Film choice
BBC TWO, 2.15PM ★★★★
Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of John Buchan’s spy story creaks a little with age but it is still the best of the
39 Steps film versions, and fraught with noirish menace. The highlights include Robert Donat’s dash across the Scottish Highlands and a giveaway glimpse of the maimed hand of the master criminal behind the central subterfuge. Look out too for a freshfaced Peggy Ashcroft as the selfsacrificing wife of a crofter.
HORROR CHANNEL, 9.00PM ★★
This belated sequel tries but ultimately fails to live up to 1981’s horror classic An American Werewolf
in London. However, it’s still tolerable in a schlocky way as this time, the action jumps across the channel to the French capital. Julie Delpy plays Serafine, the daughter of the original film’s lupine hero, who’s attempting to foil the plans of a villainous bunch of Gallic werewolves.
SYFY, 10.00PM ★★★
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito play unlikely twins separated at birth after a failed secret experiment, which led to Arnie inheriting the “desirable traits” and Devito the “genetic trash” in this likeable buddy comedy. Whether muscleman Arnie got the role for his skill at delivering action movie one-liners with striking woodenness is not clear, but the results are really rather funny in this comic caper.