AXS TV, 9:00 p.m. ET
In 1963, Alfred Hitchcock made one of his undisputed classic horror films: The Birds, based on the short story by Daphne Du Maurier. Today, it would be relatively easy to flood the screen with menacing birds using CGI effects – but close to 60 years ago, Hitchcock pulled it off using animatronic replicas, hard-painted decoys, and lots and lots of actual live birds. The finale alone was an artful combination of 32 painted images and individually photographed shots. Tippi Hedren stars – but the real stars are those birds at the school playground, and crowding into Bodega Bay. Given the way nature is turning against us right now, it’s a perfect time to revisit The Birds.
TCM, 10:00 p.m. ET
It’s also, given the rising awareness of racial inequality and tension, a perfect time to revisit this 1958 Stanley Kramer film. Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier play two convicts who escaped while chained together, and must work together in order to evade recapture. Adding to the drama: one of them is white, the other is black, and each of them carries his own prejudices against the other’s race.