST IN AMERICA (1985)--Yuppies, played by Albert Brooks (who also directed) and Julie Hagerty, give up their good corporate jobs to tour the country in an RV, with disastrous (and funny) results. (MJ)

*4:30 p.m. (AMC)--I Walk Alone (1948 )--Interesting film noir, with Burt Lancaster as a man out of prison after 14 years, looking to settle some scores or at least make sense of things. With Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas, Marc Lawrence, and Wendell Corey. Byron Haskin directed. (DW)

8:00 p.m. (TCM)--WORDS AND MUSIC (1948)--Colorful, upbeat, less-than-true 'biography' of the great Broadway musical team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. From the Golden Age of the MGM Musical. Helped by exuberant acting by Tom Drake (Rodgers) and Mickey Rooney (Hart), and by fine musical performances by Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, and Lena Horne. Directed by Norman Taurog. (MJ)

*10:00 p.m. (FXM)--ZARDOZ (1973)--Odd saga spanning thousands of years in the future, with Sean Connery and Charlotte Rampling. A good-bad film bursting with half-baked ideas and marvelous images. Directed by John Boorman, an exceptional director who takes chances. (MJ)

*11:00 p.m. (AMC)--The Third Man (1949)--Carol Reed directed this sharp look at life in post-World War II Vienna, impoverished and corrupt, where the Cold War is beginning to take shape. Orson Welles plays the mysterious Harry Lime and, one suspects, contributed to the overall feel of the film. Score, played on the zither by Anton Karas, is justly famous. (DW)

*1:50 a.m. (Cinemax)--A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)--Stanley Kubrick's brilliant but thoroughly nasty film about a sadistic young street thug (Malcolm McDowell) in the near future turned into a passive, spiritless citizen by means of a cruel form of aversion therapy. In the process, he also loses his ability to enjoy Beethoven. Kubrick adapted this from the novel by Anthony Burgess, and Burgess always hated the result. (MJ)

2:30 a.m. (Sundance)--THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD (1995)--See Saturday, at 1:00 p.m.

Wednesday, October 21

*6:10 a.m. (Showtime)--HAMLET (1996)--Kenneth Branagh starred in and directed this long, unabridged film of Shakespeare's play. It is exciting and lucid, and it dispenses with the oedipal nonsense of other recent versions. Branagh is strong in the part, and Derek Jacobi is the definitive Claudius. Also starring Julie Christie and Kate Winslet. (MJ)

7:00 a.m. (TCM)--In This Our Life (1942)--John Huston's second effort at directing. Bette Davis steals her sister's husband and eventually ruins her own life. Based on the novel by Ellen Glasgow. With Olivia de Haviland and George Brent. (DW)

9:30 a.m. (Showtime)--SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)--See Monday, at 6:05 a.m.

10:00 a.m. (HBO Signature)--NETWORK (1976)--Heavy-handed satire on the TV industry. News anchorman (Peter Finch) has a psychotic episode on a national broadcast; his formless rage is taken up by the general populace. He is then regarded as a prophet. Sidney Lumet directed the Academy Award-winning script by Paddy Chayefsky. Starring Peter Finch as the mad newsman. (MJ)

*10:00 a.m. (History)--Reds (1981)--See Tuesday, at 3:00 p.m.

*11:30 a.m. (FXM)--SODOM AND GOMORRAH (1963)--Robert Aldrich directed this above average Biblical epic. Starring Stewart Granger and Pier Angeli. (MJ)

*12:45 p.m. (AMC)--Springfield Rifle (1952)--Andre de Toth's film about a Union officer (Gary Cooper) who goes undercover to expose a Confederate horse-stealing ring. Dark and spare, with an exemplary performance by Paul Kelly as the chief villain. (DW)

1:00 p.m. (HBO Signature)--THE PRODUCERS (1968)--See Sunday, at 3:30 p.m.

*2:00 p.m. (HBO Family)--SUPER MARIO BROTHERS (1993)--See Sunday, at 11:15 a.m.

2:30 p.m. (HBO)--CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)--See Saturday, at 4:00 p.m.

*3:00 p.m. (History)--Reds (1981)--See Tuesday, at 3:00 p.m.

*5:10 p.m. (Encore)--A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1984)--A decent approximation of the great E.M. Forster novel about British colonialialism in India--its effects on both the oppressed Indians and the clueless British settlers. A hapless Indian is put on trial for the rape of a British woman. The power of the novel, however, is 90 percent in its language and rhythms, and no film could be expected to capture that. Directed by David Lean. Starring Judy Davis, Victor Banerjee, Peggy Ashcroft, and the irrepressible Alec Guinness. (MJ)

*5:15 p.m. (HBO Plus)--FEARLESS (1993)--See Saturday, at 10:45 a.m.

