David Quinlan previews the films and Monty Smith the TV movies on screen this week SATURDAY 22nd The Story of Alexander Graham Bell C4, 10.30am-12.15pm A typically professional Hollywood biopic of the late Thirties, this was the film that dogged its star, Don Ameche, for years to come. In later years, he would complain that many people thought that Don Ameche had invented the telephone and not Mr Bell! Henry Fonda surprisingly takes a subordinate role as Bell's co-worker. 1939
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C4, 12.55pm-3.05pm A vivid American war film that re-creates a true-life incident in a nicely rough-hewn manner, employing a plot structure reminiscent of those in The Lost Patrol and Sahara, as a few American soldiers are left to fight a hopeless rearguard action against advancing Japanese. 1943
The Secret Policeman's Ball C4, 10.05pm-11.50pm Only nine years old, this record of an Amnesty International concert already looks like an album of classic Pythonesque comedy routines from the past, including John Cleese's discussion of cheeses with Michael Palin, and Rowan Atkinson's miming of extracts from Beethoven piano sonatas. Among the more surprising faces on view are Trades Union leader Clive Jenkins and one-time TV-am star Anna Ford. And, somewhat illat-ease among the array of professional comic talent is the would-be scourge of bad television Clive James. 1979
Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment ITV, 10.15pm-11.55pm A predictable sequel to the first film in this series, with the
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'TV version' Feature films shown on television are not necessarily in the form originally seen in cinemas. Often several variations are made at the time of production for use according to the intended outlet. In some cases cinema versions may be used, with minor cuts for violence, explicit sex and bad language.
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accent on sight gags — a store manager has a cardboard cutout of Clint Eastwood on show to deter robbers — and humour that stems from the characters established in the first film. Cheap-looking but very, very cheerful, the film also has some nice by-play in its script, especially between the laid-back police captain and his powerhungry lieutenant. 1985
SUNDAY 23rd Greed C4, 2.00pm-4.35pm The C4 season of silent classics continue with what some argue is the greatest film ever made. Dismissed in its time, after the studio had cut director Erich Von Stroheim's original 26 reels (more than five hours) down to 10 (just under two hours), the film can now be seen as a shattering portrayal of how money can effect break-ups in relationships and bring out the worst in man. Von Stroheim's drive for realism is totally uncompromising, from the teeming poorer quarters of San Francisco to the awesome climax in the desert, the director taking cast and crew on location to Death Valley, where they sweated and sweltered in torrid temperatures. 1924
Comes a Horseman C4, 10.50pm-1.00am A romantic Western directed (by Alan J Pakula) and photographed (by Gordon Willis) with a real feel for time and period — the ranchland of Montana in 1945. It's an elaborate but persuasive treatment of a familiar theme. Jane Fonda holds it together with another magnificent performance as the rancher fighting to make it on her own and not have to sell out to the local cattle baron (Jason Robards) whose affair with her as a girl had been the death of her father. James Caan as the 'horseman' who proves her one helper and the blazing climax, in which they and Robards are involved, brings an interesting film to a very satisfactory conclusion. 1978
MONDAY 24th Three Cases of Murder ITV, 1.30pm-3.25pm This trio of macabre stories is an intermittent disappointment in view of the amount of talent involved, including Orson Welles in rampant form in a
The indomitable frontierswoman who rides a car and not a horse... Jane Fonda as Ella Connors in 'Comes a Horseman' version of Somerset Maugham's Lord Mountdrago. Alan Badel appears (and does well) in all three stories, the most chilling of which concerns a man (the lugubrious Hugh Pryse) who steps inside a painting. 1953
Rain C4, 2.00pm-3.45pm Somerset Maugham's story about fiery South Seas prostitute Sadie Thompson had been filmed only four years previously with Gloria Swanson. Joan Crawford took over the role terrified of comparisons (not only with Swanson but with Jeanne Eagel's stage success). She was unhappy with the results, but time has revealed her Sadie Thompson as vibrant, vulgar and oddly touching. The director was Lewis Milestone. 1932
Reds C4, 8.30pm-12.05am A story of epic proportions, set in America and Russia in the 1915-1921 period. And it is also a love story — on a scale to match Doctor Zhivago and Gone W ith the W ind. Warren Beatty plays an idealistic communist in America, with Diane Keaton as the free-thinking writer who joins his semi-underground movement. Together, they are caught up in momentous events in world history which culminate in her trekking across frozen wastes to find him in Finland, after he has fled the Bolsheviks. When it concentrates on people and not politics, in fact, this film is a winner. Diane Keaton is superb — a tribute to the direction of Beatty, for which he won an Academy Award. 1981
TUESDAY 25th The Thief of Baghdad ITV, 1.30pm-3.25pm Fourth film version of the famous
Arabian Nights story, complete with such ingredients as the magic carpet, the wicked wazir, the All-Seeing Eye and the Temple of Truth. Peter Ustinov does a variation on his baffled panda act as the cuddly caliph. Terence Stamp's wazir, flapping in on his black cloak like a living corpse, is clearly a dry run for his villains in the Superman movies and the stage version of Dracula. French actor Daniel Emilfork also scores with his mischievously grinning genie. The juvenile leads, as in previous versions, are good looking but negligible. 1978
The Gaucho C4, 2.00pm-3.35pm Douglas Fairbanks's Christmas release for 1927 proves to be a lusty pageant whose story he thought up himself, giving his audiences a somewhat less whiter-than-white hero than usual, and sharing the spotlight with the 19-year-old Lupe Velez, jetting the young Mexican actress to 15 years of tempestuous stardom. There are religious overtones to this story of a mountain outlaw, but lots of athletic action to please the star's fans. 1927
Christine ITV, 11.35pm-1.25am This is the one about the demon car and it may make you wary of walking the streets at night. Christine is a beauty all right. Red as the devil, all gleaming chrome and dazzling headlamps, playing tunes on the radio to express her thoughts. But woe betide anyone who comes between her and her young master Arnie. This is a film that believes strongly in action, and its scenario never misses a chance to aim for the lowest common denominator. But, after a longish period of delineating Arnie's many enemies that Christine will eventu-