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11:35 AM The Movie Channel
Lifeguard (1976 USA): Sam Elliott, only 32 but already brandishing an impressive moustache, stars in this worthwhile character study directed by Daniel Petrie. Elliott plays Rick, a typical Southern California surfer dude stuck in perpetual childhood. Rick is in his early 30s but still works as a lifeguard on Southland beaches. When he meets an old chum (now a high-flying car salesman) and an old flame (now a divorced single mom) Rick realizes it’s time to make a decision about the direction his life will take. Should he trade in his speedo for a three-piece suit and flog Porsches, or should he keep doing what makes him happiest? Co-starring Anne Archer as love interest Cathy, Lifeguard airs again at 2:35 PM.

2:45 PM Turner Classic Movies
Code Two (1953 USA): A brisk bill-filler, Code Two stars Robert Horton, Ralph Meeker, and Jeff Richards as a trio of rookie cops beginning their career in the L.A.P.D. The three have just graduated from Police Academy (sadly, there’s no Bobcat Goldthwait in sight), but find their new assignments a bit boring and end up being transferred to the motorcycle division. Once they get something hot between their legs, work gets much more exciting—and when a routine traffic stop leads to murder, more exciting than they ever imagined possible. Code Two is a routine but enjoyable programmer enlivened by gravel-voiced Meeker and co-stars James Craig and Keenan Wynn, both suitably gruff as starchy superior officers.

6:30 PM IFC
Don’t Answer the Phone (1980 USA): This slasher ‘classic’ makes its widescreen television premiere on IFC tonight. Nicholas Worth headlines as balding shutterbug Kirk Smith, a Vietnam vet (of course) who spends most of his work hours strangling, raping, and brutalizing women to compensate for his lousy childhood. Smith develops a twisted relationship with radio personality Lindsay Gale (Floe Gerrish), and after taunting her on air decides she needs to die, too. Will Lindsay outsmart her stalker—or will police lieutenant McCabe (James Westmoreland) get to him first? Though considered by some a misogynistic video nasty, Don’t Answer the Phone is a bit too silly to really qualify, and Worth’s performance is actually quite good. If you’d prefer to avoid this sort of thing, however, Don’t Program the DVD Recorder! Also airs 5/20 at 1:30 AM.

Thursday 5/20/10

9:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
Thunderheart (1991 USA): A top notch cast nudges this otherwise ordinary murder mystery into above average territory. Based very loosely on the battles fought between the FBI and the American Indian Movement in the 1970s, Thunderheart stars Val Kilmer as agent Levoi, a half-breed G-Man sent to investigate a homicide on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation. Levoi isn’t too proud of his ancestry, but when elder Walter Crow Horse (Graham Greene) puts a bug in his ear, his latent Native American awakens and he begins to question the Bureau’s case. Co-starring Sam Shepard, Fred Ward, and future senator and Presidential candidate Fred Thompson, Thunderheart also looks great courtesy Roger Deakins’ outstanding cinematography.

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