Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Monday, Feb. 27 - The Fourth Square

The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (1960–1965): The Fourth Square (Season 2 Episode 1 - aired June 1961)

A thief steals an emerald ring, leaving other jewels behind. The thief knew where to find it, in a fancy apartment in Belgrave Square. But a maid is strangled and tossed from a window when she interrupts the theft. The thief leaves behind two squares on the wall. The occupants are away, but when they return, Delphi Lawrence seeks out lawyer Conrad Phillips to recover the ring. She doesn't tell the police that the ring is missing...

Other emeralds are stolen from other apartments in other squares...

Monday, February 27, 2017

Sunday, Feb. 26 - Mrs. Miniver

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

The Minivers, an English "middle-class" family experience life in the first months of World War II. While dodging bombs, the Minivers' son courts Lady Beldon's granddaughter. A rose is named after Mrs. Miniver and entered in the competition against Lady Beldon's rose.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Saturday, Feb. 25 - Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Reluctant Carpenter

Sherlock Holmes (1954–1955): The Case of the Reluctant Carpenter (Season 1 Episode 21 - aired 7 March 1955)

An arsonist burns Covent Garden to the ground, and threatens to do the same to other buildings unless he receives a large payment. Holmes and Watson, with no clues to the man's identity, search through the rubble of the burned-out building for clues to the arsonist's identity before he can strike again.

This time it involves a blackmail scheme where fires are being set. The bad guys are trying to extort money from the British government and our boys are asked by Scotland Yard to intervene. There's nothing distinguished about this. In the Holmes stories, LeStrade is a bit of a bungler. There is an absolutely ludicrous scene where he and a police sergeant go into Holmes laboratory and, lacking any knowledge of chemistry, begin to analyze a soil sample. They are going to do it like following a "cookery book." There are so many loose ends involved here that it just doesn't work. They do trace the dirt to a carpentry shed where a bomb may have been planted.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Friday, Feb. 24 - Thriller: The Closed Cabinet

Thriller (1960–1962): The Closed Cabinet (Season 2 Episode 10 aired 27 November 1961)

A medieval curse has hung over the Mervyn family for three hundred years, dictating that there will be a murder in the clan in every generation. A young American visitor is determined to break the curse by solving the riddle of the mysterious locked cabinet in the murder room.

Ghost story set in a 19th Century English castle haunted by the 300-year-old spectre of Lady Beatrice Mervyn (Patricia Manning), who had murdered her abusive husband and cannot find peace until a young woman uncovers the secret of 'the closed cabinet.'

Friday, February 24, 2017

Thursday, Feb. 23 - Gabriel Over the White House

Gabriel Over the White House (1933)

When Judson Hammond (Walter Huston) is elected United States president during the Great Depression, he's seen by many as a hands-off, please-everyone type. After an astounding recovery from a car accident, however, Hammond awakes a changed man. Instituting sweeping, radical changes to the government -- including the dissolution of Congress and the revoking of the Constitution -- Hammond somehow manages to bring order to the country through dictatorship, along with world peace.

Benevolent dictatorship! Works every time.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Wednesday, Feb. 22 - World for Ransom

World for Ransom (1954)

Mike Callahan (Dan Duryea) is an Irish émigré and war veteran working in Singapore as a private detective (Callahan, the American ex-pat living in Singapore and earning a living as a gumshoe, soldier of fortune, confidence man — you name it). He takes on a case from a former flame, now a nightclub singer. She thinks her husband Julian March (Knowles) is involved in criminal activities and asks him to help out.

Callahan learns that a man named Alexis Pederas (Lockhart) has involved Julian in a plot to kidnap a prominent nuclear scientist Sean O'Connor and hold him for ransom to the highest bidder. O'Connor is one of the only men in the world that knows how to detonate the H-Bomb.

Here he's sucked into a convoluted mess of international intrigue surrounding the kidnapping of one of the world’s leading H-Bomb men. It turns out that Mike’s long time pal Julian (Patric Knowles), formerly of the British Army, aided in the kidnapping, which gives Mike a rooting interest in the case — especially considering he’s carrying a torch for lounge singer Frennessey, who is currently Julian’s girl.

