Friday, Dec. 30 - Gambling Ship

Gambling Ship (1933)

Tired of the dangerous life as gambling boss, Ace Corbin 'retires' from the racket and travels cross-country by train to begin a new life with a new name. On the train, he meets Eleanor and they fall in love. Eleanor is afraid to tell Ace she's a soiled dove and Ace doesn't tell Eleanor of his shady past. Old enemies won't let Ace begin his new life, however, and old commitments's won't free Eleanor of her sordid ties. Ace's old life and Eleanor's deception collide with the typical results. But love conquers all!

Thursday, Dec. 29 - From Hell to Heaven

From Hell to Heaven (1933)

This film features a huge cast of well-known character actors playing a group of people at a hotel near a horse race track awaiting the outcome of a particular race. They include Jack Oakie, Carole Lombard, Adrienne Ames, Sidney Blackmer, David Manners, Cecil Cunningham, Nydia Westman, Shirley Grey and Bradley Page. There's the comical pair, the criminal pair out to fleece someone, a woman estranged from her husband, and the various gamblers, jockeys and horse owners with lots of cash on the line.

A broke blonde (Carole Lombard) at a spa hotel bets a bookie her virtue that her horse will win.

Wednesday, Dec. 28 - Who Was Maddox?

The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (1960–1965): Who Was Maddox? (1964)

A publisher is nearly framed for murder, but he appears to have been goaded by the blackmailer who has also blackmailed the publisher's wife.

The movie opens with a jewelry theft from the home of a well-off executive (Jack Watling) and his wife, a former model (Suzanne Lloyd). Although the burglary is interrupted by their return home, Lloyd hides the jewels that the thief missed and later takes them to a gossip journalist and blackmailer named Maddox (Richard Gale). This doesn't resolve the mystery of who Maddox is because there is later a phone call in which the caller, not Maddox, uses that name.

Not to mention the murder...

Tuesday, Dec. 27 - The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre: Face of a Stranger

The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (1960–1965): Face of a Stranger (Season 5 Episode 9 - aired 1964)

A man released from prison falls in love with the blind wife of a cellmate, whom he promised, when inside, to visit. He poses as the real husband, planning to kill him, but finds the wife is not so innocent as he thought.

The story here begins with Kemp and Locke as cellmates near the end of their terms. Both are married. Locke has a stash of cash hidden away outside. His wife, Rosemary Leach, has gone blind during his 3-year stay in prison. Because of a knife incident, Locks has 90 days added to his sentence. He urges a reluctant Kemp to visit his wife and calm her down about the added 90 days. Kemp finds his own wife shacked up with another man, which frees him up. Leach mistakes him for Locke and he cannot resist going along with the charade. In fact, her attractions are such that he starts to hatch other plans.

Monday, Dec. 26 - The Gilded Lily

The Gilded Lily (1935)

Pete (MacMurray) and Marilyn (Colbert) are friends who meet on a bench every Thursday to eat popcorn and chat while they watch the world go by. Pete is quietly crazy about Marilyn, but she's waiting for "true love" to come along...and indeed, she meets Mr. Right, Charles (Milland), on the subway. Unbeknownst to Marilyn, Charles is a member of the nobility who's been traveling incognito. Charles intends to go back to England, break his engagement, and return to propose to Marilyn, but instead he makes a big mistake and tells her he's leaving for a job. When Marilyn finds out Charles' true identity, she believes he was insincere and has played her for a fool. She determines to get back at him, with news reporter Pete's help -- and in the process, she becomes a celebrity.

Sunday, Dec. 25 - Danger! Women at Work

Danger! Women at Work (1943)

Three women work at "men's jobs" and live together to make ends meet. One day Terry (Patsy Kelly) gets a telegram informing her she's inherited a bungalow and a 10-ton truck. A friend tells the girls they can make a killing hauling stuff cross country and give up their low-paying jobs. So off they go. Their first job involves hauling illegal gambling stuff hidden in furniture. Besides the cops, some thugs are also after them because Kelly is lucky with dice and wins cash. A series of hitchhikers also go along for the ride, including a ditzy fortune teller played by Betty Compson. There's also a runaway heiress (Wanda McKay) and an amnesiac (Cobina Wright, Sr.) who doesn't even recognize her husband.

Saturday, Dec. 24 - Lovejoy: Fruit ot the Desert

Lovejoy (1986–1994): Fruit of the Desert (Season 6 Episode 8 - aired 20 November 1994)

Lovejoy buys a collection of Islamic antiques from retired diplomat Harold Plumb, who warns him that by rights some of the collection should have gone to the Foreign Office. He obtains his purchasing money from loan shark John Hill, putting up his daughter's flat as collateral - only to find the police on his trail and a visit to the Foreign Office disclosing the fact that Plumb is a con-man who stole the articles in question. Helped by Charlotte, Lovejoy stages an extremely elaborate charade to get the deeds for the flat back from Hill.

