A Kiss Before Dying (1956)

BBC Two, 12.30pm

Based on a novel by Ira Levin, the author of Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives, this caustic noir thriller stars Robert Wagner as a suave psychopath who marries Joanne Woodward’s heiress for her money, then drives her to suicide when she fails to support his ambitions. Splendidly nasty. (94min)

Duel in the Sun (1946)

ITV1, 12.35pm

John Wayne declined a lead role in this lurid Technicolor western due to its sexual content – a wise career move, given the furore it generated. Gregory Peck and Joseph Cotten co-star as wealthy Texan brothers feuding over their mutual affection for a Mexican temptress (Jennifer Jones). Martin Scorsese has namechecked this as “hallucinatory” and one his favourites. (138min)

The Land Girls (1998)

Channel 4, 7pm

A familiar rural England of drizzly skies and muddy fields provides the backdrop to this wartime drama. Rachel Weisz, Anna Friel and Catherine McCormack play a mismatched trio of Land Army volunteers recruited to fill in as farm workers during the Second World War. The Land Girls is full of nostalgic charm, if somewhat pedestrian in execution. (112min)

Anita and Me (2002)

BBC One, 11pm

Based on Meera Syal’s terrific semi-fictionalised memoir about growing up in the West Midlands in the 1970s, this small but delightful rites-of-passage comedy is full of familiar faces including Kathy Burke, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Syal herself. But the film belongs to the 14-year-old screen novice Chandeep Uppal, who plays the sassy young heroine, bringing Syal’s rose-tinted memories to life. (92min)

I’m Not Scared (2003)

Channel 4, 12.10am

Set over a scorching summer in late 1970s Italy, this beautifully filmed Euro thriller stars Giuseppe Cristiano as the ten-year-old innocent whose childhood begins to unravel when he stumbles across another young boy chained up in a remote farmhouse cellar. Co-starring Mattia Di Pierro and Dino Abbrescia, I’m Not Scared was inspired by a real criminal case. (108min)

MultiChannel

The Boys (1962, b/w)

BBC Four, 11.30pm

One of the first British features to acknowledge the rise of teenage tribes and juvenile delinquency, The Boys concerns four tearaway London Teddy Boys facing murder charges after a rowdy night out. Jess Conrad and Dudley Sutton lead the young cast. Robert Morley plays their unorthodox defence lawyer, sifting the truth from conflicting courtroom flashbacks. (117mins)

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