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Tuesday, Feb. 21 - The Church Mouse

The Church Mouse (1934)

It's a remake of yesterday - Beauty and the Boss.

The opening scenes show the historical development of Steele's Bank in London as it adopts first steel pens and then typewriters during the nineteenth century. In 1934 the current head of the bank Jonathan Steele is as technology-obsessed as his predecessors and installs an intercom and constantly flies by plane.

Steele strictly divides his life between work and pleasure. He dismisses a very attractive secretary who is distracting him by trying to seduce him at work, in order that they can become lovers after office hours. This creates a vacancy which a hard-pressed young woman Betty Miller who self-describes herself as a "church mouse" fills by showing Steele how super-efficient she is.

Miller rapidly becomes invaluable to Steele, but comes to resent the fact that only sees her as an employee rather than a woman. While in Paris, to seal a major business deal she has a major makeover, and suddenly finds herself attracting a much greater deal of male attention.

American actress Laura LaPlante, as a young woman looking for work in those Depression years, gets into his office by climbing through the window and impresses him with her secretarial skills. But, after falling in love with him, she soon finds out that he never mixes business with pleasure - whenever he wants to fool around with his secretary, he fires her first.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Monday, Feb. 20 - Beauty and the Boss

Beauty and the Boss (1932)

The Baron is a banker, in Vienna, who works at at very fast pace. He appreciates beautiful women, but fires the beautiful Miss Frey as he considers her a diversion to work. Susie sneaks into his office to apply for the job as the Baron's secretary. Since she is plain looking, as poor as a 'Church Mouse' and very fast at dictation, she gets the job. She keeps all the women away from the Baron so that he can concentrate on his work. In Paris, Miss Frey tells Susie the secret to being 'A Woman', and the little Church Mouse becomes a Lion.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Sunday, Feb. 19 - Executive Suite

Executive Suite (1954)

When the head of a large manufacturing firm dies suddenly from a stroke, his vice-presidents vie to see who will replace him.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Saturday, Feb. 18 - The Sicilian Clan

The Sicilian Clan (1969) Le clan des Siciliens (original title)

A young, ambitious mobster plans an elaborate diamond heist while seducing the daughter of a ruthless mob patriarch as a determined police commissioner closes in on all of them.

An old mobster and a young killer plan to skyjack a jet taking French jewels to New York.

The clan are a family of Sicilian crooks in France headed by Jean Gabin who spring Alain Delon from jail for a massive jewel robbery, with Lino Ventura's dogged cop on the trail.

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Friday, Feb. 17 - Sweet Rosie O'Grady

Sweet Rosie O'Grady (1943)

"If you think the '90s were gay, you should have seen the '80s!"

Music-hall star Madeleine Marlowe leaves London engaged to the Duke of Trippingham only to find back home that Police Gazette hack Samuel A. McGee has exposed her as former burlesque queen Rosie O'Grady. To get her own back she announces that Sam is in fact her real suitor. He in turn has a song about Rosie published and something of an Irish brawl develops via his paper and her stage show.

A slightly reworked version of Love Is News (1937) which we recently watched and the other remake which I forget the name.

Friday, February 17, 2017

Thursday, Feb. 16 - The Misleading Lady

The Misleading Lady (1932)

Tired of her social set and their trivial activities and tedious gossip about society divorces and award-winning race horses, Helen yearns for something meaningful in her life. However, Helen doesn't intend to bring forth this new purpose by caring for the sick and starving masses in India, or helping out charities and orphanages. Instead, she decides that the key to her spiritual uplift is to become an actress; so, she vies for the title role in a scandalous new play entitled The Siren.

Finding it difficult to convince a theatrical producer that she is just right for the part of a siren in a new play he is mounting, Helen vows to give this sceptic a real-life demonstration of her seductive powers. To be considered for the role, she accepts the challenge of getting the thoroughly old-fashioned and downright misogynistic Jack Craigen to propose to her within three days of their first encounter. So, Helen's engagement ring changes fingers and the bet is on. Jack, who has just returned from a jungle expedition, turns out to be surprisingly easy prey—until he discovers, in a rather humiliating manner, what we know from the start: that Helen has neither been forthright nor free.

