Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Monday, Oct. 30 - Perry Mason: The Case of the Golden Fraud

Perry Mason (1957–1966): The Case of the Golden Fraud (Season 3 | Episode 7 - aired 21 November 1959)

Richard Vanaman, a financial adviser, visits a prospective client named Sylvia Welles. Ms Welles calls Vanaman after hours and asks if he can come to her apartment to talk out her financial goals. During the visit Mr Vanaman finds out that the apartment has been bugged and it appears that he is being set-up for blackmail. Vanaman storms out of the apartment but not before making threats.

When arriving home, Mr Vanaman realizes that his valuable gold coin is missing. It must have dropped out of his pocket when he took out his knife to cut the microphone that he found in Ms Welles apartment. Mr Vanaman returns back to the apartment but finds Ms Welles dead. Instead of calling the police, he tries to find the coin and then runs out of the apartment when the hotel manager enters the room.

Mr Vanaman then contacts Perry about the gold coin when a newspaper article advises that a gold coin has been found in a parking meter. He wants Perry to retrieve the coin for him. But what has happen is that Lt Tragg has placed the article in the paper to find the person that dropped the coin. A few minutes later, Vanaman is arrested and Perry will defend him in court on charges of murder.

Monday, October 30, 2017

Sunday, Oct. 29 - The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera (1962)

Composer Lord Ambrose D'Arcy (Michael Gough) and his backer, Harry Hunter (Edward De Souza), struggle to find a replacement for the female lead in their new opera after she quits in the wake of a gruesome murder. When a new prospect, the nubile Christine Charles (Heather Sears), disappears, Harry cautiously investigates. Meanwhile, a mysterious masked man (Herbert Lom) who is eerily familiar with the opera holds Christine captive and offers to groom her to play the part.

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Saturday, Oct. 28 - The Evil of Frankenstein

The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)

Penniless, Baron Frankenstein, accompanied by his eager assistant Hans, arrives at his family castle near the town of Karlstaad, vowing to continue his experiments in the creation of life. Fortuitously finding the creature he was previously working on, he brings it back to a semblance of life but requires the services of a mesmerist, Zoltan, to successfully animate it. The greedy and vengeful Zoltan secretly sends the monster into town to steal gold and 'punish' the burgomaster and the chief of police, which acts lead to a violent confrontation between the baron and the townspeople.

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Friday, Oct. 27 - Hollywood Boulevard

Hollywood Boulevard (1936)

Has-been actor John Blakeford agrees to write his memoirs for magazine-publisher Jordan Winston. When Blakeford's daughter, Patricia, ask him to desist for the sake of his ex-wife, Carlotta Blakeford, he attempts to break his contract with Winston.

A Hollywood has-been's (John Halliday) racy memoirs ultimately make his daughter (Marsha Hunt) a murder suspect (shooting suspect - he's not dead!).

Friday, October 27, 2017

Thursday, Oct. 26 - Melody in Spring

Melody in Spring (1934)

While staying at the George Washington Inn, singer John Craddock falls in love at first sight with Jane Blodgett, and serenades her from his balcony while she awaits her fiancé Wesley Prebble in her car. Late one night, Jane's father Warren, the "dog biscuit king" and a souvenir collector, sneaks into a room to steal the bedknob from a bed in which George Washington once slept. Unfortunately, he awakens its blonde occupant, who screams for help. Her cries bring John to her rescue, and he calls the house detective. Eventually, everything is cleared up, but John has engendered Warren's permanent hostility. Some time later, John appears at the Blodgett mansion hoping to get an interview with the biscuit king, who sponsors a music hour on the radio station on which John would like to sing. John is delighted to find Jane there, and vows to woo her, but is distressed to discover that the man he wants to impress is the same man on whom he called the cops. On Jane's advice, John attempts to get on Warren's good side by telling him that his hobby is carving his initials, as Warren believes in hobbies, but Warren is unimpressed and vows he will never let John sing on his radio hour unless Jane agrees to marry him. Because John is already in love with Jane, this provides an added impetus to woo her, and she does not resist. Attempting to use reverse psychology to get rid of John, Jane's mother Mary invites John to sail with them to Paris, but her plan backfires. Finally, the family tries to elude John in Switzerland, but he follows them there, where he bests Warren at climbing Mt. Ildenhorn and carves his initials in the pinnacle. When Jane tells her father that she is breaking her engagement to Wesley to marry John, he tells her of his deal with John. She decides to remain with Wesley, who arrives at the hotel. John gives Warren a cowbell for his collection, but Warren is caught with it and despite John's confession, Warren is arrested for theft. John attempts to get him out of jail by distracting the guards with a song, but in the meantime, Wesley has Warren released legally and John is imprisoned for trying to start a riot. Still in love with John, Jane gets herself incarcerated in the same prison and, from the prison yard, tells her parents and the astonished Wesley that she will meet them in Paris after she and John are released and married.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Wednesday, Oct. 25 - A Slight Case of Murder

