THE GREEN MAN (1957, b/w)
Channel 4, 12.45pm
A darkly funny farce adapted by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder from their own stage play, The Green Man stars Alastair Sim as a watchmaker and part-time hitman on a mission to assassinate a pompous government minister (Raymond Huntley) in a run-down seaside guest house. But his plans are constantly thwarted by a support cast of familiar comedy names including George Cole, Terry-Thomas and Arthur Lowe. Like the Ealing comedies in their prime, Robert Day’s droll yarn delights in probing below the calm surface of postwar British social values. (89 min)
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2003)
Sky Movies 1, 8pm
A bizarre collaboration between Paul Thomas Anderson and Adam Sandler, Punch-Drunk Love was inspired by a magazine article about a civil engineer who hatched a scheme to amass more than a million air miles on the cheap. Sandler exaggerates his misfit persona as Barry Egan, a lonely bachelor fighting against mood swings and neurosis to woo the woman of his dreams (Emily Watson). An open-ended oddity, this was clearly a labour of love for both its director and star — although many audiences were baffled. (95 min)
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981)
ITV1, 11pm
Advertisement
Featuring special effects work by James Cameron, Escape from New York is a knowingly trashy science-fiction classic from the director John Carpenter. Set in the highly futuristic year of 1997, it stars Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, a convicted bank robber sent to rescue the American President (Donald Pleasence) after his plane crashlands inside the giant walled prison that Manhattan has become. Carpenter’s post-punk spaghetti western drags a little at times, but is full of bleak humour and terrific set-piece action. (99 min)