7:30 p.m. (HBO Signature)--LOST IN AMERICA (1985)--See Tuesday, at 3:30 p.m.

10:00 p.m. (TCM)--Tension (1949)--A gem of a film noir, directed by John Berry, soon to be blacklisted. Pharmacist Richard Basehart plots to kill his wife's lover, only to discover someone has beaten him to it. With Audrey Trotter and Barry Sullivan. (DW)

10:00 p.m. (HBO Signature)--THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980)--See Saturday, at 6:15 a.m.

10:00 p.m. (AMC)--River of No Return (1954)--Otto Preminger directed this interesting, relatively somber story. Robert Mitchum rescues a man (Rory Calhoun) and a woman (Marilyn Monroe) from drowning. Calhoun promptly steals his horse and takes off. Vengeful Mitchum, with his young son, and Monroe pursue him by raft. (DW)

*12:00 a.m. (TCM)--Two Weeks In Another Town (1962)--Vincente Minnelli's adaptation of Irwin Shaw's novel about the making of a film in Rome. A 'garish drama' with Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse, George Hamilton. (DW)

*1:30 a.m. (FXM)--SODOM AND GOMORRAH (1963)--See 11:30 a.m.

3:55 a.m. (HBO Signature)--THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE (1997)--Satan (portrayed in an over-the-top performance by Al Pacino) runs a white-shoe law firm in New York City. Keanu Reeves, as an ambitious young lawyer, makes a Faustian bargain and suffers for it. A very funny horror film that trades on the public's distrust of the legal profession. (MJ)

Thursday, October 22

*9:05 a.m. (Encore)--SODOM AND GOMORRAH (1963)--See Wednesday, at 5:10 p.m.

2:00 p.m. (AMC)--Jane Eyre (1944)--Robert Stevenson directed this version of the Charlotte Bronte classic about a poor governess thrown into a mysterious household. Joan Fontaine is Jane and Orson Welles an unforgettable Rochester. (DW)

*5:30 p.m. (HBO Plus)--THE GRADUATE (1967)--Important coming-of-age film about a young man (Dustin Hoffman, in his first big role) deciding whether to throw in his lot with the adult world. Should he cast off his rebelliousness and join the prospering middle class of the late sixties--i.e., go into 'plastics'? Anne Bancroft is the memorable middle-aged seductress (and mother of his fiancée) Mrs. Robinson. Excellent music by Simon and Garfunkel. Directed by Mike Nichols. (MJ)

6:00 p.m. (AMC)--Heaven Can Wait (1943)--Don Ameche stars as a dead man seeking entry to hell, who recounts in flashback what he thinks has been a life full of sin. With Gene Tierney and Charles Coburn. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. (DW)

*8:00 p.m. (AMC)--The Grapes of Wrath (1940)--John Ford's version of the John Steinbeck classic novel, about the Joad family, driven from their home in the 1930s 'Dust Bowl.' Henry Fonda plays Tom Joad. With Jane Darwell, John Carradine. (DW)

10:15 p.m. (AMC)--Call Northside 777 (1948)--A solid, matter-of-fact drama about a reporter (James Stewart) righting a wrong: proving that a convicted killer is innocent. With Richard Conte and Lee J. Cobb. (DW)

11:30 p.m. (Cinemax)--THE FIRM (1993)--Another film that takes a shot at the legal profession. In this paranoid potboiler, a young, ambitious lawyer finds out that his high-toned firm is totally owned by organized crime. An unremarkable film is saved by a remarkable performance by Gene Hackman (always dependable), playing a cynical partner. From the bestseller by John Grisham. (MJ)

*12:10 a.m. (HBO Signature)--SMILLA'S SENSE OF SNOW (1997)--See Saturday, at 11:00 a.m.

*2:00 a.m. (AMC)--Kiss of Death (1947)--Perhaps best known for Richard Widmark's turn as a giggling, psychopathic killer. Victor Mature is a criminal who goes to work for the authorities. Directed by Henry Hathaway. (DW)

3:45 a.m. (AMC)--A Face in the Crowd (1957)--Andy Griffith, in his film debut, as country boy made into a huge television star. With Lee Remick, also in her debut. Directed by Elia Kazan, script by Budd Schulberg (same team as On the Waterfront). (DW)

4:05 a.m. (HBO Signature)--SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)--See Monday, at 6:05 a.m.