A Slight Case of Murder (1938)

Remy Marco, Prohibition beer baron, figures he'll do even better after repeal. Only trouble is, his beer tastes terrible. (He drinks no beer himself and nobody dares tell him). Four years later, when he's about bankrupt, he visits his summer home in Saratoga, complete with: 1) a dead-end-kid orphan; 2) his daughter's fiance...a state trooper!, 3) the bodies of four gangsters who planned to ambush Remy but had a shootout; 4) half a million in loot they hid in the house...just the amount Remy needs to get out of hock. The comic confusion mounts...

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Tuesday, Oct. 24 - Another Part of the Forest

Another Part of the Forest (1948)

This 'prequel' to The Little Foxes tells how the ruthless members of the old-South Hubbard family got that way.

Fifteen years after the Civil War the people of Bowden, Alabama still hate Marcus Hubbard for wartime profiteering. He's also at odds with wife Lavinia and his sons, conniving Ben and weak Oscar; but beautiful daughter Regina gets all she wants from him. Conflicts intensify when Regina gets involved with John Bagtry, scion of the old gentry, and Oscar with the Ku Klux Klan; on a stormy night, family relationships unravel.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Monday, Oct. 23 - Dancing Sweeties

Dancing Sweeties (1930)

Bill is a hot shot dancer who partners with Jazzbo, until he sees Molly at the dance. He enters the Waltz with Molly and wins first prize - and they wind up being married that same night. Now they are free of their parents nagging and their own bosses. 24 hours - no dancing as in-laws are visiting. 24 days - the Apartment is finished so off to the Hoffman's Parisian Dance Palace. Molly can only dance the Waltz and not the hot new jazz dance so she leaves and Bill follows. They are both unhappy, Bill has two left feet when it comes to romance.

Monday, October 23, 2017

Sunday, Oct. 22 - Cheaper by the Dozen

Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)

"Cheaper By the Dozen", based on the real-life story of the Gilbreth family, follows them from Providence, Rhode Island to Montclair, New Jersey, and details the amusing anecdotes found in large families. Frank Gilbreth, Sr., was a pioneer in the field of motion study, and often used his family as guinea pigs (with amusing and sometimes embarrassing results). He resisted popular culture,railing against his daughters' desires for bobbed hair and cosmetics.

Sunday, October 22, 2017

Saturday, Oct. 21 - T-Men

T-Men (1947)

Two U.S. Treasury ("T-men") agents go undercover in Detroit, and then Los Angeles, in an attempt to break a U.S. currency counterfeiting ring.

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Friday, Oct. 20 - Accused of Murder

Accused of Murder (1956)

When gangland lawyer Frank Hobart is murdered there are two suspects, Ilona Vanve , beautiful nightclub singer, and a hood named Stan , who has been hired by underworld boss Chad Bayliss to kill Hobart. Attracted to Ilona, Lt. Detective Roy Hargis tries to protect her in spite of the growing evidence against her and the pressure put on him by his assistant, Sergeant Lackey. Hargis thinks the case has broken when a dance-hall girl, Sandra Lamoreaux , who saw Stan at the scene of the murder, tries to use this information to blackmail him, and is badly beaten. She manages to talk to Hargis, and her story brings about Stan's capture and conviction (he's not actually convicted) for murder. But he didn't do it. It is now up to Hargis to either clear or convict Ilona.

Friday, October 20, 2017

Thursday, Oct. 19 - The Manster

The Manster (1959)

An American reporter in Japan is sent to interview an eccentric Japanese scientist working on bizarre experiments in his mountain laboratory. When the doctor realizes that the hapless correspondent is the perfect subject for his next experiment, he drugs the unfortunate man and injects him with a serum that gradually transforms him into a hideous, two-headed monster.

