Saturday, August 30 - Straight Time

Straight Time (1978)

After being released on parole, a burglar attempts to go straight, get a regular job, and just go by the rules. He soon finds himself back in jail at the hands of a power-hungry parole officer. When he is released again, he assaults the parole officer, steals his car, and returns to a life of crime.

Friday, August 29 - Stage Struck

Stage Struck (1948)

The murder of nightclub hostess leads an investigator to seedy nightspots.

Thursday, August 28 - Black Books: Episodes 1-4

Black Books (2000–2004) TV Series

Bernard Black runs his own bookshop even though he doesn't much like people who buy books and hates having customers. Next door to Bernard's shop is the Nifty Gifty gift shop run by Fran, probably Bernard's only friend in the world. When Bernard's accountant goes on the run Bernard employs stress victim, Manny to help in his shop. This leads to a series of surreal adventures around the shop.

Black Books: Season 1, Episode 1 Cooking the Books (29 Sep. 2000)

Bernard is struggling to cope with getting down to menial but essential tasks for his book shop, such as the accounts when a chance meeting with a customer, Manny, helps him out. Meanwhile, the owner of the shop next door, enlists the help of Bernard and his customers to find out exactly what an object from her shop is and in doing so misses an important appointment.

 Black Books: Season 1, Episode 2 Manny's First Day (6 Oct. 2000)

Bernard wakes up to discover that he has a new employee for his book shop, who infuriatingly has great skill at selling books. While Bernard is reluctant to keep him on, Fran makes her feelings clear on the matter.

Black Books: Season 1, Episode 3 Grapes of Wrath (13 Oct. 2000)

After Manny calls a cleaner to the shop, he and Bernard must vacate it. Luckily they are asked to house sit for a friend. Meanwhile Fran goes on an ill-fated date.

Black Books: Season 1, Episode 4 The Blackout (20 Oct. 2000)

Manny stays up watching 'The Sweeney' and is mistaken for a policeman after chasing a handbag snatcher. Fran and Bernard exchange stories about their previous day, Bernard recalling a disastrous dinner party with old friends who blanked him and Fran telling him about blanking her boyfriend after catching him with another woman.

Wednesday, August 27 - Everything Happens at Night

Everything Happens at Night (1939)

Ray Milland and Robert Cummings play competing newspapers reporters, in Switzerland, on the trail of the Nobel Prize winner Dr. Norden. Norden was supposed to have been killed in Germany. Both reporters meet, and fall in love with, a young woman who turns out to be Norden's daughter living under an assumed name. Their discovery of her father brings the Gestapo.

Tuesday, August 26 - Who's Got the Action?

Who's Got the Action? (1962)

A hunch horse-player's marriage is threatened by his betting ways; in desperation, his wife becomes his bookie.

Monday, August 25 - Mannix: Nothing Ever Works Twice

Mannix: Season 1, Episode 3 Nothing Ever Works Twice (30 Sep. 1967)

Mannix reluctantly agrees to pursue a divorce case -- the woman involved is an old flame of his. The detective ends up being framed for murder.

Sunday, August 24 - The Hunted

The Hunted (1948)

Laura Mead (played by celebrated ice-skating queen-turned-actress Belita) insists she didnt do the crime. But she did the time, swearing she would murder the incompetent attorney who represented her at her jewel-theft trial. Not long after her release from prison, the attorneys gunned-down body is found. Laura flees. Tracking her is a detective Laura had also threatened with death: johnny Saxon (Preston Foster), who years back had arrested her for the jewel theft and who once loved - perhaps even still loves - her.

Saturday, August 23 - The Phenix City Story

The Phenix City Story (1955)

In this semidocumentary, an Alabama town is run by a crime syndicate that's grown fat on prostitution and crooked gambling, directed at soldiers from Fort Benning across the river. Lawyer John Patterson, back from the army, is triggered by what he sees to join the reformers with a plan: to run his father Albert for state attorney general. The syndicate responds with escalating violence.

Friday, August 22 - Perry Mason: The Case of the Sun Bather's Diary

Perry Mason: Season 1, Episode 17 The Case of the Sun Bather's Diary (11 Jan. 1958)

A gorgeous woman's trailer was stolen while she was sunbathing, so she asks for Perry's help in finding it. She claims it contains her diary, which details the truthful account of a notorious bank heist her father was convicted for.

Thursday, August 21 - Frisco Jenny

Frisco Jenny (1932)

Frisco Jenny was orphaned by the 1906 earthquake and fire and has become the madame of a prosperous bawdy house. She puts her son up for adoption and he rises to prominence as district attorney dedicated to closing down such houses. When her underling Dutton proposes telling the DA that Frisco Jenny is his birth mother, she kills the underling not to cause trouble for her son now the successful DA, she must face execution.

