Thursday, December 31, 2015

Wednesday, Dec. 30 - Uneasy Terms

Uneasy Terms (1948)

Before detective Slim Callaghan (Michael Rennie) can meet with prospective client Col. Stenhurst, he gets drugged, is ordered not to take the case by the colonel's step-daughter, and finds Stenhurst's dead body. So, of course, Callaghan investigates for himself, accurately predicting that several of the relatives will hire him. What he finds is a sordid history of murder and blackmail. Vernon Sewell's Uneasy Terms is a scrambled British attempt at American-style hard boil.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Tuesday, Dec. 29 - Checkmate: Lady on the Brink

Checkmate: Season 1, Episode 4 Lady on the Brink (15 Oct. 1960)

A woman with a troubled past is to testify as an eye-witness in a murder trial, only someone is attempting to make her appear mentally unstable so as to discredit her testimony.

Actually she already testified. The mental instability is theoretically to help with an appeal.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Monday, Dec. 28 - Murder in the Private Car

Murder in the Private Car (1934)

After Ruth Raymond (Mary Carlisle) discovers that her real father is railroad tycoon Luke Carson (Berton Churchill), she's kidnapped for her newfound fortune. Saved in the nick of time by oddball private eye Godfrey D. Scott (Charlie Ruggles), Ruth gets sent on a cross-country train trip from Los Angeles to New York City. With the help of Scott, her devoted boyfriend, John (Russell Hardie), and best friend, Georgia (Una Merkel), Ruth battles against an unknown murderer who's targeting her.

Monday, December 28, 2015

Sunday, Dec. 27 - Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)

Baron Frankenstein is once again working with illegal medical experiments. Together with a young doctor, Karl and his fiancée Anna, they kidnap the mentally sick Dr. Brandt, to perform the first brain transplantation ever.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Saturday, Dec. 26 - Blindfold

Blindfold (1965)

When top-level scientist Arthur Vincenti (Alejandro Rey) suffers a nervous collapse, his military handlers fear he may be at risk of being kidnapped by a group of international terrorists who sell their victims to the governments of communist nations. Vincenti's psychiatrist, Dr. Bartholomew Snow (Rock Hudson), and fractious sister, Vicky (Claudia Cardinale), are drawn into a web of intrigue alongside the mysterious Fitzpatrick (Guy Stockwell), who claims Vincenti may already be an enemy agent.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Friday, Dec. 25 - Smart Girls Don't Talk

Smart Girls Don't Talk (1948)

The beautiful Linda (Virginia Mayo) strikes up a romance with no-good Marty (Bruce Bennett), the seemingly charming owner of a gambling joint. But it isn't long before she realizes that he has his hands in more sinister enterprises, including murder. When Linda's upstanding physician brother, Doc (Robert Hutton), finds out about the affair, he voices his disapproval. Marty gets suspicious of the ethical Doc and has him knocked off, prompting Linda to risk her neck by finally going to the cops.

Friday, December 25, 2015

Thursday, Dec. 24 - International Settlement

International Settlement (1938)

In Shanghai amidst Sino-Japanese warfare an adventurer (Sanders) collecting money from gun suppliers falls in loves with a French singer (Del Rio).

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Wednesday, Dec. 23 - The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935)

John Jasper, a brooding, moody choirmaster at a finishing school in Victorian England, maintains a secret life that includes frequenting an opium den. His tortured mind becomes obsessed with a young student, Rosa Bud, who is engaged to his nephew Edwin Drood. When she senses the intensity of Jasper's feelings, she becomes frightened of him and avoids his company. When the mixed-blooded Neville Landless and his twin sister Helena arrive at the school from Ceylon, Neville and Edwin take an immediate dislike to one another over Rosa's affections. Although they quarrel and make up, Edwin disappears, and suspicion logically falls on the quick-tempered Neville.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Tuesday, Dec. 22 - The Thirteenth Hour

The Thirteenth Hour (1947)