An enraged Craigen tosses Helen into an autogyro and flies her against her will to his cabin in the middle of the snow-swept woods. There he manhandles her, drags her around, berates her, forces her to disrobe due to her soaking clothes, and even pinions her to the ground with a steel chain girdled about her waist.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Wednesday, Feb. 15 - The Man Who Played God

The Man Who Played God (1932)

Concert pianist Montgomery Royale (George Arliss) is performing for a visiting king when a bomb goes off in an attempt on the king's life. Struck deaf as a result, his career is ruined. Feeling lost, Royale discovers he can read lips and begins eavesdropping on other people's conversations, using what he learns to help them. This new skill gives him a selfless outlook on life, and he goes so far as to call off his engagement to Grace (Bette Davis) after learning she is in love with another man.

Montgomery Royle is a famed pianist whose student, the much younger Grace Blair, believes herself to be in love with him. When an explosion destroys Royle's hearing, he is bitter at the loss of his art and profession. His sister Florence persuades him to learn lip-reading as a way to break out of the isolation of deafness. Royle discovers a new meaning to his life when he uses his new lip-reading knowledge to help others. But the new skill has serious ramifications for his relationship with Grace.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Tuesday, Feb. 14 - Love on a Pillow

Love on a Pillow (1962) Le repos du guerrier (original title)

A young girl rescues a man from a suicide attempt. He turns out to be a sociopath, who begins to take over her life, abusing her both verbally and emotionally, yet she can't seem to tear herself away from him.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Monday, Feb. 13 - Most Precious Thing in Life

Most Precious Thing in Life (1934)

Ellen Holmes, a girl from an ordinary family, marries a rich, yet spoiled, boy from a snobbish family. The pair has a son, but soon Ellen finds herself ousted from the life of her husband. However, she rediscovers her son years later.

Pressured by her husband’s blue-blood family to grant him a divorce for the good of their son, Ellen Holmes does so, eventually winding up as a maid at the school where her grown son is a student. Here, from a discreet distance, she witnesses his passage through life, and restrains herself from intervening until she sees history repeating itself.

A scrubwoman, denied custody of her son for 20 years, comes to his aid when he encounters romantic troubles as a man.

Monday, February 13, 2017

Sunday, Feb. 12 - A Millionaire for Christy

A Millionaire for Christy (1951)

Christy Sloane is sent to Los Angeles on a business trip to inform Peter Ulysses Lockwood that he has inherited $2 million from his deceased uncle. Constantly broke because of her family, Christy is in financial straits. Her friend at work advises her to not tell Peter the news until she snags him. Christy dismisses the idea and leaves for her trip. Peter is a famous radio personality. Taking one look at him, Christy swoons, interrupting him on the way to his wedding. The zany hijinks include Christy being mistaken for Peter’s old flame; Peter and Christy being stuck somewhere between Los Angeles and La Jolla when Peter accidentally drives into the ocean; and their rescuers mistaking them for newlyweds. Peter asks his best man, Roland Cook to help him with the situation, but Roland only causes more trouble because he is in love with Peter’s bride-to-be.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Saturday, Feb. 11 - The Awful Truth

The Awful Truth (1937)

Grant and Dunne are Jerry and Lucy Warriner, a madcap Manhattan society couple bent on divorce. In those days it took 90 days for a divorce to become final. Over the course of those 3 months these 2 each embark on a new relationship and at the same time do whatever they must to sabotage the other's budding romance.

Before their divorce becomes final, Jerry and Lucy Warriner both do their best to ruin each other's plans for remarriage, Jerry to haughty socialite Barbara Vance, she to oil-rich bumpkin Daniel Leeson. Among their strategies: Jerry's court-decreed visitation rights with Mr. Smith, their pet fox terrier, and Lucy doing her most flamboyant Dixie Belle Lee impersonation as Jerry's brassy "sister" before his prospective bride's scandalized family.

