TUCKER: THE MAN AND THE DREAM(1988) HBO,...

TUCKER: THE MAN AND THE DREAM

(1988) HBO, Monday at 11:30 a.m. This is Francis Coppola’s unfortunately largely overlooked but sensationally good take on the exuberant, innovative postwar car designer Preston Tucker (Jeff Bridges, never better). Tucker, undone by Detroit, is therefore a symbol of the souring of the American Dream. Martin Landau (with Bridges, right, and Joan Allen) is terrific as Tucker’s backer, captivated by Tucker’s dreams.

BETWEEN THE LINES

(1977) A&E;, Friday at 1 p.m. and again at 1 a.m. Joan Micklin’s splendid film, about a Boston counterculture paper that has caught the acquisitive eye of commercial interests, is a kind of epitaph for the T60s, its cause and values. John Heard and Lindsay Crouse, above, star.

RAIN MAN

(1988) HBO, Sunday at 10 p.m. It was Dustin Hoffman who won the Oscar for his performance as an autistic middle-aged man, but it’s Tom Cruise (below with Hoffman), as his brother who carries the picture as a wheeler-dealer transformed during a cross-country trip.

DEATH IN VENICE

(1971) A&E;, Tuesday at 6 p.m., again at 10 p.m. Luchino Visconti’s dazzling film of the Thomas Mann novella catches us up in the exotic, decadent atmosphere of pre-World War I Venice, as a famous, middle-aged composer (Dirk Bogarde, above with Marisa Berenson), modeled on Gustav Mahler, whose solemn, rhapsodic music is heard throughout the film, becomes transfixed by the beauty of an angelic-looking youth (Bjorn Adresen).

THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY

(1978) KCOP, Sunday at 6 p.m. To the gently pulsing beat of “Peggy Sue” and “That’ll Be the Day,” this hit pays tribute to the crown prince of Southern rockabilly. Holly lives again, largely through the brilliant performance by Gary Busey (right).

COOLEY HIGH

(1975) KTTV, Thursday at 8 p.m. This production shows what the black American film can be when creative talents are given an opportunity. A bittersweet, nostalgic coming-of-age drama inspired by writer Eric Monte’s own experiences, it stars Glynn Turman (below left) as a witty, bespectacled Chicago high school youth quietly determined not to end up as a factory worker. Michael Schultz directed.