In the 7th of Columbia's "Whistler" series, truck-firm owner Steve Reynolds gets involved in a feud with a rival firm, and shortly thereafter is slugged by a masked assailant who steals the truck he is driving. The assailant runs down a policeman in the truck and leaves other clues pointing to Reynolds as the cop killer. With only a glove, with diamonds stuck in the thumb, as a clue, and while evading the police and other characters after him and the diamonds, Reynolds finally runs down the guilty party and clears himself.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Sunday, Dec. 20 - You Can't Take It With You

You Can't Take It With You (1938)

Sweet-natured Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur) falls for banker's son Tony Kirby (James Stewart). But when she invites her snooty prospective in-laws to dinner to give their blessing to the marriage, Alice's peculiar extended family -- including philosophical grandfather Martin Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore), hapless fledgling ballerina sister Essie (Ann Miller) and fireworks enthusiast father, Paul (Samuel S. Hinds) -- might be too eccentric for the staid Kirbys.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Saturday, Dec. 19 - Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Belligerent Ghost

Sherlock Holmes: Season 1, Episode 5 The Case of the Belligerent Ghost (15 Nov. 1954)

Dr. Watson returns to the Baker Street flat in a state of great agitation. He tells Sherlock Holmes that, earlier in the evening, he had attended a dying man in his final moments, only to see the same man in the street soon afterward, and be punched in the eye by him. Holmes is intrigued, and goes with Watson to check the dead man's lodgings and to view his corpse in the morgue. The detective learns that the man had been a watchman at an art museum, and that he had a previous conviction for counterfeiting. The next evening, when Watson returns to Baker Street convinced that he has seen the same dead man once again, Holmes puts the clues together and goes to warn Inspector Lestrade about an impending crime at the museum.

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Friday, Dec. 18 - The Mystery of Marie Roget

Mystery of Marie Roget (1942)

Edgar Allan Poe's Paris sleuth, Dupin (Patric Knowles), ties a missing singer (Maria Montez) to a mutilated corpse.

...is that supposed to be funny?

Friday, December 18, 2015

Thursday, Dec. 17 - Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Texas Cowgirl

Sherlock Holmes: Season 1, Episode 4 The Case of the Texas Cowgirl (8 Nov. 1954)

A covered wagon from "Bison Jake's Wild West Rodeo" pulls up outside 221B Baker Street, and cowgirl Minnie O'Malley goes inside to see Sherlock Holmes. She tells the detective that she has found a dead man in her hotel room, apparently killed by a tomahawk that she uses in her act. At her request, Holmes and Dr. Watson move the body to a different room, so that Minnie can avoid a scandal that might cause trouble for her British fiancé. Then, when Inspector Lestrade arrives on the scene to investigate, Holmes proceeds to the business of solving the case. He has already uncovered the crucial clue that there is a second tomahawk at the murder scene.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Tuesday, Dec. 15 - The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: The Gaucho

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Season 1, Episode 14 The Gaucho (5 Jan. 1960)

Carlos, the suave son of an Argentinian general, boards with the Gillis family and immediately wins the fickle heart of Thalia. Dobie and Maynard plot to sabotage his success.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Monday, Dec. 14 - The Love Wanga

Ouanga (1936)

In Haiti, a black female plantation owner enacts a voodoo curse, and revives zombies for revenge on a white male neighbor, who has chosen a white woman over her for marriage.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Sunday, Dec. 13 - Lepke

Lepke (1975)

Tony Curtis stars as Lepke, head of Murder Inc., the syndicate that spattered the headlines of the day with blood.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Saturday, Dec. 12 - Springtime in the Rockies

Springtime in the Rockies (1942)

Broadway partners Vicky Lane and Dan Christy have a tiff over Christy's womanizing. Jealous Vicky takes up with her old flame and former dance partner, Victor Price, and Dan's career takes a nosedive. In hopes of rekindling their romance and getting Vicky back on the boards with him, Dan follows her to a ritzy resort in the Canadian Rockies, where she and Victor are about to open their new act. But things get complicated when Dan wakes after a bender to find that he's hired an outlandish Latin secretary, Rosita Murphy, which makes Vicky think he's just up to his old tricks again.