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Friday, Feb. 10 - Perry Mason: The Case of the Calendar Girl

Perry Mason (1957–1966): The Case of the Calendar Girl (Season 2 Episode 24 - aired 18 April 1959)

Contractor George Andrews is having trouble with building inspectors on his construction site who tell him to ask Wilfred Borden for his help. Borden styles himself as being in public relations but is in fact a political fixer who won't hesitate to bribe officials who are giving clients a hard time. He is also an amateur photographer who works with models. They agree to a deal but as Andrews leave Borden's home, he's nearly run off the road by another car. He rushes to help and finds an attractive young woman lying on the grass. He gives her a ride home and then goes to Perry Mason's office for legal advice. Concerned that someone else might have been in the car, they head to Borden's house to try to find her but are locked out by dogs. Perry quickly determines the woman Andrews picked up was not who she said she was and the next day they learn that Borden is dead. Andrews is charged with murder when the police find the murder weapon in his car and Perry defends him.

Locked out by dogs!

Friday, February 10, 2017

Thursday, Feb. 9 - Touch of Death

Touch of Death (1961)

A criminal gang pull off a big robbery, unaware the cash has been infected with toxic poison. The thieves hide out on a Thames houseboat and terrorise its female occupant (Jan Waters), before they start dropping like flies.

Of course they don't drop like flies.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Wednesday, Feb. 8 - That Wonderful Urge

That Wonderful Urge (1948)

An investigative reporter uses a ruse to meet Sara Farley, a grocery-store heiress he's been writing unflattering things about. He gets her to start talking about herself and finds her down-to-earth and engaging. Before he can publish an honest and admiring story, she finds out who he is, assumes he's going to write more lies, and sets out to undercut him by announcing to the press that the two of them are married. In trying to get the truth out, he loses his job, the two of them spend time in jail, and the stakes escalate. Finally, he sues her for libel, and a court tries to set things right.

It's a remake of Love Is News (1937), which we watched recently.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Tuesday, Feb. 7 - I Love Melvin (1953)

I Love Melvin (1953)

Insignificant assistant photographer Melvin Hoover (Donald O'Connor) is instantly love-struck after meeting struggling actress and chorus line dancer Judy LeRoy (Debbie Reynolds). To win her over, Melvin greatly embellishes the importance of his position at a trendy magazine, claiming that with his help Judy could appear on the magazine's cover. Their budding romance is threatened, however, when Melvin's ploy is exposed to Judy and her entire family during a staged photo shoot.

Melvin Hoover, a budding photographer for Look magazine, accidentally bumps into a young actress named Judy LeRoy in the park. They start to talk and Melvin soon offers to do a photo spread of her. His boss, however, has no intention of using the photos. Melvin wants to marry Judy, but her father would rather she marry dull and dependable Harry Black. As a last resort, Melvin promises to get Judy's photo on the cover of the next issue of Look, a task easier said than done.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Monday, Feb. 6 - Thriller: A Third for Pinochle

Thriller (1960–1962): A Third for Pinochle (Season 2 Episode 9 - aired 20 November 1961)

Edward Andrews returns as another comic villain, Maynard Thispin, plotting to rid himself of his nagging wife (Ann Shoemaker), so that he can enjoy her money with a younger mistress (Barbara Perry). Unfortunately, he fails to account for the spying Pennaroyd sisters across the street, a nutty twosome who need 'a third for pinochle' after knocking off their brother (it wasn't the brother - he's in an institution, remember?) and frightening the daylights out of an unsuspecting door-to-door salesman (Vito Scotti).

A man plans to murder his wife using his nosy neighbors for an alibi - but the eccentric ladies across the street may have a trick or two up their sleeve.

Monday, February 6, 2017

Sunday, Feb. 5 - Loophole (1981)

Loophole (1981)

When architect Stephen Booker loses his partnership, he finds jobs hard to come by, and with money in short supply, he unwittingly becomes involved in a daring scheme to rob one of London's biggest bank vaults.

