There is no evading the long reach of George Lucas (or Darth Vader) at the moment, but this week’s movies on TV also offer comedy and basketball.
Today
“Some Like it Hot,” 10 p.m., Channel 9. Billy Wilder’s cross-dressing comedy is one of the great American films, featuring Marilyn Monroe as a jazz chantoosie and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as musicians in skirts. 1959.
Saturday
“The Color Purple,” 12:15 p.m., TNT. Steven Spielberg brings a classical approach to filming the Alice Walker novel about a black girl’s journey through hardship. Whoopi Goldberg leads the impressive cast. 1985.
“Hoop Dreams,” 4 p.m., ESPN. Amazing documentary following two Chicago high-school hoopsters and their ambitions for greatness. In staying with the kids over a number of years, the movie provides many surprises about the way life works out. 1994.
Sunday
“Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones,” 7 p.m., Channel 13. Not much of a story to tell in this one, but the digital special effects dreamed up by George Lucas are justification in themselves. 2002.
Monday
“Nobody’s Fool,” 2 p.m., USA. Paul Newman is in some kind of sublime actor’s heaven here with his portrayal of a small-town rogue, a wonderful character study directed by Robert Benton (from a novel by Richard Russo). Bruce Willis co-stars. 1994.
“Toy Story 2,” 8 p.m., Disney. A sequel almost as good as its predecessor, as the animated toys venture out into the world to locate an errant Woody. 1999.
Tuesday
“The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek,” 9:15 p.m., Turner Classic Movies. Breathlessly wacky farce about a suddenly-pregnant small-town gal (Betty Hutton) who can’t recall just how she got that way. One of the funniest films by the great writer-director Preston Sturges. 1944.
Wednesday
“The Man on the Train,” 9 p.m., Sundance. This French film was a hit in America a couple of years ago, with good reason. Two strangers, a mild teacher (Jean Rochefort) and a laconic gangster (French rock idol Johnny Hallyday), room together for a few days and find themselves envying the other’s existence. 2002.
Thursday
“The Quiet Man,” 8:30 a.m., American Movie Classic. John Wayne, something of an American movie classic himself, was born on this day in 1907. Here’s one of his most wonderful pictures, in which the Duke plays a boxer who retreats to Ireland and finds himself. John Ford directed. 1953.
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