One of the funnier Eddie Murphy comedies...

One of the funnier Eddie Murphy comedies of recent years, the 1992 The Distinguished Gentleman (NBC Sunday at 9 p.m.) finds Florida con man Murphy setting his sights on being elected to the House of Representatives. However, its mix of slapstick farce and satirical expose of government malfeasance doesn’t always jell.

A blisteringly violent and symbolic melodrama, the 1985 Runaway Train (KTLA Tuesday at 8 p.m.) is taut from first shot to last. Andrei Konchalovsky directs (smashingly) from a script originally planned and written by Akira Kurosawa. Starring Jon Voight and Eric Roberts as two escaped convicts; with Rebecca DeMornay and John Ryan.

White Christmas (KTLA Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 5 p.m.) is an elaborate 1954 VistaVision reworking of the much better 1942 “Holiday Inn,” in which Bing Crosby introduced “White Christmas.” Crosby returns, as do Irving Berlin’s songs, and he’s joined by Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen; the plot has to do with Army buddies Crosby and Kaye jazzing up ex-officer Dean Jagger’s winter resort.

It would be hard to imagine a holiday season without a screening of Frank Capra’s 1946 It’s a Wonderful Life (NBC Saturday at 8 p.m.). It’s Capra’s favorite and it is a gem, spun around the life of an American Everyman (James Stewart) who, in despair, decides that he’s better off dead than alive and even wished he’d never been born. The angel who changes his mind is Henry Travers.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (ABC Saturday at 9 p.m.) is a pleasant 1971 children’s musical fantasy, based on the Roald Dahl novel, about a tour through a magical candy factory.

The Year of Living Dangerously (KCET Saturday at 9 p.m.), Peter Weir’s vibrant, violent, often stunning 1983 tale of romance and revolution in 1965 Indonesia, stars Mel Gibson as an Australian journalist, Sigourney Weaver as his inamorata, and Oscar-winner Linda Hunt, unforgettable as a wise, corrupt go-between.

Based on Manuel Puig’s novel, 1985’s Kiss of the Spider Woman (KCET Saturday at 11 p.m.), directed by Hector Babenco, movingly juxtaposes sexual repression and political tyranny with (Oscar-winner) William Hurt and Raul Julia, two cellmates ripping it up in classic chamber-drama style.