TILL THE END OF TIME (1946, b/w)
BBC Two, 1.30pm
Although conceived as a star vehicle for the screen pin-up Guy Madison, Till the End of Time actually became the career launchpad for his more brooding and dangerous co-star, Robert Mitchum. Edward Dmytryk’s meaty drama stars Madison, Mitchum and Bill Williams as former Marines struggling to adjust to civilian life after the Second World War. While Madison’s troubled prodigal son romances Dorothy McGuire, Mitchum ‘s traumatised drifter steals the film’s second half. Dmytryk’s darker twist on the more celebrated The Best Years of Our Lives begins a welcome season of Mitchum films. (105min)
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THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE
(1946, b/w) TCM, 7pm
Tay Garnett’s drama, adapted from James M. Cain’s fatalistic story, was remade successfully (and steamily) by Bob Rafelson in 1981 and later still was a key reference in the Coen brothers film, The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) — testimony to the high regard in which this noir classic is still held. John Garfield plays Frank Chambers, the amoral drifter taken in as a handyman by the garage owner Nick Smith (Cecil Kellaway) and his wife Cora (Lana Turner). Inevitably, Frank and Cora become lovers, but their scheming against Nick dramatically backfires. As a hymn to blind fate and Old Testament passion, it brims with atmosphere. (113 min)
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TWISTER (1996)
ITV1, 8pm
In Jan de Bont’s dumb but dazzling action rollercoaster, a meteorologist couple (Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton) spend almost the entire film chasing tornados across Oklahoma with a reckless disregard for safety. The Oscar-nominated effects are impressive, with tractors, cows and buildings sucked up and spat out by the digitally generated tornado. But, as in his debut film Speed (1994), De Bont proves that he is less comfortable with detailed characterisation or plot. (113 min)
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EQUILIBRIUM (2002)
Sky Movies 1, 8pm
In the Orwellian future dictatorship depicted in Equilibrium, all emotions and sensual pleasure are suppressed thanks to drugs dispensed by quasi-clerical police officers. Preston (Christian Bale) and Partridge (Sean Bean) are two such enforcers who spend their days chasing down offenders, only for Preston to weaken after falling for Emily Watson’s fiery resistance member. Kurt Wimmer’s cautionary satire on fundamentalism combines the hyperkinetic action of The Matrix with nods to such classic novels as 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. While not particularly original, Equilibrium combines beautiful visuals with an extremely high body count. (107 min)
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D.O.A. (1988)
BBC One, 11.05pm
Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, the creators of the robotic TV star Max Headroom, directed this revved-up remake of a 1949 noir classic, throwing several extra plot twists into the mix. Dennis Quaid revives Edmund O’Brien’s role as a washed-up college professor with just 24 hours to find the stranger who has injected him with a slow- acting poison. Co-starring Charlotte Rampling and Quaid’s former wife Meg Ryan, Morton and Jankel’s update is a triumph of style over content, but its momentum and spiralling tension prove hard to resist. (96 min)