Friday, Dec. 23 - Broadway

Broadway (1942)

George Raft, playing himself, recalls his days on Broadway, where he acquired a reputation as a great dancer--and also one as a brawler, a ladies man and an associate of some of the city's most notorious gangsters.

Thursday, Dec. 22 - World Without End

World Without End (1956)

Four astronauts returning from mankind's first mission to Mars enter a time warp and crash on a 26th Century Earth devastated by atomic war. Our heroes meet with hideous mutant cavemen, giant spiders, love-struck beauties in short dresses, and jealous old geezers in sparkly skullcaps as they struggle to save humanity and build a new world.

Wednesday, Dec. 21 - Christopher Strong

Christopher Strong (1933)

At a party for Bright Young Things, a "treasure hunt" for attractive yet virtuous people nets Sir Christopher Strong, M.P., and Lady Cynthia Darrington, dashing aviatrix. Their acquaintance is innocent at first; but after he sees her in a spectacular silver moth costume, virtue begins to wane. Against their wills, they are drawn into an affair whose consequences threaten Strong's happy marriage and both their careers.

Tuesday, Dec. 20 - Stolen Holiday

Stolen Holiday (1937)

Nicole Picot is working as a model in a Paris dress salon when she is picked by Stefan Orloff to help him convince a wealthy investor that he is well connected. She is to wear an expensive dress and dine with them because she has "class." The scheme works and both Stefan and Nicole become very wealthy over the course of a few years. Stefan is a "financier" while Nicole opens her own dress salon. But while Nicole's business is above board, Stefan's isn't, and eventually his web of deceit and fraud begins to unravel. Not always honest with her either, Stefan enlists Nicole's help one last time to avoid prison.

Monday, Dec. 19 - Secrets of a Secretary

Secrets of a Secretary (1931)

When her father dies, a wealthy young women discovers that she's not wealthy at all - her father lost all of his money in the 1929 stock market crash and she's now officially broke. She takes a job as the social secretary to her father's friend. She has two major problems, however - shortly before her father's death, she and some friends were out partying and, on a dare, she married a scheming gold-digger named Frank, who leaves her when he finds out she's broke. The other problem is that she's in love with her best friend Sylvia's fiancé, Paul.

Sunday, Dec. 18 - The Curse of the Werewolf

The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

In Spain, Leon is born on Christmas day to a mute servant girl who was raped by a beggar. His mother dies giving birth and he is looked after by Don Alfredo. As a child Leon becomes a werewolf after having been taken hunting (and sucking squirrel blood - it tasted sweet!). As a young man, he works in a wine cellar and falls in love with the owner's daughter Cristina. One full moon, he again turns into a werewolf and terrifies the town.

Saturday, Dec. 17 - You and Me

You and Me (1938)

Mr. Morris, the owner of a large metropolitan department store, gives jobs to paroled ex-convicts in an effort to help them reform and go straight. Among his 'employed-prison-graduates' are Helen Roberts and Joe Dennis, working as sales clerks. Joe is in love with Helen and asks her to marry him, but she is forbidden to marry as she is still on parole, but she says yes and they are married (but she neglects to tell Joe that she is an ex-con, herself, and still on parole - and here is wherein the trouble arises). In spite of their poverty-level life, their marriage is a happy one until Joe discovers she has lied about her past. Disillusioned, he leaves, goes back to his old gang and plans to rob the department store.

Friday, Dec. 16 - Satellite in the Sky

Satellite in the Sky (1956)

Story of the first manned satellite in space, launched from England with commander Michael Hayden at the helm. It is the mission of the crew to test out the deadly "tritonium" bomb in outer space. Once he's left the atmosphere, Hayden discovers that he's been harboring a stowaway: reporter and anti-weapons activist Kim Hamilton. Everyone's life is placed in peril when the bomb affixes itself to the side of the satellite. As tension mounts, the crew and Kim race against time to defuse the bomb.

Thursday, Dec. 15 - Take a Chance

Take a Chance (1933)

James Dunn and Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards play Duke and Louie, a carnival duo who come to the Great White Way with star struck Toni (June Knight) hoping to follow in Wanda's (Lillian Roth) footsteps. She has run out on the carnival, sick of the boy's shyster ways. She puts Toni onto producer Kenneth Raleigh (Chas. "Buddy" Rogers) and Kenneth likes what he sees.