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Friday, Dec. 11 - Dark Intruder

Dark Intruder (1965)

An amateur Victorian sleuth (Leslie Nielsen) meets a San Francisco socialite's (Mark Richman) monstrous twin.

Friday, December 11, 2015

Thursday, Dec. 10 - Nylon Noose

Nylon Noose (1963) "Die Nylonschlinge" (original title)

A group of stockholders holds a crucial meeting at an old manor house. Blackmail rears its ugly head when one of those present unearths a few corporate skeletons. Then the murders commence, as the stockholders are strangled one by one by an unknown assailant.

or...

A Scotland Yard inspector (Richard Goodman) tracks a killer of stockholders through the catacombs of a remote manor.

or maybe...

A company's stockholders hold their meeting at a lonely mansion. A mad doctor conducting experiments in the mansion starts to strangle them one at a time with a nylon noose. The survivors must figure out a way to stop him.

...none of the above?

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Wednesday, Dec. 9 - Shadowed

Shadowed (1946)

Fred J. Johnson (Lloyd Corrigan) scores a hole-in-one but his next drive, using the lucky, initialed golf ball, soars out of bounds and lands near a spot where some counterfeiters are burying a murder victim. Then begins a series of events in which he is hounded and threatened by the killers. The consequences of his not reporting what he saw to the police lead to a climax in which is daughter is held hostage by the crooks.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Tuesday, Dec. 8 - I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes

I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (1948)

A husband and wife dancing team down on their luck finds some money that gets them into a lot of trouble - and the husband on death row for murder. His one pair of shoes condemns him. After an open-and-shut trial and conviction, the wife ends up taking on his case herself as the clock ticks toward his execution.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Monday, Dec. 7 - The Untouchables: Three Thousand Suspects

The Untouchables: Season 1, Episode 23 Three Thousand Suspects (24 Mar. 1960)

Just as a prisoner is about to turn stool pigeon, he is shot by someone on the inside. So Ness transfers a con from another prison to find the killer.

Monday, December 7, 2015

Sunday, Dec. 6 - Cavalcade

Cavalcade (1933)

A cavalcade of English life from New Year's Eve 1899 until 1933 seen through the eyes of well-to-do Londoners Jane and Robert Marryot. Amongst events touching their family are the Boer War, the death of Queen Victoria, the sinking of the Titanic and the Great War.

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Saturday, Dec. 5 - Esther Waters & The Ring

Sin of Esther Waters (1948) "Esther Waters" (original title)

Esther goes into service in Victorian England, only to be seduced by the sweet talking groom William, who then takes off with his employer's daughter. Left alone to bring up the child, Esther manages and after 7 years has a chance at happiness. Then William turns up again.

The Ring (1952)

Teenager Tommy Cantanios (Lalo Rios) is tired of being treated like a second-class citizen because he is Mexican-American. When one too many bigots takes a shot at him, Cantanios decides to fight back, finding in the process that he has a gift for boxing. Utilizing his newfound skill, Cantanios becomes a professional boxer with the help of his manager, Pete Ganusa (Gerald Mohr), and trainer, Freddy Jack (Robert Osterloh). However, Cantanios still struggles to find genuine respect as a person.

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Friday, Dec. 4 - No Man's Woman

No Man's Woman (1955)

A greedy, scheming woman is found murdered in her art studio, and the police find that there is no shortage of suspects who wanted to see her dead--among them a rich husband she wouldn't divorce unless he paid her a huge settlement, a lover she caused to be fired from his job and an assistant whose fiancé she tried to seduce.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Thursday, Dec. 3 - Hell's Highway

Hell's Highway (1932)

Chain gang prisoners forced to construct a "liberty highway" for their overseer chasten under his brutal stewardship, causing Duke Ellis to mastermind a mass riot.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Wednesday, Dec. 2 - Martin Kane: The Comic Strip Killer

