It’s a week for great classics — and to track down the original restored — and wildly lurid — trailer for Gaslight. All times ET.
Aug. 21
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway tear across state lines in the gangster film of all time. Arresting supporting work from Gene Hackman and its memorable banjo-pickin’ soundtrack round out a colorful, thrilling telling of this Depression-era story of desperation that rollicks its way to one of cinema’s stickiest ends. TCM, 8pm
Aug. 22
Gaslight (1944)
Years ago I spent a weekend in an isolated cabin in the middle of nowhere. The owner had a DVD of this film and I’ve never forgotten how chilling it was. Ingrid Bergman plays a recently married woman who thinks she is losing her mind — then again, her husband (Charles Boyer) might be trying to kill her. TCM, 8pm
Aug. 24
MASH (1970)
Before Alan Alda played Hawkeye, before Henry Blake’s plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan and long before anyone heard of a Col. Potter, the surgeons and staff of the 4077th were immortalized in this blackly irreverent comedy directed by Robert Altman. Much bloodier and much more zany than the TV show ever was, it offered a much sharper look at the cause-and-effect relationship between the extremity of war and the antics of those doing everything they could to survive it. TV Land, 8pm
Aug. 25
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1935)
“They seek him here, they seek him there, those Frenchies seek him everywhere…” And for those used to thinking of Leslie Howard as the whimpy Ashley in Gone With the Wind, seeking out this film about an anonymous hero who saves French aristocracy from the guillotine may be a revelation. And jolly good fun! TCM, 10pm
Aug. 26
Norma Rae (1979)
It made the American Film Institute’s list of the top 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time (#16) and really put its star, Sally Field, on the map, her Academy Award-winning performance removing most of the stigma of having been a flying nun in the previous decade. A hard-biting portrayal of the struggles of organized labor that still rings true in the modern era of outsourcing. Fox Movie Channel, 7:30pm
And one for the youngsters and young-at-heart:
Aug. 27
Pinocchio (1940)
This gem from the classic era of Disney melds the classic Italian fairy tale with the Biedermeier-influenced art for which Disney had become famous. But more than that, over time, it’s become the standard telling of the story of the boy whose nose grows with every lie he tells. Still enjoyable for young and old alike after all these years, Pinocchio is exactly the sort of family film that inspires people to say, “They don’t make ’em like they used to.” ABC Family, 7pm
