THURSDAY: Valley of the Dolls. 1967. A movie that makes the average soap opera look like "Last Year at Marienbad." Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, and Sharon (Manson victim) Tate flounder through the slings and arrows of this outrageous melodrama like wounded animals. Worst movie of the sixties award. CH. 7. 9 p.m. Color, 2 hrs.
Dick Cavett Show. Muhammad Ali and Smokin' Joe Frazier spar verbally in a 90-minute warm-up for their scheduled Jan. 28 heavyweight bout at the Garden in New York. Cavett referees. Ch. 5. 12:30 a.m. Color. 90 min.
FRIDAY: Kojak and the Marcus-Nelson Murders. 1973. Pilot for the CBS detective series "Kojak" features Telly Savalas trying to save a teenager from a railroaded murder conviction. I have yet to see "Kojak," but I have a friend who swears it's tremendous. Check out his taste. CH. 7. 8:30 p.m. Color. 2 hrs. 30 min.
SATURDAY: The Night They Raided Minsky's. 1967. Bert (Cowardly Lion) Lahr's last film role--Elliott Gould's first. Directed by William Friedkin who went on to "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist," this musical farce is a nostalgic look at the twenties burlesques. CH. 4. 9 p.m. Color. 2 hrs.
SUNDAY: The Boston Stranger. 1968. The ABC network broadcast of this sensationalistic pseudo-documentary is being blacked-out in Boston by the local affiliate which is showing "The Comic" starring Dick Van Dyke. For real Tony Curtis freaks, channel 9 in Manchester, N.H., is sometimes accessible in Boston with an antenna. 8:30 p.m. Color. 2 hrs.
The Ugly American. 1963. A portent of things to come, this George Englund film featured Marlon Brando as a thoroughly American diplomat caught in the paradoxes of American policy in Southeast Asia. Dated but worthy. CH. 4 11:30 p.m. Color. 90 min.
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Clever But Cold