THE CRIMSON PIRATE (1952)
BBC Two, 12.20pm; except Scotland
One of the finest swashbuckling romps, The Crimson Pirate combines superb action sequences with a knowing sense of its own camp absurdity. Directed in blazing Technicolor by Robert Siodmak, it stars Burt Lancaster at his gymnastic peak as Captain Vallo, a pirate and freedom fighter whose plan to double- cross both sides is scuppered by romantic complications. With his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, Lancaster seizes the chance to spoof every Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks Jr pirate character. Silly fun. (105min)
THE BIG COUNTRY (1958)
ITV1, 3pm; except Ulster
A mammoth western blockbuster built on an operatic scale, The Big Country spices up its quasi-Shakespearean drama about clashing generations and love rivalries with ravishing scenery and stirring music. The co-producer, Gregory Peck, plays a former sea captain who arrives in the vast expanse of the West to marry a cattle baron’s daughter (Jean Simmons), much to the envious chagrin of Charlton Heston’s ranch foreman. Co-starring an Oscar-winning Burl Ives, William Wyler’s interminable epic is never less than engrossing. (165min)
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PANIC ROOM (2002)
Five, 9pm
A simple home-alone plot becomes a masterclass in nerve-jangling suspense in the hands of the director David Fincher. Standing in for an injured Nicole Kidman at late notice, Jodie Foster stars as Meg Altman, a recently divorced mother who moves into an empty Manhattan townhouse with her teenage daughter (Kristen Stewart). One night, both are besieged in their high-tech “panic room” by masked marauders led by Forest Whitaker and Jared Leto. A slight but stylish thriller. (112min)
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SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME (1987)
BBC One, 11.40pm; N. Ireland, midnight
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Drawing on his background in high-gloss commercials, Ridley Scott elevates a routine crime thriller with great art direction and sumptuous cinematography. Tom Berenger plays a blue-collar New York cop assigned to protect a wealthy murder witness (Mimi Rogers), sparking an illicit romance across the class divide. Both stars give fine performances, especially Rogers as the proud but powerless damsel in distress. But it is their co-star Lorraine Bracco, who went on to The Sopranos, who impresses most as Berenger’s stoical, long- suffering wife. (95min)
WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS (1956, b/w)
BBC Two, 12.20am
Twenty-five years after he helped to launch the serial killer genre with his masterful thriller M, Fritz Lang returned to similar themes in this gripping film noir. While a mother-fixated murderer prowls New York, the back-stabbing editors of a tabloid newspaper battle for control of their media empire in a cynical race to expose the killer. Co-starring Vincent Price, George Sanders, Ida Lupino and John Drew Barrymore, While the City Sleeps is hardly a Lang classic, but it is a fine example of Hollywood’s fascination with cod-Freudian psychodrama. (100min)