Martin Kane: Season 4, Episode 25 The Comic Strip Killer (23 Apr. 1953)

The artist of a comic strip bases his latest story on an unsolved murder mystery where he claims he will provide the identity of the killer in the last cartoon. Before he inks the denouement, the cartoonist is murdered and Kane, who had urged him to abandon the project and provide his evidence to the police, feels obliged to solve both crimes.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Tuesday, Dec. 1 - The Great Profile

The Great Profile (1940)

John Barrymore stars as Evans Garrick, a renowned thespian with a lust for the bottle. After disappearing on a three-day bender, Garrick finds himself dropped by his movie studio, his agent (Gregory Ratoff), and his wife (Mary Beth Hughes) on the same evening. Luckily, fortune shines on the aging actor in the form of an inexperienced playwright (Anne Baxter) who provides him with a play and, more importantly, the financing to put it on. The girl’s script stinks on ice, but Garrick turns the show into a sensation by getting blotto on opening night and terrorizing the rest of the cast with explosive ad-libs.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Monday, Nov. 30 - Route 66: 93 Percent in Smiling

Route 66: Season 4, Episode 12 93 Percent in Smiling (20 Dec. 1963)

Tod and Linc are in Erie Canal,New York working in construction and living in a "mobile home court". Their know-it-all neighbor, who has moved his family to various cities because he cannot hold a job, suffers when his baby son disappears. Linc, playing detective, finds out the man's other two children are the cause.

Monday, November 30, 2015

Sunday, Nov. 29 - Moby Dick

Moby Dick (1956)

This classic story by Herman Melville revolves around Captain Ahab and his obsession with a huge whale, Moby Dick. The whale caused the loss of Ahab's leg years before, leaving Ahab to stomp the boards of his ship on a peg leg. Ahab is so crazed by his desire to kill the whale, that he is prepared to sacrifice everything, including his life, the lives of his crew members, and even his ship to find and destroy his nemesis, Moby Dick.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Friday, Nov. 27 - The Hurricane

The Hurricane (1937)

In the colonial era, island native Terangi (Jon Hall) spends a blissful honeymoon with his bride, Marama (Dorothy Lamour). Soon after, however, their relationship is torn asunder when Terangi is sent to prison for punching a prejudiced white man. Prominent members of the community -- including the governor's wife, Mme. De Laage (Mary Astor) -- petition the governor for clemency, but he refuses to budge. However, all pretense of law and order are soon shattered by an incoming tropical storm.

Friday, November 27, 2015

Thursday, Nov. 26 - Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell

Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951)

An urbane, sharp-tongued expert on how to stay young interrupts a lecturing tour to prove his theory at a dilapidated old people's home. To the despair of his agent and the alarm of the priest running it, he infiltrates the home by lying about his age and sets about lifting the occupants' spirits and making them feel young again.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Wednesday, Nov. 25 - Perry Mason: The Case of the Caretaker's Cat

Perry Mason: Season 2, Episode 19 The Case of the Caretaker's Cat (7 Mar. 1959)

Peter Baxter's family are shocked to learn that he prepared a new will shortly before his death in a tragic fire leaving everything to his caretaker, James Hing. Kenneth Baxter and his cousin Stuart Baxter are particularly distressed and have every intention of challenging the validity of the will in court. James Hing approaches Perry Mason to help him defend the will and his inheritance but he isn't' being entirely truthful with him. In fact, James is arrested for Baxter's murder and the convoluted truth finally emerges. Wanting to test the loyalty of his heirs, Baxter wanted to test their loyalty and respect and planned to fake his death. James Ling admits to setting fire but Baxter was not supposed to die. Perry takes on the case knowing that someone other than his client made it impossible for Baxter to leave the burning house.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Tuesday, Nov. 24 - I Sell Anything

I Sell Anything (1934)

Fast-talking auctioneer Spot Cash Cutler is content with his Second Avenue existence selling pawned goods for highly inflated prices. One day, a Fifth Avenue society lady picks up a priceless belt buckle for a song at Cutler's shop. Cutler tries to get his cut of the true price, but she makes a counter-offer of an expensive auction house and a scheme to auction off a house full of fake antiques.

