More Psychopaths On Display In `Deadly Intentions . . . Again'

One thing TV will never run out of is psychopathic killers. Already this month we've been treated to ``The Marla Hanson Story'' (just wounding, not killing), ``The Chase'' (dangerous psychotic) and ``In Broad Daylight,'' in which Brian Dennehy portrayed a dangerous nut. All were on NBC. Now ABC jumps in with ``Deadly Intentions . . . Again,'' at 9 tonight on KOMO-TV.

It may help if you remember the two-part 1985 movie, ``Deadly Intentions,'' starring Michael Biehn as a man plotting to kill his wife. That film was based on a real incident, with the usual changes ``for dramatic reasons.'' Tonight's movie picks up that character, Dr. Sam Raynor, as he gets out of prison. Only now he's played by Harry Hamlin.

Again, enough changes and additions have been wrought that you might as well treat the whole thing as a work of fiction. (It's also another of those set-in-Seattle, filmed-in-Vancouver, B.C., movies.) Treated strictly as fiction, it's compelling in the same way ``In Broad Daylight'' was - in that Harry Hamlin makes a dandy villain. He behaves bizarrely, threatens his wife (played by Joanna Kerns) and feuds with his grouchy, complaining mother, wonderfully portrayed by Eileen Brennan.

James Sadwith, who directed ``In Broad Daylight,'' also directed ``Deadly Intentions . . . Again.'' He again proves he knows how to play on our emotions and get us involved, whether we want to or not, with truly trashy characters. This movie has absolutely no redeeming virtues - except that it's riveting in a chilling way.

Apt title: CBS makes an ill-advised excursion into the world of science fiction for ``Not of This World,'' the TV movie airing at 9 p.m. tomorrow on KIRO-TV. This silly film borrows a little bit from ``Alien,'' but almost none of it makes any sense, and (worse yet!) it is hardly ever scary. I knew the movie was in trouble from the moment it tried to pass star Lisa Hartman off as a brilliant electrical engineer, wearing a dress most hookers would kill for. After that, it was hard to take a moment of this fiasco seriously.

Trio: HBO's ``Doing Time: Life Inside the Big House,'' which premieres at 10 p.m. tomorrow on cable, is further proof, if proof is needed, that prisons are frightening, dangerous places, as filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond introduce us to a wide range of the denizens of the Lewisburg Prison in Pennsylvania, one of three maximum-security federal penitentiaries. As always with programs about prisons, the interviews have a certain fascination, especially one with a man serving three life sentences for murder: He informs us he's forgiven himself and that's all that counts! It's a scary but compelling hour. HBO will repeat it Feb. 17, 21, 25 and 27.

This week's ``American Experience'' (at 9 p.m. tomorrow on KCTS-TV) is ``Los Mineros,'' a documentary about Mexican-Americans employed in the copper mines in Arizona since the turn of the century. It is, unsurprisingly, a shameful record of prejudice, not only in terms of social situations but, more important, in terms of money and working conditions, both greatly inferior to what white Americans were given. It's a moving mixture of old films and photographs and contemporary interviews with survivors of the old days.

PBS' ``Infinite Voyage'' series is one of those scientific ``gee-whiz'' programs that show us applications of science that put Buck Rogers to shame. This edition, ``Miracles of Design,'' offers intriguing reports on artificial skin, the use of ceramics in building auto engines, and alloys to replace human body parts. It airs Wednesday at 7 on KCTS-TV and 9 on KTPS-TV.

Video notes: If you didn't get enough of Lucy and Desi last night in the CBS movie about their early days, you can view one of their 1956 movies, ``Forever Darling,'' in which they play a young couple with marital problems (!) at 6 and 9 tonight on cable's TNT. . . . See Los Angeles through novelist John Gregory Dunne's eyes on the episode of PBS' ``Travels,'' tonight at 7 on KCTS-TV and 8 p.m. tomorrow on KTPS-TV. . . . Cable's Arts & Entertainment channel begins airing ``Hanlon,'' a seven-part historical drama about a New Zealand lawyer, unavailable for previewing, at 7 and 11 tonight. . . . NBC has a new Perry Mason mystery, ``The Case of the Maligned Mobster,'' at 9 tonight on KING-TV. . . . KTPS-TV airs David Frost's interview with David Lloyd Webber at 9 tonight. . . . KCTS-TV, which airs PBS' ``Bookmark'' series at 2 a.m. Tuesdays, has also begun to air it at 2 p.m. Tuesdays. . . . The final episode of PBS' important ``Soviets'' series, which explores nationalist passions, airs at 9 p.m. tomorrow on KTPS-TV.

John Voorhees' column appears Sunday, Monday and Thursday in The Times.