Private Screenings: Walter Mirisch
Over six decades, producer Walter Mirisch shepherded some of Hollywood’s most admired movies to the screen, including West Side Story, Some Like It Hot, and In the Heat of the Night. Now he sits down with Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne for a relaxed and engaging overview of his distinguished career, generously peppered with clips from his many films. Monday, Sept. 29, at 8 p.m., TCM
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Latest Videos FromThe Week
Damian Lewis returns to the role of a police detective with a Zen outlook on everyday existence, back on the job after serving time in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Lewis is one of the more interesting presences in prime time, and this show retains its quirky flavor as his character hunts a serial killer whose victims suffocate in locked trunks. Monday, Sept. 29, at 10 p.m., NBC
Secrets of the Dead: Executed in Error
It was “the O.J. Simpson case of 1910”: the sensational story of Hawley Crippen, an American doctor convicted in England of poisoning and dismembering his flamboyant wife. Secrets of the Dead applies modern forensic techniques to reopen the notorious case—which ended with Crippen’s execution—and casts serious doubt upon its verdict. Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 8 p.m., PBS; check local listings
Vice Presidential Debate
Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin will face off at Washington University in St. Louis in the only scheduled meeting between the vice presidential candidates. Gwen Ifill of PBS’ Washington Week (who moderated the 2004 vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards) will preside over the event, intended to cover both foreign and domestic topics. Thursday, Oct. 2, at 9 p.m., various networks
Masterpiece: The Last Enemy
Set in a near-future England filled with paranoia, this topical thriller stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a mathematician ensnared
in an intrigue involving his late brother’s wife and a rogue agent, played by Robert Carlyle. Along the way, he encounters a group of corporate powers who want him to persuade the government to approve a massive database designed to enable ubiquitous surveillance. The five-part series is intelligent, complex, and cautionary. Sundays, Oct. 5–Nov. 2, at 9 p.m., PBS; check local listings
Other highlights
Pushing Daisies
Nominated for a dozen Emmys, the comedy-fantasy series about a pie maker with a fatal touch begins its second season. Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 8 p.m., ABC
Autism x6
A profile of a Salt Lake City family raising six autistic children. Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 8 p.m., Discovery Health
Show of the week
Taxi to the Dark Side
In 2002, a young Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar had the misfortune of being detained by U.S. military authorities in Bagram. Within five days, after being subjected to brutal interrogation techniques that violated the Geneva Conventions, he was dead. Through remarkably frank interviews with guards and interrogators, as well as former government officials, New York Times reporters, and the families of tortured prisoners, filmmaker Alex Gibney connects Dilawar’s story to similarly inhumane tactics used in Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay. His conclusion: Far from being the aberrant work of “a few bad apples,” torturing prisoners in the “war on terror” was policy dictated from the highest levels of the Bush administration. Gripping and disturbing, the film won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Monday, Sept. 29, at 9 p.m., HBO
Movies on TV this week
Monday, Sept. 29
Deconstructing Harry (1997)
In his clever take on Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries, Woody Allen plays a none-too-nice novelist who reviews his life when he’s invited to receive an award. 6:50 p.m., IFC
Tuesday
Radio Days (1987)
An Oscar nomination went to Woody Allen’s original screenplay for this wistful, nostalgic comedy set in Brooklyn during World War II and the golden age of radio. 7:20 a.m., Encore
Wednesday
Fallen Angel (1945)
Director Otto Preminger’s film noir stars Dana Andrews as a drifter who marries for money, then becomes a suspect in the murder of a waitress. Noon, FMC
Thursday
God Said, ‘Ha!’ (1998)
The award-winning film version of Saturday Night Live alumna Julia Sweeney’s wry one-woman show about the year she and her brother battled cancer. 5 p.m., TMC
Friday
The File on Thelma Jordon (1949)
Barbara Stanwyck is at her best as a femme fatale who seduces an assistant DA (Wendell Corey) into covering up a murder, but suffers pangs of conscience. 6:15 p.m., TCM
Saturday
I Am Legend (2007)
Will Smith portrays a solitary survivor in post-apocalyptic New York in this sci-fi thriller based on Richard Matheson’s novel, previously brought to film as The Last Man on Earth (1964) and The Omega Man (1971). 10 p.m., Cinemax
Sunday
Raging Bull (1980)
Robert De Niro won a Best Actor Oscar for his role as middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta. Director Martin Scorsese’s gritty portrait is widely considered one of the best films of the 1980s. 8:45 p.m., IFC