Wednesday, August 20 - Route 66: Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!

Route 66: Season 4, Episode 3 Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are! (11 Oct. 1963)

Tod and Linc, in the Poland Spring, Maine area, are working at a saw mill. Linc has found a girl he is madly in love with. She seems interested in him as well but oddly "wants to save him the trouble of being hurt" and pursues another man. The man brings her to realize that she has no idea of what she wants out of life.

Tuesday, August 19 - Maigret: Maigret Goes to School

Maigret: Season 1, Episode 3 Maigret Goes to School (23 Feb. 1992)

Maigret is called to investigate a murder in a small village near to La Rochelle, the victim being old Jeanne, shot through her window. She was the local post mistress with access to everyone's mail and knew everyone's secrets. The main suspect is a married school-teacher but the local doctor explains to Maigret that this is chiefly because he has come from Paris and the village resents new-comers. A chat with two school-boys puts Maigret in the right direction.

Monday, August 18 - The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: The Woman in the Big Hat

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Season 1, Episode 9 The Woman in the Big Hat (15 Nov. 1971)

When a customer slumps over dead in a tea shop, Lady Molly of the Yard searches for the mystery woman who had been seated at his table. However, she runs into resistance from the dead man's family, who show little interest in solving the crime.

Sunday, August 17 - She's Working Her Way Through College

She's Working Her Way Through College (1952)

Virginia Mayo plays an exotic dancer, Angela Gardner, who decides to improve her mind; she enrolls in a college where Professor John Palmer (Ronald Reagan) teaches English. In between Angela's lively musical numbers, the film concentrates on an old rivalry between the bookish Palmer and onetime college football jock Shep Slade (Don DeFore). When the college trustees oppose Angela's presence on campus, Palmer staunchly defends her right to an education.

Friday, August 15 - The Third Voice

The 3rd Voice (1960)

The Man (Edmond O'Brien) is the accomplice of Marian Forbes (Laraine Day), the spurned mistress of a tycoon. She coaches The Man in impersonating the voice and appearance and habits of the intended victim and when he has been taken care of The Man begins his masquerade in a Mexican resort. Here he meets Corey Scott (Julie London) and moves on to contemplating the murder of his tutor. But things begin to go awry.

Thursday, August 14 - Naked Alibi

Naked Alibi (1954)

Questioned as a murder suspect, solid (but drunk) citizen Al Willis attacks his police questioners, is beaten, and swears vengeance against them. Next night, Lieut. Parks is murdered; Willis is the only suspect in the eyes of tough Chief Conroy, who pursues him doggedly despite lack of evidence. The obsessed Conroy is dismissed from the force, but continues to harass Willis, who flees to a sleazy town on the Mexican border. Of course, Conroy follows. But which is crazy, Conroy or Willis?

Wednesday, August 13 - The Woman Chaser

The Woman Chaser (1999)

Set in 1950s Los Angeles, Richard Hudson is a shrewd car dealer who moves from San Francisco and sets up a used-car dealership. Tiring of his job, he turns the lot over to an assistant in order to write and direct his movie, "The Man Who Got Away".

Tuesday, August 12 - The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: The Best Dressed Man

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Season 1, Episode 2 The Best Dressed Man (6 Oct. 1959)

Dobie launches a runway offensive versus wealthy, better-dressed hunk Milton Armitage, his competitor for luscious teen gold-digger Thalia Menninger. When Dobie's grocer father Herbert T. Gillis refuses to finance a clothing binge, Dobie talks a local haberdasher into letting Dobie secretly model the shoppe's best outfits, to promote the store's business, plus counter Maynard & The Beat Generation's anti-fashion values.

Monday, August 11 - Alibi For Murder

Alibi for Murder (1936)

Winchellesque radio commentator Perry Travis (William Gargan) fancies himself a brilliant amateur detective; the cops wish he'd just stick to his microphone and let them do the detecting. This proves impossible when a famed scientist is murdered in his own home, as Perry is attempting to get an interview. With the help of the dead man's secretary Lois Allen (Marguerite Churchill), Perry tries to figure out how a man could be murdered in a locked room with no visible weapon or assailant.

Sunday, August 10 - Climbing High

Climbing High (1938)

Wealthy Nicky finds himself engaged to gold-digger Lady Constance, but he really loves scatty model Diana. Complications, slapstick and mountaineering are the result.

