TWO RODE TOGETHER (1961)
BBC Two, 1.30pm
A lesser-known sister film to The Searchers, John Ford’s downbeat western is low on action but full of strong performances. James Stewart plays an unusually sour role as a mercenary marshal recruited by Richard Widmark’s hard-nosed army colonel to rescue white children abducted by Comanche tribes. A minor Ford work, Two Rode Together offers little room for redemption in a racially divided Old West. (109min)
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ROAD HOUSE (1989)
BBC One, 11.35pm
Partly inspired by the real-life killing of a widely hated Missouri godfather, this guilty pleasure of a modern-day western stars Patrick Swayze as a philosophical nightclub bouncer with a Zen-like gift for defusing trouble. Hired to protect a good-natured backwater saloon from local mobsters, Swayze combines mullet and muscle while Ben Gazzara and Kelly Lynch smirk from the sidelines. (114min)
MultiChannel
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A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
Film4, 11.10pm
Stanley Kubrick’s death in 1999 finally released his most notorious film from a quarter-century ban imposed by the director in his adopted homeland of Britain. Based on the cult novel by Anthony Burgess, it stars Malcolm McDowell as a diabolically charming juvenile gang leader running amok in near-future Britain. Kubrick’s prophetic sci-fi symphony is still chilling and powerful today. (137min)
A DECADE UNDER THE INFLUENCE (2003)
Film4, 1.45am
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A love letter to 1970s Hollywood, Ted Demme’s final film is a shamelessly one-sided documentary celebrating the huge egos and creative freedoms that produced this short-lived golden age in intelligent, provocative auteur cinema. A selection of clips plus interviews with Martin Scorsese, Sidney Lumet, Robert Altman and others helps to hammer the point home. (138min)