Monday, November 23, 2015

Sunday, Nov. 22 - The Safecracker

The Safecracker (1958)

Ray Milland plays Colley Dawson, an expert safecracker who can open a safe by listening to the tumblers. While in prison, he is recruited by the British to break into a safe in Germany and photograph a list of their spies working in Britain.

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Saturday, Nov. 21 - Hail the Conquering Hero & Danger UXB: Digging Out

Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)

Having been discharged from the Marines for a hayfever condition before ever seeing action, Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith (Eddie Bracken) delays the return to his hometown, feeling that he is a failure. While in a moment of melancholy, he meets up with a group of Marines who befriend him and encourage him to return home to his mother by fabricating a story that he was wounded in battle with honorable discharge. They make him wear a uniform complete with medals and is pushed by his new friends into accepting a Hero's welcome when he gets home where he is to be immortalized by a statue that he doesn't want, has songs written about his heroic battle stories, and ends up unwillingly running for mayor. Despite his best efforts to explain the truth, no one will listen.

Danger UXB: Season 1, Episode 7 Digging Out (19 Feb. 1979)

Ash works on a bomb outside a destroyed office building while the men of 347 Section try to rescue a woman trapped inside and with another bomb right beside her.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Friday, Nov. 20 - Sitting Pretty

Sitting Pretty (1948)

Tacey and Harry King are a suburban couple with three sons and a serious need of a babysitter. Tacey puts an ad in the paper for a live-in babysitter, and the ad is answered by Lynn Belvedere. But when she arrives, she turns out to be a man. And not just any man, but a most eccentric, outrageously forthright genius with seemingly a million careers and experiences behind him. Mr. Belvedere works miracles with the children and the house but the Kings have no idea just what he's doing with his evenings off. And when Harry has to go out of town on a business trip, a nosy parker starts ugly rumors.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Thursday, Nov. 19 - Goodnight Mommy & 17 Sinister Street

Goodnight Mommy (2014) "Ich seh, ich seh" (original title)

Twin boys who do everything together, from collecting beetles to feeding stray cats, welcome their mother home after her reconstructive surgery. But with her face wrapped in bandages, and her demeanor distant, they grow suspicious of her identity.

Grabenplatz 17 (1958)

A sickly young boy witnesses a gang of vicious criminals murder his mother and is subsequently kidnapped by them. When one of the kidnappers, a singer who was forced into helping with the job, discovers that the boy will die in a week without treatment, she turns to the investigating police before disappearing herself.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Wednesday, Nov. 18 - A Pair of Briefs

A Pair of Briefs (1962)

A recently-qualified barrister is annoyed when he finds his firm is taking on the boss's niece. The two youngsters soon find themselves in court on opposite sides in a case on the restitution of conjugal rights where both plaintiff and defendant seem to have things to hide. The irascible and rather fearsome judge has little time for the goings-on, least of all the way the two young lawyers seem rather too keen to squabble with each other.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Tuesday, Nov. 17 - Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell & Malibu High

Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (1968) "Kyuketsuki Gokemidoro" (original title)

The survivors of a plane crash in a remote area are attacked by blob-like alien creatures that turn their victims into blood-thirsty vampires.

Malibu High (1979)

Bitchy, surly, calculating high school senior Kim Bentley ain't having a good time of it. She's been dumped by her jerky boyfriend Kevin, lives with her shrewish, overbearing mother, is still traumatized by the suicide death of her father, and is flunking all of her classes. Kim immediately starts to improve her miserable lot in life by seducing all of her male teachers and earning extra cash by servicing numerous guys in back of a van for scuzzy no-count pimp Tony. Things get even better for the seriously ruthless and amoral sociopath Kim when she leaves Tony and hooks up with smooth crime kingpin Lance. Next thing you know Kim is bumping off folks for Lance as a deadly assassin!