An architect (Martin Sheen) shows the mastermind (Albert Finney) of a motley gang how to reach a London bank vault by sewer.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Saturday, Feb. 4 - Everybody Does It

Everybody Does It (1949)

This is a remake of one we watched a few days ago - virtually the same script, just punched up a bit here and there.

Businessman Leonard Borland (Paul Douglas) is watching his business fall apart. Meanwhile, his wealthy wife Doris (Celeste Holm), aspires to be an opera singer. Although he tries to be supportive, even going so far as arranging for her to sing in concert, Leonard knows that his wife has no talent. He continues to support his wife, but after meeting Cecil Carver (Linda Darnell), an opera singer herself, Leonard discovers that he is the one with the good voice.

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Friday, Feb. 3 - Love is News

Love Is News (1937)

Newspaper reporter Steve (Tyrone Power) ambushes heiress Tony (Loretta Young) in hopes of getting the scoop on her relationship with Count Andre (George Sanders). Outraged by the invasion of her privacy, Tony tells a clutch of other reporters that Steve is her fiancé, expecting that they will then turn their attention to him. Her ruse works, and Steve must now experience the burden of fame as crowds follow him, snapping his picture incessantly -- but what happens when their faux love turns real?

When a crafty reporter uses false pretenses to get a story out of heiress Tony Gateson, she turns the tables on him, telling the press that she's engaged to him and that she's given him a million dollar dowry. Suddenly he's on the front page and every salesman is at his doorstep. He loses his job and a day later asks her to call off the ruse; she tricks him again and the publicity continues. She stays cheerful and resourceful through a series of misadventures that has him alternately back on his job and fired. Meanwhile, a count who's her ex-fiancé shows up in New York, and maybe that marriage is back on.

Friday, February 3, 2017

Thursday, Feb. 2 - Thriller: The Poisoner

Thriller (1960–1962): The Poisoner - Season 1 Episode 17 (aired 10 January 1961)

Murray Matheson portrays Thomas Edward Griffith, a 19th-century artist and author accustomed to the finer things, and determined to live life to the fullest. Chagrined to learn that his lovely bride (Sarah Marshall, daughter of Herbert) actually possesses no wealth at all, he is even more displeased by the unwelcome presence of his wife's mother (Brenda Forbes) and wheelchair-bound sister (Jennifer Raine). Adding to his woes is his miserly uncle George (Maurice Dallimore), who refuses to divulge a cent to his debt-ridden nephew. He turns to poison as the solution to his problems.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Wednesday, Feb. 1 - The Affairs of Dobie Gillis

The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953)

Grainbelt University has one attraction for Dobie Gillis - women, especially Pansy Hammer. Pansy's father, even though and maybe because she says she's in dreamville, does not share her affection for Dobie. An English essay which almost revolutionizes English instruction, and Dobie's role in a chemistry lab explosion convinces Mr. Hammer he is right. Pansy is sent off broken-hearted to an Eastern school, but with the help of Happy Stella Kolawski's all-girl band, several hundred students and an enraged police force, Dobie secures Pansy's return to Grainbelt.

At Grainbelt University, a Midwestern university, freshman Dobie Gillis (Bobby Van) and his pal Charlie Trask (Bob Fosse) court cute coeds Pansy Hammer (Debbie Reynolds) and Lorna Ellingboe (Barbara Ruick). Pansy's wealthy father George (Hanley Stafford) can't stand Dobie and does everything in his power to keep them apart. Along the way, Dobie and Pansy manage to blow up the chemistry lab, while Dobie's officious English professor Pomfritt (Hans Conried) is misled to believe that the feckless Gillis is a literary genius.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Tuesday, Jan. 31 - Route 66: Man Out of Time

Route 66 (1960–1964): Man Out of Time (Season 3 Episode 3 - aired 5 October 1962)

Tod and Buz, are working as taxi drivers in Chicago, Illinois. They become acquainted with a Prohibition Era beer baron just released from a 32 year prison term. Tod and Buz strongly differ in their regard for this man, who finds time has changed the people and places of his youth. However, one thing may not have changed - an old enemy.