Marlon Brando a bitter war veteran in medical drama The Men

Marlon Brando plays a bitter paraplegic in his 1950 film debut, The Men, airing Wednesday on the ABC.

Marlon Brando in the 1950 film, The Men.

Marlon Brando’s 1950 film debut is the affecting medical drama The Men (Wednesday, 2.38am, ABC). He plays a young war veteran who takes a bullet in the spine and lives bitterly in a ward full of paraplegics until he is saved by the love of a good woman (Teresa Wright). Future producer Carl Foreman wrote the solid script, and it features Citizen Kane actor Everett Sloane as the avuncular yet practical doctor.

With a handful of Hollywood credits to his name, Icelandic producer-director-writer-actor Baltasar Kormakur has gained some momentum that is sure to increase when his outdoor adventure Everest opens later this year. In the meantime, his 2008 starring vehicle Reykjavik-Rotterdam (Tuesday, 1.55am, SBS Two) is a crackling good smuggling thriller that he subsequently remade with Mark Wahlberg as Contraband in 2012.

A whimsical film about a grave subject, the Oscar-nominated 2008 Japanese drama Departures (Monday, 11.15pm, SBS Two) is about an unemployed cellist who takes a job under the impression it involves travel. What it entails is the encoffinment of the newly deceased for burial, a delicate Japanese tradition of great importance. Don’t be put off by the subject matter, this is a film of great grace and insight.

A similar balance of seriousness and sass can be found in the 2007 comedy-drama Teddy Bear (Monday, 2.05am, SBS Two), in which a trio of 30-something Czech mates face issues of fertility and fidelity in modern Prague.

Last week’s screening of Mission: Impossible apparently was only a warm-up for the awkwardly titled parts two and three, which air on separate stations during the next few days. All of which is probably timed for the early August release of the fifth film in the series, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. In director John Woo’s propulsive and largely Sydney-shot 2000 adventure Mission: Impossible II (Sunday, 11pm, Ten), Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt must thwart bad guys who have stolen a deadly virus and its antidote. Thandie Newton is the love interest, with the superficial but never less than engaging script by famed Chinatown author Robert Towne.

The last of the series to date to use those annoying Roman numerals, Mission: Impossible III (Saturday, 9.35pm, Seven) features Philip Seymour Hoffman as the arms dealing bad guy and is the series debut of director JJ Abrams, whose Star Wars reboot is expected this Christmas. As John Candy used to say on SCTV, “everything blows up real good”.

Warren Beatty’s delightfully raucous 1975 comedy Shampoo (Monday, 12.27am, ABC) stars the actor as a hedonistic Beverly Hills hairdresser in crisis on the eve of Richard Nixon’s first presidential victory in 1968. In the “it’s a small world” department, the film was co-written by Beatty and Towne.

Departures (M) 4.5 stars

Monday, 11.15pm, SBS Two

Shampoo (MA15+) 4.5 stars

Monday, 12.27am, ABC

The Men (PG) 4 stars

Wednesday, 2.38am, ABC