Friday, October 23

7:00 a.m. (Cinemax)--Little Women (1933)--George Cukor's film version of the Louisa May Alcott classic, perhaps the best of the lot. Four sisters growing up in Civil War America, with Katharine Hepburn and Joan Bennett. (DW)

7:15 a.m. (AMC)--Nothing Sacred (1937)--Fredric March is a cynical reporter who sets out to make headlines with the story of a Vermont girl (Carole Lombard) supposedly dying from radium poisoning. Ben Hecht wrote the script and William Wellman directed. (DW)

7:30 a.m. (TCM)--The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936)--Paul Muni stars as the legendary French nineteenth century scientist in this well-meaning biography. Directed by German émigré William Dieterle. (DW)

*8:45 a.m. (AMC)--The Palm Beach Story (1942)--Preston Sturges's delirious film about a wife (Claudette Colbert) who leaves her husband (Joel McCrea) because of their financial woes. She heads for Palm Beach, where millionaires congregate. With Rudy Vallee, Mary Astor. (DW)

9:00 a.m. (TCM)--Smash Up, the Story of a Woman (1947)--Susan Hayward, in her film breakthrough, does a remarkable turn as a nightclub singer who sinks into alcoholism. Stuart Heisler directed and John Howard Lawson wrote the script, based on a story by Dorothy Parker and Frank Cavett. (DW)

*11:00 a.m. (Cinemax)--I Confess (1953)--Alfred Hitchcock's tale of priest, played by Montgomery Clift, who hears a confession of a murder and later becomes accused of the crime. Filmed in Quebec. (DW)

11:35 a.m. (Sundance)--THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD (1995)--See Saturday, at 1:00 p.m.

12:00 p.m. (AMC)--Bright Leaf (1950)--Michael Curtiz directed this interesting saga about the tobacco industry in the nineteenth century. Gary Cooper, seeking revenge on old enemies and old lovers, builds a cigarette empire. With Lauren Bacall, Patricia Neal, Jack Carson. (DW)

2:30 p.m. (TMC)--LOST IN AMERICA (1985)--See Tuesday, at 3:30 p.m.

*3:00 p.m. (HBO Plus)--SMILLA'S SENSE OF SNOW (1997)--See Saturday, at 11:00 a.m.

3:30 p.m. (AMC)--OKLAHOMA! (1955)--Fred Zinnemann's tepid film adaptation of the watershed 1943 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. The performances (by Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones) do not measure up to those of the original Broadway production, but the dance sequences are spectacular, especially the dream ballet choreographed by Agnes DeMille. (MJ)

*4:00 p.m. (TCM)--The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)--Considered by some to be Orson Welles's finest work. The film, based on a Booth Tarkinson novel, examines the impact of social and economic change on a small town family. Joseph Cotten, Ray Collins, Agnes Moorehead are brilliant. The film was taken out of Welles's hands and an ending added. (DW)

7:00 p.m. (Sundance)--THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD (1995)--See Saturday, at 1:00 p.m.

*10:00 p.m. (TCM)--DR. STRANGELOVE (1963)--Classic satire on nuclear annihilation. Though heavy-handed in parts, it still retains its incisive humor and impact. Peter Sellers is incredible playing several parts, including the President of the United States. Memorable line: 'You can't fight in here--it's the War Room!' Directed by Stanley Kubrick. (MJ)

*10:30 p.m. (HBO Family)--WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S 'ROMEO + JULIET' (1996)--See Saturday, at 9:00 p.m.

*12:00 a.m. (TCM)--Kiss Me Deadly (1955)--Ralph Meeker is Mike Hammer, Cloris Leachman and Albert Dekker also star, in this startling film noir, directed by Robert Aldrich. In many ways, a very frightening film, and not simply because of its explosive conclusion. (DW)

3:35 a.m. (HBO Plus)--THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE (1997)--See Wednesday, at 3:55 a.m.

4:00 a.m. (Sundance)--THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD (1995)--See Saturday, at 1:00 p.m.

4:05 a.m. (AMC)--Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)--Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur play the leading roles in one of Frank Capra's Depression parables. Longfellow Deeds (Cooper) has $20 million and wants to give it away to those in need; Arthur is the hard-boiled reporter trying to figure him out. (DW)

4:10 a.m. (TMC)--MARATHON MAN (1976)--See Saturday, at 7:05 a.m.

5:10 a.m. (Showtime)--THE COTTON CLUB (1984)--Richard Gere stars in Francis Coppola's sometimes successful attempt to capture the music and gangster violence of Harlem in the 1930s. The production was riddled with problems and the often rewritten screenplay is by novelists William Kennedy and Mario Puzo. (MJ)