Mary Poppins, the 1964 musical fantasy that... - Los Angeles Times
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Mary Poppins, the 1964 musical fantasy that...

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Mary Poppins, the 1964 musical fantasy that brought Julie Andrews an Oscar for her role as an Edwardian nanny gifted with supernatural powers, airs on Channel 5 tonight at 6.

Blake Edwards vitriolic Valentine to Hollywood, S.O.B. (Channel 9 tonight at 8), is always audacious, often hilarious but sometimes downright appalling. It has to do with a Hollywood producer (Richard Mulligan), married to America’s G-rated sweetheart (Julie Andrews, about as far removed from “Mary Poppins†as possible), who decides to sex up their latest film to save it from disaster. There are brilliant, inspired moments in the 1981 film, others that are merely silly; underneath the laughter, however, is a very angry film, one of the angriest ever made about Hollywood and its movies.

The slight possibility that three convicts who vanished from Alcatraz in 1962 didn’t drown in San Francisco Bay provides the basis for the taut and dynamic Escape From Alcatraz (Channel 13 tonight at 8), which stars Clint Eastwood as the escapees’ ringleader and reunites him with director Don Siegel for the fifth time.

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A Seduction in Travis County (CBS tonight at 9 ), a new TV movie inspired by actual events, tells of a woman (Lesley Ann Warren) who develops a fatal attraction for her defense attorney (Peter Coyote), who is inconveniently married.

David Hasselhoff stars in Knight Rider 2000 (NBC tonight at 9), a futuristic action-adventure that picks up where the series left off.

Our Sons (ABC tonight at 9), another new TV movie, stars Julie Andrews and Ann-Margret in a drama about two very dissimilar women who face the death of one of their sons from AIDS.

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In Trading Places (Channel 13 Monday at 8 p.m.), that hilarious 1983 variation on “The Prince and the Pauper,†Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy decide to see if street-wise con man Eddie Murphy can run their Philadelphia commodities exchange as well as insufferable WASP Dan Aykroyd has.

Jill Clayburgh stars in the new TV movie Reason for Living: The Jill Ireland Story (NBC Monday at 9 p.m.), based on Ireland’s book about putting aside her own battle with cancer to help her son become drug free.

In Walter Hill’s smart, rambunctious 48 HRS. (Channel 13 Tuesday at 8 p.m.) Eddie Murphy made his smash 1982 film debut as a slick con man on a two-day leave from prison to help San Francisco policeman Nick Nolte nail one of Murphy’s cohorts. Fun but ultra-violent.

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Omen IV: The Awakening (Channel 11 Wednesday at 8 p.m.), a new TV movie, chronicles further evil perpetrated by Damien, offspring of the Devil.

The Last Innocent Man, (Channel 13 Friday at 8 p.m.), a 1987 made-for-cable movie, is an effective suspense drama in which an attorney (Ed Harris) becomes involved with the estranged wife of a man he is defending for murder.

Ugetsu (Channel 28 Saturday at 9 p.m.), the exquisite 1953 Kenji Mizoguchi ghost story, is one of the key films that brought worldwide attention to the Japanese cinema.

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