Saturday, August 9 - A Covenant with Death

A Covenant with Death (1967)

Wrongly convicted for the murder of his wife, death row inmate Earl Holliman struggles on the scaffold...and the hangman accidentally dies as a result. Concurrently, his spouse's killer steps forward and confesses. Young jurist George Maharis has the unenviable task of sorting it all out in this tense legal tale.

Friday, August 8 - The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Caper at the Bijou

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Season 1, Episode 1 Caper at the Bijou (29 Sep. 1959)

Dobie is desperate for money so he can take Thalia to the dance, so he and Maynard hatch a plot to dishonestly win $100 at the Bijou Theater on Jackpot Night.

Thursday, August 7 - Sorcerer

Sorcerer (1977)

A group of outcasts from different backgrounds and nationalities are forced by misfortune to work in an oil-drilling operation in South America. When fire breaks out of control, four of the outcasts are given the opportunity to earn enough money to get out by transporting six crates of unstable dynamite through miles of jungle in two ancient trucks.

Wednesday, August 6 - Killjoy

Killjoy (1981) TV Movie

Kim Basinger is the key in a love triangle including two physicians: hothead Stephen Macht and mama's boy John Rubinstein. When Basinger and Macht announce their engagement, Rubinstein convinces her that her new fiancé hasn't forsaken his playboy past by creating an imaginary girlfriend for him named Joy Morgan. Basinger buys the ruse, but all three find themselves in trouble when cop Robert Culp pops up investigating "Joy"'s disappearance and possible murder. How can the police be looking into a missing person who doesn't exist?

Tuesday, August 5 - Ballad in Blue

Ballad in Blue (1964)

Ray Charles (playing himself) performs for sightless children in a London school, and meets young David Harrison (Piers Bishop), a ten-year-old recently blinded by sickness. Charles takes a personal interest in David when he realizes that his mother Peggy (Mary Peach) is over-protecting her son. Peggy's lover Steve Collins (Tom Bell) is a pianist and composer, and Ray Charles hires him to arrange music for a European tour. Yet Peggy seems to have little confidence in Steve's career. Ray knows of a Parisian eye surgeon who may be able to restore David's sight but Peggy balks at taking her son out of his routine. Complicating things is the seductive fashion designer Gina Graham (Dawn Addams), a playgirl with romantic designs on Steve.

Monday, August 4 - The Swimmer

The Swimmer (1968)

"The Swimmer" is the story of a man who begins at the dawn of a new day to swim in the backyard pool of some friends. The water is cool and fresh, and the day is beautiful.

As he has a drink with his friends, it occurs to him that a string of other backyard pools reaches all the way across the valley to his own home. Why not swim every one -- swim all the way home, as it were? This sounds like a glorious adventure, and indeed it starts but that way. He even meets a lovely girl who agrees to come along on the journey.

Some of the pool owners are happy to see him. Others hate him. One is a bitter young woman who loved him once. We learn something about this man's life at every poolside, until finally we are able to piece together a story of his disgrace and failure.

Sunday, August 3 - They Call Me Mister Tibbs!

They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970)

San Francisco Police Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs is called in to investigate when a liberal street preacher and political candidate is accused of murdering a prostitute. Tibbs is also battling domestic woes, including a frustrated wife and a rebellious adolescent son.

Saturday, August 2 - Cockfighter

Cockfighter (1974)

Warren Oates plays Frank Mansfield, an obsessive trainer of fighting cocks. After his best bird is defeated and he lost the championship due to his drunken bragging, he takes a vow of silence. He plans to stay silent until he wins the cockfighter of the year medal, hopefully defeating his rival, Jack (who at the start of film has just won Frank's home, car and girl) along the way.

Friday, August 1 - Route 66: Same Picture, Different Frame

Route 66: Season 4, Episode 2 Same Picture, Different Frame (4 Oct. 1963)

Tod and Linc are in Poland Spring, Maine working at a children's Summer Camp. Linc acts as protector for one of the Camp counselors, an older lady, who has become frightened by the threat of her escaped mental patient husband. Tod, meanwhile, has his hands full warding off the advances of a teenage attendee at the Camp.

Thursday, July 31 - Turn Back the Clock

Turn Back the Clock (1933)

Joe and Mary run a tobacco store and are just scraping by. When old friend Ted comes into the store, they renew their friendship, even though Ted is now wealthy and married to Elvira, whom Joe could have married himself, and become the rich one. After a domestic squabble Joe is hit by a car, and when he wakes up he is 20 years younger and can rectify his error and marry Elvina and her money. He does, relives his life as a wealthy man who still remembers his 'other' life, and what happened during those years. In the end he realizes that he isn't as happy as he was formerly, and things come to a head when his 'new' life catches up with his old one.