Wednesday, Dec. 14 - Thriller: Masquerade

Thriller (1960–1962): Masquerade (Season 2 Episode 6 aired 30 October 1961)

Elizabeth Montgomery and Tom Poston play a married couple named Denham who find themselves stranded one stormy night at the home of the Carta family, led by Jed (John Carradine). The Cartas live in a spooky old mansion, and it sure does seem that they are plotting something most gruesome indeed for the Denhams, but as one might expect, things are not as they seem, even with the local legends of vampires in the area, which all seem to laugh off, but it might not be so funny before sunrise.

Tuesday, Dec. 13 - Nightmare

Nightmare (1964)

Janet is a young student attending boarding school. After a number of nightmares concerning her mother, whom she saw kill her father when she was young, the girl is sent home to her guardian, Attorney Henry Baxter. At home, she is assigned a nurse. Janet begins having more nightmares this time concerning an unknown woman with a scar and a birthday cake. The dreams get worse and worse. Finally, her guardian brings home his wife, whom Janet has never met. Janet is introduced to the woman at her birthday celebration. The cake and woman from her dreams with the scar appearing at once is enough to make Janet snap. She kills the woman by stabbing her - the same way her mother killed her father. Janet is committed. Meanwhile, her guardian Henry and the nurse, who was disguised to look like the woman with a scar to drive Janet mad, celebrate the loss of Janet. However, the two do not go unpunished.

Monday, Dec. 12 - The Third Man: Broken Strings

The Third Man (1959–1965): Broken Strings(Season 1 Episode 19 - aired 6 May 1959)

Harry becomes involved in espionage and international intrigue when a priceless violin is stolen after a concert.

Sunday, Dec. 11 - A King in New York

A King in New York (1957)

A recently-deposed European monarch seeks shelter in New York City, where he becomes an accidental television celebrity and is later wrongly accused of being a Communist.

Saturday, Dec. 10 - Piccadilly Jim

Piccadilly Jim (1936)

In London, American Jim Crocker (Robert Montgomery) is a popular caricaturist known as "Piccadilly Jim." When Jim's father, James (Frank Morgan), an out-of-work actor, announces his engagement to Eugenia Willis, James assures Eugenia's sister, Nesta Pett, that Jim is a world-famous artist. In a series of blunders, Jim loses his job and meets Eugenia's family while drunk. Annoyed by the Petts' snobbery, Jim begins sketching them and launches a new, successful cartoon strip starring them.

Jim's father wants to marry Eugenia, but her sister Netta refuses to allow it. When Jim sees Ann at a club, he falls for her even though she is with Lord Priory. He meets her the next day at the riding path, but she quickly loses him. He searches all over for her, not knowing that his father's hopeful fiancée is her Aunt. As his caricature work suffers as he searches, he is fired from his paper. But he makes a comeback with the comics 'Rags to Riches' which is based upon the Pett's. But this upsets the Pett's so much that they go back to New York, and he follows, being careful not to let them know that he is the one who draws the strip that parodies them.

Friday, Dec. 9 - King of the Newsboys

King of the Newsboys (1938)

A poor young man's girlfriend leaves him for a gangster, who has the money and power she wants and the young man doesn't have. Determined to show her that he can be a success--and how much of a mistake she made by leaving him--he starts up a newspaper distribution business that is soon the biggest in the city, but things don't turn out exactly the way he wanted them to.

Thursday, Dec. 8 - Night Creatures

Night Creatures (1962) Captain Clegg (original title)

In 18th-century England, the Royal Crown sends Royal Navy Captain Collier and his crew to investigate reports of illegal smuggling and bootlegging in a coastal town where locals believe in Marsh Phantoms.

Pirate Captain Clegg (Peter Cushing), an English vicar by day, leads ghostly mounted smugglers by night.

Wednesday, Dec. 7 - Blonde Venus

Blonde Venus (1932)

American chemist Ned Faraday marries a German entertainer and starts a family. However, he becomes poisoned with Radium and needs an expensive treatment in Germany to have any chance at being cured. Wife Helen returns to night club work to attempt to raise the money and becomes popular as the Blonde Venus. In an effort to get enough money sooner, she prostitutes herself to millionaire Nick Townsend. While Ned is away in Europe, she continues with Nick but when Ned returns cured, he discovers her infidelity. Now Ned despises Helen but she grabs son Johnny and lives on the run, just one step ahead of the Missing Persons Bureau. When they do finally catch her, she loses her son to Ned. Once again she returns to entertaining, this time in Paris, and her fame once again brings her and Townsend together. Helen and Nick return to America engaged, but she is irresistibly drawn back to her son and Ned.

