Voyage of vengeance
THIS is your chance to find out exactly what it was that President Clinton meant when he said he felt like Captain Ahab in Moby Dick (World, 9.30pm).
John Huston's 1956 version of the Herman Melville novel is passionate and faithful, aided by a stellar cast that includes Gregory Peck as the peg-legged captain, Richard Basehart as Ishmael and Orson Welles in a short but sweet cameo as a preacher delivering a sermon about Jonah and the whale.
The film opens when a man (Basehart) walks into the whaling town of New Bedford in 1840 and, in a voiceover, makes that famous declaration ''Call me Ishmael''. He signs on board the Pequod, but once underway discovers that this will be no ordinary journey.
The wild-eyed and horribly scarred Ahab - Peck, it has to be said, is badly miscast in this role - assembles his crew to tell them he is on a mission of vengeance against the great white whale known as Moby Dick, which tore off his leg and left him scarred for life.
He whips them into a frenzy and when Moby Dick is finally sighted, the crew is as obsessed with killing it as Ahab is.
Moby Dick was filmed at considerable danger to cast and crew. It is one of the most visually stunning and authentic historical adventures ever made although inevitably many critics disagreed with Huston's interpretation of the book. Bill Clinton's interpretation is just as wayward. He believes that just as Ahab's destiny was tied to that of the whale, his is tied to that of Congress.
The book was adapted for the film by Huston and author Ray Bradbury. Huston received the New York Film Critics Best Director Award for his efforts.
Watch out for some unorthodox whaling techniques from Ahab, as he rams his peg-leg into the whale's spout, forcing it to stay on the surface while his crew of malcontents shoot harpoons at it.
THE World War II movie The Devil's Brigade (Pearl, 9.30pm) was released a year after The Dirty Dozen, to which it bears more than a passing resemblance. Like The Dirty Dozen it follows the army's efforts to take a group of misfits and turn them into an unbeatable fighting machine, capable of penetrating enemy lines and causing general mayhem.
The job of whipping the motley crew into shape falls to Colonel Robert Frederick (William Holden) and his two assistants (Cliff Robertson and Vince Edwards).
Frederick was a real soldier - Churchill called him ''the greatest fighting general of all time'' - and the force he trained later became known as The Green Berets.
THE British documentary series End of the Empire (World, 1.15am) continues to entertain and inform, although it would be nice to see it in a more sensible time slot. Good television is nothing to be ashamed of.
This episode deals with the tensions that led to the split between India and what became Pakistan.
CONNIE Chung must be pleased with the exposure she is getting. She hosts and occasionally reports in Eye to Eye with Connie Chung (Pearl, 8.30pm). She also presents CBS Evening News which is broadcast live on Pearl at 7.30am and again at 8am for viewers who like Ms Chung so much they want to see her over and over again.
In Eye to Eye this evening she tells the cautionary tale of two former police officers who have taken up a more lucrative and less dangerous line of work. The love police, as they are known, try to catch out unfaithful husbands and wives by using attractive human decoys as bait. Next time the Park N' Shop checkout girl winks at you, think twice.
Roberta Basdin reports on dodgy practices in the cadaver business, revealing how some bodies are buried in the wrong place and how others are buried several at a time in the same grave to save time, space and money.