THE BOY WITH THE GREEN HAIR (1948)
BC Two, 1.55pm
An engagingly wacky anti-war fable from the director Joseph Losey and screenwriter Ben Barzman, both of whom would later be blacklisted, The Boy with the Green Hair is a true oddity. A young Dean Stockwell stars as the eponymous boy, a misfit whose hair mysteriously changes colour after his parents are killed in the Blitz. Ostracised at school, he is befriended by some fellow orphans who come alive from a classroom poster. Losey and Barzman resisted pressure to end their anti-war, anti-racism parable with a tacked-on patriotic message about the need for American military strength. (82 min)
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THE FUGITIVE (1993)
Five, 8pm
Reviving a role made famous by David Janssen in the cult 1960s television series of the same name, Harrison Ford stars in The Fugitive as Richard Kimble, a Chicago doctor who is framed for his wife’s murder. Directed by Andrew Davis, this high-calibre blockbuster contains some superbly staged action sequences, including a dramatic waterfall jump and a full-sized, real-life train crash. and Ford is well cast as a desperate man fighting against a conspiracy, but it is Tommy Lee Jones who steals the film (and an Oscar) as the US Marshal Sam Gerard, Kimble’s wisecracking nemesis, who later starred in his own 1998 sequel US Marshals. (130 min)
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BEHIND THE SUN (2001)
FilmFour, 8pm
Directed by Walter Salles, whose The Motorcyle Diaries is about to open in the UK, Behind the Sun is a stark tale of blood feuds based on a novel by the Albanian author Ismail Kadere. Salles translates the action to his native Brazil in the early 20th century, to a sugar plantation where the Ferreira and Breve families are locked in a seemingly unbreakable cycle of ritual bloodletting. But the young Breve brothers Pacu (Ravi Ramos Lacerda) and Tonio (Rodrigo Santoro) glimpse a possible way out when a travelling circus arrives in Salles’s grim but poetic melodrama. (105 min)
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BEN-HUR (1959)
TCM, 9pm
More than three hours of fictionalised ancient history with heavy-handed religious overtones, Ben-Hur was the Titanic or Gladiator of its day, a hugely unlikely smash that earned a mountain of Oscars and saved MGM from bankruptcy. Charlton Heston stars as the Judaean prince imprisoned by the Romans in AD26, then forced into slave labour and gladiatorial combat. Much of the drama is stiff and mannered, but the action sequences still thrill, especially the rightly legendary chariot race. Heston and the director William Wyler picked up an Oscar each among the film’s 14 Academy Awards. (212 min)
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HEAVY (1995)
BBC Two, 12.20am
A quirky character piece starring an unorthodox mix of indie-film and pop music icons, James Mangold’s debut feature takes place in a bleak diner in the lonely wilds of upstate New York. The domineering owner, Dolly (Shelley Winters), takes out a lifetime of bitterness and regret on her withdrawn, overweight son Victor (Pruitt Taylor Vince). But the arrival of the pretty young waitress Callie (Liv Tyler) finally brings Vincent out of his shell, leading to a series of unexpected revelations and resolutions. Despite its slow pace, Heavy is full of quietly magical touches. (105 min)