THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (1951, b/w) Channel 4, 1.30pm
A droll cocktail of science fiction and social satire from the golden age of Ealing Studios, Alexander Mackendrick’s comic fantasy stars Alec Guinness as a research chemist in a Midlands textile factory. When Sidney Stratton (Guinness) creates an indestructible new fabric that never wears out and never gets dirty, bosses and workers alike sense a threat to their power and gang up against him. The Man in the White Suit combines classic Ealing whimsy with acidic comment on Britain’s postwar status quo. (85 min)
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GILDA (1946, b/w)
Sky Cinema 1, 7.30pm
The classic film noir that gave Rita Hayworth her best known role, Gilda is a stormy love triangle melodrama that throws together a femme fatale and her ex-lover in a postwar Argentina awash with renegade Nazis. Hayworth plays Gilda, the flighty wife of a casino owner (George Macready), who makes the fatal mistake of hiring a professional gambler (Glenn Ford) from Gilda’s shadowy past. Charles Vidor treats Hayworth’s smouldering seductress with obvious sympathy and, despite a plot that follows Old Hollywood’s strict moral codes, never wholly condemns her wicked ways. (110 min)
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CAPE FEAR (1991)
ITV2, 11pm
Robert De Niro’s meticulous preparation for his Oscar- nominated role as the vengeful ex-convict Max Cady included having his teeth methodically ruined by dental experts. Martin Scorsese’s pumped-up remake muddies the moral certainties of J. Lee Thompson’s 1962 original, making Cady an emotionally abused psychopath and his lawyer nemesis Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) a flawed anti-hero. The stars of the original film, Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, both make cameo appearances. (128 min)