CLASSIC FLICK PICKS: Ronald Reagan, western musicals, more

While it's great to know what's worthy on TV tonight, it's even better to plan ahead, especially when it comes to movie classics and film festivals. Here are some of this week's cinematic must-sees.

Buster Keaton in The Navigator (Monday at 8 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies) -- The great stoneface's 1924 silent comedy is just the start of an eclectic night of goodies picked by this month's TCM guest programmer, director John Landis (Animal House, Coming to America). He's also hosting the 1962 horror cheap-treat The Brain That Wouldn't Die (9:30 p.m. ET); 1936's original Showboat (11:15 p.m. ET), with the legendary Paul Robeson; and Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 late-career dip into modern adult filmmaking, Frenzy (1:15 a.m. ET, all on TCM). Between features, Landis spotlights classic silent shorts with unjustly maligned comedy master Fatty Arbuckle (9:15 p.m., 10:45 p.m., 3:15 a.m., all times ET, TCM). A rare roundup, indeed.

St. Patrick's Day movies for Tuesday:

• The Quiet Man (8 p.m., TCM) -- John Wayne's 1952 Ireland stop leads into 1965's Sean O'Casey portrait Young Cassidy (10:15 p.m. ET); late-career James Cagney as a scarily obsessed Irish rebel in 1959's Shake Hands With the Devil (12:15 a.m. ET); Daniel Day-Lewis' 1989 Oscar winner My Left Foot (2:15 a.m. ET); and 1940 romance Three Cheers for the Irish (4 a.m. ET, all on TCM).


• The Brothers McMullen (8 p.m., Fox Movie Channel; 10:55 a.m. and 9 p.m. ET, IndiePlex) -- Edward Burns' warmhearted 1995 indie hit explores the relationships of three Irish Catholic brothers on Long Island. FMC also has 1948's The Luck of the Irish (noon ET) and 1944's Irish Eyes Are Smiling (2 p.m. ET, both on FMC), while Indie adds the Dublin-set 1996 coming-of-age sleeper The Last of the High Kings (late Tuesday night at 1:35 a.m. ET, IndiePlex), with Christina Ricci, Jared Leto, Gabriel Byrne and Catherine O'Hara.

Ronald Reagan's best (Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET, TCM) -- When they talk about Reagan's Hollywood highlights, these are the two films they mention: 1940's Knute Rockne, All American (8 p.m. ET), where he plays inspirationally ailing Notre Dame footballer George Gipp, and Kings Row (10 p.m. ET, both on TCM), a surprisingly hard-edged 1942 slice of small-town life.

Western musicals:Cat Ballou (Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, TCM) -- Don't worry. The songs in this 1965 delight don't come in Lee Marvin's Oscar-winning comedy turn as a drunken gunfighter aiding feisty orphan babe Jane Fonda -- the tunes arrive in running commentary from strolling troubadours Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole (just before his early death from lung cancer). But then, unfortunately, Marvin does sing in 1970's ill-cast Paint Your Wagon (10 p.m. ET), costarring (hold your ears) Clint Eastwood. Finally, it's 1955's Oklahoma! (1 a.m. ET) and Roy Rogers' 1947 ad On the Old Spanish Trail (3:30 a.m. ET, all on TCM).