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The Birds

ITV, Wednesday, 10.55pm.

More chilling apocalyptic vision than heart-pounding horror, this iconic Hitchcock leaves a pall of discomfort in the air.

Based on a story by Daphne Du Maurier, it begins with an arch flirtation in a pet shop between dizzy socialite Melanie (Tippi Hedren) and swinging bachelor Mitch (Rod Taylor). He comes in looking for lovebirds; she masquerades as a sales assistant. She seeks further contact, following him to his family home in nearby Bodega Bay. But that's the kind of brazen, self-seeking behaviour a Hitchcock heroine can't expect to get away with; and there's a grisly shock in store for Melanie. As she and Mitch continue their strangely aggressive courtship, birds begin to gather and attack all over town, plunging the community into chaos.

Needless to say, creepy psychosexual undercurrents abound, with Mitch implicitly ''henpecked'' by the women around him and Melanie punished for her nerve and independence. The absence of any music, the lengthy conversational longueurs, the imaginative special effects and the beautiful glass-painted backdrops all add to the unsettling atmosphere.

Matters off-camera were strained; Hitchcock was besotted by Hedren, and expressed his feelings by subjecting her to many a sadistic indignity. Hedren later said Hitchcock's wife Alma frequently apologised for her husband's behaviour. During filming, he presented Hedren's daughter Melanie Griffiths with a small effigy of her mother in a wooden coffin - thus proving conclusively that the weirdness of the films was nothing compared to the weirdness of the man. (1963)

Saturday

Guys and Dolls

BBC2, 3.40pm

Based on Damon Runyon's lyrical fables of the New York underworld, Joseph L Mankiewicz's musical is pure Broadway magic, with a powerful undercurrent of intelligence and wit. Frank Sinatra plays loveable good-for-nothing Nathan Detroit, who tries to solve a financial difficulty by entering into a bet with hard-bitten gambler Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando). Even Sky surely won't be able to convince the pious Salvation Army doll Sister Sarah (Jean Simmons) to join him on an impromptu jaunt to Havana ... will he? Glorious, from the first immaculately choreographed song-and-dance sequence to the last roll of the dice. (1955)

The King of Comedy

BBC2, 11.35pm

In Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese's fourth film together, the former plays Rupert Pupkin, who is fixated upon bringing his stand-up comedy act to the masses. In a film that walks that tightrope between knockabout humour and acute psychological suffering, he pursues his dream by stalking and eventually kidnapping Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis), host of the late-night talk show who Pupkin feels should be his showcase. He is assisted in his crazed quest by Marsha (Sandra Bernhard), a Langford fan with her own questionable motives. Creepy, funny and sad, with De Niro proving his comic gifts for the first time and Jerry Lewis confirming his. (1982)

Dressed to Kill

BBC1, 12.05am

Brian De Palma thieved all Alfred Hitchcock's sadistic suspense-building techniques for this nasty stalk-and-slash thriller, which is often cited as the definitive example of misogynistic voyeurism in cinema. Angie Dickinson plays a frustrated wife who fantasises about anonymous sex, only to pay for her transgressions with her life. Nancy Allen - who appeared in De Palma's previous hit Carrie, and subsequently married him - plays a prostitute who witnesses the murder and then becomes a target herself. Michael Caine

co-stars as the upmarket psychiatrist who is drawn into the whole lurid mess. (1980)

Cape Fear

BBC2, Saturday, 1.20am

Haunting thriller, featuring a performance of unforgettable power by Robert Mitchum. He plays Max Cady, who has spent eight years in prison for an attack on a young woman.

Upon his release, he sets out to find and punish the lawyer (Gregory Peck) who helped to put him away. Remade with added nastiness by Martin Scorsese in 1991. (1962)

Sunday

White Mischief

BBC1, 11.30pm

Sultry drama, based on a true story and directed by Michael Radford (1984, Il Postino). Joss Ackland is the past-it fat cat who brings his young wife (Greta Scacchi) to Kenya after the war. Amid the ceaseless debauchery of their eminently dislikeable expat circle, she falls in love

with a bounderish Earl

(Charles Dance), with suitably scandalous and nasty consequences. Co-stars include Sarah Miles, John Hurt and a young Hugh Grant. (1988)

Monday

Hudson Hawk

five, 9pm

Vilified on its release, this exuberant comedy adventure has more going for it than its reputation suggests. Directed by Michael Lehmann (responsible for that blacker-than-black teen comedy Heathers), it tells of a reformed thief (Bruce Willis) who is coerced back into a life of crime by a couple of mad alchemists (Sandra Bernhard, Richard E Grant). An indulgent mess, but one with lots of fun moments. (1991)

Tuesday

Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

ITV, 8pm

Unprecedented hype preceded this long-awaited prequel to George Lucas's bloated cross-generational space saga. Unfortunately, it let everyone down by being unmitigated nonsense. Even if you can stomach the bog-standard effects, poor script and ultra-irritating new characters, it is almost impossible to discern what's meant to be going on. Still, completists will relish

the opportunity to irritate their nearest and dearest by explaining exactly how various minor plot points relate to the later films. (1999)

Ethan Frome

BBC1, 12.20am

Edith Wharton's agonising fable of love denied, filmed with unshowy loyalty by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, Captain Corelli's Mandolin). Liam Neeson plays the eponymous Ethan, a humble, taciturn New England farmer resigned to a lifetime of domestic disharmony with his shrewish wife Zeena, played by Joan Allen. Everything alters when lovely cousin Mattie (Patricia Arquette) moves in to help around the house. Wharton's novel captures the ensuing anguish with a brutal precision that's lacking from Madden's rather anaemic film, but the performances are stunning. Neeson's portrayal of a gentle man torn between duty and belated sexual awakening is particularly memorable. (1992)

Wednesday

Hell and High Water

Channel 4, 1.20pm

A submarine thriller with striking, Oscar-nominated special effects, directed by the one and only Sam Fuller. A mixed group of patriots and mercenaries aboard an American sub during the Korean war try to prevent atomic catastrophe; but rather than advocating blind nationalist loyalty, the film insistently draws attention to each character's darker and more personal motivations. (1954)

Friday

True Lies

ITV, 11.15pm

Silly but enjoyable action comedy, helmed by James Cameron (Titanic, Terminator) and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Harry Tasker, a secret agent so secret that even his wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) doesn't know what he really uses his great big muscles for. While Harry's immersed in trying to stop terrorist kingpin Art Malik from stealing a nuclear warhead, Helen's head is turned by sleazy used car salesman Bill Paxton - who wins her over by pretending, oh irony of ironies, to be an international spy. Harry's efforts to save democracy become entangled

in his efforts to save his

marriage - with reasonably hilarious consequences, provided you can stomach the slightly icky characterisation

of Helen as devoted wife/pliant sex object. (1994)