Television
MONDAY Freeview & films
25 MARCH
FILM REVIEWS
FILM OF THE DAY
From Russia with Love ★★★★★
9.00-11.25pm ITV4 PG
SPY Regarded as one of the very best James Bond movies, this is also a terrific thriller in its own right, owing much to Carol Reed’s The Third Man and the work of Alfred Hitchcock in its atmosphere of foreign intrigue. Beautifully shot on location in Istanbul, and closely following the original Ian Fleming story, the film has Sean Connery’s spy duped into smuggling a top-secret decoding machine — along with alluring Russian cipher clerk Daniela Bianchi — from Turkey to the West via the Orient-Express. Lotte Lenya is unforgettable as villain Rosa Klebb.
(UK 1963, violence, HD)
Tarantula ★★★
11.00am-12.35pm Legend PG
SCI-FI Director Jack Arnold’s big-bug shocker features excellent special effects for a 1950s B-movie. Leo G Carroll’s scientist, trying to solve world hunger, injects a spider with nutrients that cause it to grow to enormous size before escaping. The stillness of the desert allows Arnold to mount the tension impeccably. Look out, too, for Clint Eastwood as a pilot.
(US 1955, BW)
Western Union ★★★
12.55-2.45pm Talking Pictures TV U
WESTERN German émigré Fritz Lang (Metropolis) was perfectly happy directing Hollywood westerns, and this effort concerns the building of the telegraph line between Omaha and Salt Lake City. Robert Young is far from charismatic in the lead, but the set pieces are put together with bravura and the cinematography is ravishing.
(US 1941)
The Smallest Show on Earth ★★★★
1.15-2.55pm Film4 U
COMEDY In praise of fleapits everywhere, this charming film sees Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna inherit an old cinema. But when they reopen it to the public, chaos ensues. The sequence in which projectionist Peter Sellers, pianist Margaret Rutherford and doorman Bernard Miles relive the silent era’s glories is a highlight.
(UK 1957, BW, HD)
Harry Potter and the m Half-Blood Prince ★★★★
5.50-9.00pm ITV2 12
FANTASY The outstanding sixth entry in the series finds Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) tasked with uncovering a vital secret about evil Lord Voldemort’s past. The tone is dark, but there’s plenty of rampaging hormonal comic relief to be had along the way. The magical saga continues tomorrow tonight.
(US/UK 2009, may be edited for violence, HD)
Run Silent Run Deep
★★★★ 7.00-9.00pm Great Action U
WAR One of the best of all submarine movies, this is a brilliant study in revenge. Clark Gable is the commander returning to the enemy waters where he previously lost a sub and his men. Of course, lieutenant Burt Lancaster f