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Monday, Nov. 16 - It Can Be Done... Amigo!

Si può fare... amigo (1972)

Coburn is pursued by the gunfighter and pimp Sonny, who wants to kill him for seducing Sonny’s sister Mary, but not until they have married so she is made an honest woman. When they confront, Sonny usually gets knocked out. Coburn meets the boy Chip, whose uncle has just died, and takes him to his hometown. They settle in Chip’s house. Franciscus, the town priest, sheriff and judge – who is rumoured to be responsible for people being run out of the area – offers to buy the place and so does eventually a stranger who buys buckets of dirt and tastes them. Chip refuses the mounting offers, to Coburn's consternation. Franciscus allies with Sonny, and they capture Coburn and marry him to Mary. However, when Sonny is about to shoot Coburn Mary says that she is pregnant, so Sonny decides to postpone the killing until the child is 21. Franciscus protests and is knocked out. He sends his secret partner, the horse thief Big Jim (who earlier received a good thrashing when he tried to rob a bank where Coburn was to make a deposit) to shoot Coburn. But Sonny, who is promised one third of the house by Chip, shoots off his pants. Franciscus and Big Jim return in force when the wedding party has started, and there is a big brawl. The fireworks explode and oil gushes from the well. The bandits are flattened, but Franciscus leaves together with Sonny and the girls. Mary reveals to Coburn that she lied about the pregnancy, and he sets about to redress this so enthusiastically that the house rocks, while Chip smiles.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Sunday, Nov. 15 - The Sin of Harold Diddlebock

The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947)

Two decades after a game-winning touchdown and praise as a college football hero, the once hopeful Harold Diddlebock (Harold Lloyd) has been beaten down by the drudgery of office life. When Harold is fired by his egotistical boss, E.J. Waggleberry (Raymond Walburn), he wanders into a bar and orders a drink -- the first of his life. After the kindly bartender (Edgar Kennedy) invents a cocktail just for him, Harold goes on a wild binge, and his luck starts to change.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Saturday, Nov. 14 - Poison Ivy

Poison Ivy (1953) "La mĂ´me vert de gris" (original title)

Two million dollars have vanished into thin air. Lemmy Caution, an American agent, is assigned by the FBI to investigate in Casablanca. He soon finds out about a gang of gold smugglers, whose boss might be Saltierra, but Saltierra's mistress, Carlotta de la Rue, nicknamed "La mĂ´me vert de gris" stands in his way, at times helping Saltierra at other times helping him. Only when her brother is gunned down by the gang does she choose her side, Lemmy of course.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Friday, Nov. 13 - Hoedown

Hoedown (1950)

Cowboy movie star Stoney Rhodes has made one western film and thinks he is on a personal appearance tour paid for by the studio, but he and his film were so bad that the studio, unknown to Stoney, has cancelled his contract, and his mother has mortgaged her home to supply the funds necessary for the tour and expenses of Stoney and his agent. Reporter Vera Wright, following him to get a story of a failure, informs Stoney that he is a never-was has-been, and they find themselves stranded in the hometown of Eddy Arnold, where Eddy's film "cousin" Carolina Cotton quickly takes a shine to the shy and clumsy Stoney.

Friday, November 13, 2015

Thursday, Nov. 12 - Going Hollywood

Going Hollywood (1933)

Sylvia is the French teacher at Briarcroft's School for Girls, but she wants to find romance. When she hears Bill on the radio, she decides to leave and thank him. But he is on his way to Hollywood with Lili to make a movie. When Sylvia gets to Hollywood, she finds that seeing Bill again is almost impossible, but she gets a job in the chorus. Then when Lili quits the picture, Sylvia is tapped to play her character. But the part she wants is with Bill, a part that Lili seems to have.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Wednesday, Nov. 11 - Twice Told Tales: Rappaccini's Daughter

Twice-Told Tales (1963)

In "Rappaccini's Daughter", Vincent Price plays a demented father innoculating his daughter with poison so she may never leave her garden of poisonous plants.