MOVIES OF THE WEEK

Stingray (NBC Sunday at 9 p.m.), not to be confused with the 1978 low-budget action film of the same name, sounds like a series pilot. Nick Mancuso stars in this new TV movie, written by Stephen J. Cannell, as a man who mysteriously turns up in a ’65 Corvette Stingray to help a deputy district attorney played by Robyn Douglass.

Dan Curtis provided Karen Black a bravura showcase in Trilogy of Terror (Sunday at 9:30 p.m. on Channel 7), a 1975 TV movie in which the actress played four different roles.

Poison Ivy, a TV movie aired earlier this year, returns Monday at 9 p.m. on NBC. Michael J. Fox of “Family Ties” stars in this comedy set in a summer boys’ camp.

Also repeating at 9 p.m. Monday (on ABC) is Nighthawks, a 1981 thriller so stripped down it lacks essential motivation. In his American film debut, Dutch actor Rutger Hauer plays a professional terrorist pursued by New York undercover policemen Sylvester Stallone and Billy Dee Williams, with Stallone’s estranged wife, Lindsay Wagner, eventually becoming Hauer’s target.

The movie event of the week is the network premiere (CBS Tuesday at 8:30 p.m.) of John Boorman’s mesmerizing 1981 Arthurian adventure Excalibur, which takes us utterly into a darkly dazzling world of magic and history as Boorman brings a fresh, compelling vision to the legend of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table and the search for the Holy Grail. As fine as Nigel Terry is as Arthur, both as young squire and later king, Excalibur is dominated gloriously by Nicol Williamson’s brooding, silver-skullcapped Merlin, a visionary but not all-seeing, a man who can deplete himself, like a marathon runner, of his amazing powers.

Airing at 8 p.m. Tuesday on Channel 4 is a repeat of the entertaining 1982 TV movie Rehearsal for Murder. Robert Preston and Lynn Redgrave head the cast of this well-wrought Richard Levinson-William Link mystery about the death of a famous movie star on the eve of her Broadway debut.

A Piano for Mrs. Cimino, a 1982 TV movie starring Bette Davis, returns Wednesday on CBS at 9 p.m. In this quiet, occasionally lethargic but generally affecting drama, a 73-year-old widow who, once she overcomes her withdrawal from the world after the death of her husband, finds herself in a new battle for her dignity, respect and self-determination. From Davis, director George Schaefer has extracted a meticulous, understated performance and equally good work from Keenan Wynn (as one of Mrs. Cimino’s old friends). Penny Fuller, Alexa Kenin and George Hearn are also in the cast.

Louis Malle’s delightful conversation film My Dinner with Andre screens Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. on PBS station Channel 50.

The Goodbye Girl (ABC Thursday at 8 p.m.) is quintessential Neil Simon, slick and sentimental, well-turned-out and entertaining. In this diverting 1977 romantic comedy, directed by Herbert Ross, Marsha Mason plays a Broadway dancer whose male friends have a chronic tendency to bid her farewell--until her latest ex sublets their apartment to struggling actor Richard Dreyfuss, with whom she immediately clashes. You can take it from there.

Saturn 3 (NBC Friday at 8 p.m.) is a sleek if scarcely original 1980 space adventure in which scientists Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett are menaced by evil Harvey Keitel and his robot. Stanley Donen’s elegant direction helps.

Airing Friday at 8 p.m. on Channel 5 is the strong, vintage Paul Newman prison drama Cool Hand Luke.

At 9 p.m. Friday on CBS is Hotline, a routine 1982 TV movie in which crisis center worker Lynda Carter is pursued by an unknown psychopath.

Cagney and Lacey, the 1981 TV pilot that launched the popular and esteemed series of the same name, returns to CBS at 9 p.m. Saturday. Loretta Swit--not Sharon Gless--and Tyne Daly star.

Saturday at 10 p.m. on Channel 9 brings The Last Hurrah, John Ford’s fine 1958 film of the Edwin O’Conner novel, inspired by Boston’s colorful mayor, James Curley. Spencer Tracy stars.

Selected evening pay/cable fare: Racing With the Moon (Movie Channel Sunday at 8); Boomerang (WGN Sunday at 9:30); Bedazzled (WOR Sunday at 10); Morocco (Z Monday at 7); Entre Nous (Z Monday at 9); Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Z Tuesday at 7); The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (WGN Tuesday at 9:30); Betrayal (Movie Channel Tuesday at 10); Man’s Castle (Z Wednesday at 7:30); Shoot the Piano Player (Z Thursday at 7:30); Dune (ON and SelecTV Thursday at 8:30 for an additional fee); You Can’t Take It With You (Cinemax Thursday at 10); Head (Cinemax Friday at 6:30); The Stone Boy (HBO and Movie Channel Friday at 8, Z Saturday at 9); Svengali (A&E; Saturday at 7); State Fair (1945) (Movie Channel Saturday at 7); Alexander Nevsky (A&E; Saturday at 9).

Also on cable is Disney’s 1951 animated version of Alice in Wonderland, showing throughout the month on the Disney Channel, including Sunday at 5 p.m., Thursday at 1 p.m. and Saturday at 10:30 a.m.