British star Alan Bates makes his American...

British star Alan Bates makes his American television debut in “Hallmark Hall of Fame’s” Pack of Lies (CBS Sunday at 9 p.m.), about a suburban London couple (Ellen Burstyn, Ronald Hines) who face a moral crisis when they allow a British Intelligence agent (Bates) to use their home to spy on their neighbors (Teri Garr, Daniel Benzali)--who happen to be their best friends. (Illustrated on cover.)

Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo (ABC Sunday at 9 p.m.) is a stunning, high-style study of a handsome young man (Richard Gere, never better) who lives off women. Schrader resolves the film’s thriller plot with a daring, unexpected act of spiritual redemption in homage to one of his heroes, ascetic French director Robert Bresson. This is one of the best and least appreciated contemporary American films.

The 1985 Hostage Flight (NBC Sunday at 9 p.m.)--now there’s a classic TV movie title for you--is standard fare about a terrorist skyjacking that takes an unexpected twist. Ned Beatty and Dee Wallace Stone star.

In the new TV movie Western Desperado (NBC Monday at 9 p.m.) Alex McArthur plays a cowboy who risks his life defying the company rule (represented by a ruthless David Warner) of a mining town. The film was written by best-selling novelist Elmore Leonard.

Susan Hayward won an Oscar for her terrific portrayal of doomed good-time girl Barbara Graham in Robert Wise’s “I Want to Live!” Lindsay Wagner made the mistake of taking on the formidable challenge of following in Hayward’s footsteps in a lackluster 1983 TV movie remake. Perhaps it’s significant that the new version, I Want to Live, which repeats Monday at 9 p.m. on ABC, lacked an exclamation point in its title.

Wagner didn’t fare much better in The Other Lover, a 1985 TV movie in rerun (on CBS Tuesday at 9 p.m.). It’s a standard romantic drama in which Wagner plays a married publishing executive who falls for one of the firm’s authors (Jack Scalia).

With a wild and antic imagination, The In-Laws (Channel 13 Tuesday at 8 p.m.) has Peter Falk sweep Alan Arkin, his son’s future father-in-law and a nice, decent, successful Manhattan dentist, into an adventure crazier than Arkin’s wildest imaginings. Directed by Arthur Hiller, it’s a hilarious companion film to Hiller’s current “Outrageous Fortune.”

John Boorman’s mesmerizing Arthurian adventure Excalibur (Channel 13 Wednesday at 8 p.m.) takes us 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. The film is dominated gloriously by Nicol Williamson’s brooding, silver-skull-capped Merlin.

Back yet one more time: Blazing Saddles, Mel Brooks’ hilarious spoof of Westerns (Channel 13 Thursday at 8 p.m.) and Goldfinger (ABC Friday at 9 p.m.), in which Sean Connery’s James Bond must thwart a master criminal (Gert Frobe, in the title role) who would plant a bomb in Ft. Knox.

Robin Williams, Jerry Stiller and Joseph Wiseman all have some of the best moments in their careers in Seize the Day, which Fielder Cook directed from the Saul Bellow novella. Williams, a figure of long-suffering, kindly dignity, is a sweet loser approaching 40, desperate for a job, treated barbarously by his ice-cold father (Wiseman) and exploited hilariously--if cruelly--by a con man (Stiller, in the role of a lifetime). Seize the Day is as modest as it is affecting, and its downward spiral is deftly offset with humor. It plays on the PBS “Great Performances” series Friday at 8 p.m. on Channel 24; Friday at 9 p.m. on Channels 28 and 15, and Saturday at 8 p.m. on Channel 50.

Thompson’s Last Run (CBS Saturday at 9 p.m.), a solid 1986 TV movie, finds career criminal Robert Mitchum pursued by veteran lawman (and former friend) Wilford Brimley.

Selected evening cable fare: The Verdict (Z Sunday at 9); Utu (Bravo Monday at 8); The Trip to Bountiful (SelecTV Monday at 9); The Crazy Family (Z Monday at 9); Sugarbaby (Bravo Monday at 10); Twice in a Lifetime (Movie Channel Tuesday at 7); On the Waterfront (Cinemax Wednesday at 6); 28 Up (Movie Channel Wednesday at 6:30); General della Rovere (Bravo Wednesday at 7); East of Eden (Cinemax Wednesday at 8); The Rise of Louis XIV (Bravo Wednesday at 9:30); The Sure Thing (SelecTV Thursday at 8); Fanny and Alexander (Bravo Thursday at 8:30); Smash Palace (Lifetime Friday at 8); Turtle Diary (Bravo Friday at 10, Z Saturday at 9); Detour (A&E; Saturday at 9).