Tuesday, Dec. 6 - Paranoiac

Paranoiac (1963)

Eleven years earlier, the wealthy Ashby family was shattered when Mr and Mrs Ashby died in an airplane crash and their grieving son Tony committed suicide three years later. All that remains of the family is cruel Simon, an alcoholic in desperate need of funds; his mentally fragile sister Eleanor; and his protective aunt Harriet. Simon is just weeks away from receiving his inheritance, but there is a hitch in his plans when the long believed dead Tony Ashby suddenly arrives.

Monday, Dec. 5 - Tom, Dick and Harry

Tom, Dick and Harry (1941)

Working girl/telephone operator Janie is engaged to conservative, dull, but very reliable car salesman Tom, who offers her a safe, stable marriage. Then she meets unconventional slacker Harry, a philosophical car mechanic without much ambition although she does hear bells when they kiss. Through Harry, the fickle Janie meets Dick, a handsome and charming millionaire playboy, who embodies her greatest romantic fantasies, and after a champagne-filled overnight flight to Chicago, she thinks she's met her dream man. She is soon engaged to all three men, and must choose between them.

Sunday, Dec. 4 - The Luck of the Irish

The Luck of the Irish (1948)

Steven Fitzgerald, a newpaper reporter from New York, meets a leprechaun and a beautiful young woman while traveling in Ireland. When he returns to his fiance and her wealthy father's political campaign in New York, he finds that the leprechaun and the young woman are now in New York as well. Steven is torn between the wealth he might enjoy in New York or returning to his roots in Ireland.

Saturday, Dec. 3 - Madam Satan

Madam Satan (1930)

Angela and Bob Brooks are an upper class couple. Unfortunately, Bob is an unfaithful husband. But Angela has a plan to win back her husband's affections. An elaborate masquerade ball is to be held aboard a magnificent dirigible. Angela will attend and disguise herself as a mysterious devil woman. Hidden behind her mask, and wrapped in an alluring gown, Angela as the devil woman will to try to seduce her unknowing husband and teach him a lesson.

Friday, Dec. 2 - The Gangster

The Gangster (1947)

Shubunka is the self-made head of the rackets in the sleazy boardwalk community of Neptune City, a low-rent version of Coney Island. He has become infatuated with a sultry nightclub chanteuse and lavishes her with gifts and attention, spending money on her that might better go to maintaining his hold on his operation. His obsession with her, as well as his pride, clouds his judgment as Cornell, a much more ruthless hoodlum, moves in on Shubunka's territory, bribes and threatens his associates, and compromises his operation. As if in a Greek tragedy, the petty gangster's weaknesses conspire to cause his downfall.

Thursday, Dec. 1 - Pick-Up

Pick-up (1933)

"Pick-Up" stars Sylvia as "Baby Face" Mary who is just being released from prison after serving 2 years. Her husband still has 3 to go but Mary is determined to leave him and his confidence tricks behind and start a new, clean life. After seeking shelter from the rain and an unwanted admirer, she comes to the attention of Harry Glynn, a taxi driver, who thinks she is a prostitute. He picks her up - as the poster says "She is easy to get but hard to forget"!! and they are soon living together. He sees a column in the paper about "Baby Face" Mary and lets his feelings be known about "dames of that sort". Molly (Mary has decided not to tell him about her past) soon realises that Harry is a man without ambition - he is willing to go on working for a boss and putting away $10 a week. Molly has plans for him to go into partnership in a garage - she creates a scene at work with her lecherous boss (Clarence Wilson) and they both quit. Harry wants to marry her - but she is still married to the brute in jail, who keeps tabs on her with a spy on the outside. They have now made good and live a nice life in the country. Enter Muriel (Lillian Bond) the spoiled daughter of the local banker, who sets her cap at Harry when he rescues her water-logged car from the river. He is attracted to her and begins to be ashamed of his humble beginnings and the way he met Molly. Unbeknownst to Harry, Molly has found getting a divorce easier than she anticipated but Harry has some news of his own - he has fallen for Muriel!! It doesn't take him long to realise who the real "lady" is but when he goes back to the house he finds Molly has gone...

Wednesday, Nov. 30 - Hit and Run

Hit and Run (1957)

Garage owner Gus Hilmer marries showgirl Julie, many years his junior, and this causes a conflict between Gus and Frankie, a young mechanic he has befriended. Frankie falls in love with Julie and she, as expected in any Hugo Hass film, can not resist his advances. Frankie puts together an automobile out of parts lying around in Gus's junkyard, and forces Julie to accompany him, as he follows Gus and runs him down on a lonely road, and later dismantles the car/murder weapon. Unexpected by the lovers, but not any audience that had seen any Hass film, his twin brother, just released from prison, turns up at the reading of the will, and moves in as half-owner of the garage. But of course we, as well as the film's protagonists, wonder if this is really the brother. It could be Gus. It could be they killed the wrong brother!