BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (1955)
Channel 4, 1.30pm
The renowned action director John Sturges earned his only Oscar nomination for this powerful thriller, a modern-day western set immediately after the Second World War. While searching for a Japanese-American farmer in a remote desert town, a dogged army investigator (Spencer Tracy) uncovers a murky trail of racism and revenge. Co-starring Robert Ryan, Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine, Bad Day at Black Rock is a timeless morality fable, though on release it was widely interpreted as a protest against wartime internment of Japanese citizens and the anti-communist paranoia stoked up by Senator Joseph McCarthy. (81 min)
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FULLTIME KILLER (2001)
BBC Four, 11pm
Fulltime Killer is one of the new breed of Asian action movies that borrows much of its high-octane swagger and self-referential jokes from post- Tarantino Hollywood. Andy Lau and Takashi Sorimachi play rival assassins duelling for the top slot in the underworld killer charts, as well as the affections of sexy Kelly Lin. Meanwhile, Simon Lamâ’s Interpol agent is closing in on all three. Shot in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore in a polyglot mix of languages, Johnny To and Ka-Fai Wai’s hyperactive thriller bypasses the brain but dazzles the senses. (102 min)
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TOWER OF EVIL (1972)
BBC One, 12.20am; Wales, 12.50am
A cheesy riot of gory carnage and soft porn, Tower of Evil is a late-night feast for connoisseurs of early 1970s kitsch. After a gang of promiscuous teenagers is butchered on a remote island, police begin to suspect ghostly misdeeds involving ancient burial grounds. A team of archaeologists is dispatched to the island, only to suffer an equally grisly fate. Featuring the Confessions . . . star Robin Askwith alongside a mostly unknown cast of scantily clad young beauties, Jim O’Connolly’s barely coherent British horror cheapie is enjoyable for all the wrong reasons. (89 min)