Thursday, October 19, 2017

Wednesday, Oct. 18 - Perry Mason: The Case of Paul Drake's Dilemma

Perry Mason (1957–1966): The Case of Paul Drake's Dilemma (Season 3 | Episode 6 - aired 14 November 1959)

Donna Kress and Frank Thatcher have a spat. He will not divorce his wife. Driving home that night, Frank runs over and kills a pedestrian, Alexander Collins, in the road. Under direction of old Henry Dameron, Frank's father-in-law, Tad Dameron, Frank's brother-in-law, takes care of the body. Frank, as "Danko" hires Paul Drake to deliver $25,000 to Collins' widow, but Paul finds out the gift is a payoff after learning her husband was killed in an accident due to typo on his drivers license causing "Danko" to give Paul erroneous information. Paul contacts "Danko" and meets him at "Danko's" girlfriend's apartment. Paul fights with "Danko" and is knocked out. When Paul revives after the clerk and police enter the apartment, he finds Thatcher/Danko is dead, shot with Paul's gun. Paul calls Perry Mason and is charged with murder. He is further accused of blackmailing Thatcher with the hit-and-run incident. Perry fights Dameron money and influence in defending Drake.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Tuesday, Oct. 17 - Happy Land

Happy Land (1943)

When his son dies in battle during World War II, Lew Marsh (Don Ameche) is convinced that his boy died too soon and was never able to really appreciate life. Bitter and depressed, Lew nearly gives up on ever being happy again, until he gets a visit from the ghost of his grandfather (Harry Carey). Together with the ghost, Lew travels back through his son's life and sees that he did live a full and happy life, after all, and that his death in combat was not really a waste.

In a typical American Midwestern city, Hartfield, Iowa, Lew Marsh (Don Ameche) is the owner of a drugstore. Everyone knows Lew and knew his grandfather, old "Gramp" Marsh (Harry Carey), who had passed on. One evening, Lew and his wife, Agnes (Frances Dee), reminisce lovingly about their son, "Rusty" (Richard Crane), when a telegram arrives from the Navy Department informing them that "Rusty" had been killed in action. Lew becomes bitter, avoids people, refuses to go near the family drugstore. "Gramp" appears before Lew and takes him in hand and together, they revisit the past: Lew's childhood; "Gramp" as a Civil War veteran; Lew's courtship of Agnes; the birth of "Rusty"; Lew as a WWI soldier; Rusty's boyhood days and into his attempt to decide between Lenore Prentiss and Gretchen Barry, and how Lenore becomes his girl just before he joins the Navy. This excursion into the past takes away Lew's bitterness and he now sees what America means.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Monday, Oct. 16 - Perry Mason: The Case of the Startled Stallion

Perry Mason (1957–1966): The Case of the Startled Stallion (Season 3 | Episode 5 - aired 31 October 1959)

Clara Hammon and the wheelchair bound John Brant exit a wedding chapel in Las Vegas after being married but refuse to buy any photos of themselves. After Clara drives them away, John Brant removes his disguise to reveal Earl Mauldin an out of work actor. Later, after a trial run of trotters John Brant reveals he wants the horse from Jo Ann Blanchard and her brother Terry. Jo Ann Blanchard seeks help from Perry Mason when the wealthy John Brant threatens to take control of all of her inheritance including her horse, something that Brant is really after. Brant made an arrangement with their family to keep control of all of their assets due to Terry's excessive spending. When the wheelchair-bound Brant is found dead in the horse's stable, suspicion naturally falls on Jo Ann and she is charged with murder. When it's revealed that Brant supposedly married Clara Hammon, who now claims ownership of the horse in question, Paul Drake digs up some interesting information that points to other ...

Monday, October 16, 2017

Sunday, Oct. 15 - Ah Wilderness!

Ah Wilderness! (1935)

Story of small-town life in turn-of-the-century America, and a young boy's problems facing adolescence.

Young idealist Richard Miller is selected as valedictorian for his New England high school commencement class of 1906 and intends to inject modern anti-capitalistic ideas into his speech. His father, Nat Miller, accidentally learns of it and interrupts Richard's speech before he can make a fool of himself. The small town later celebrates the Fourth of July with customary fireworks, picnics and the like, with Richard spending time with his girl, Muriel McComber, who promises she will allow him to kiss her one day. When Richard sends poems of love to Muriel, quoting the likes of Omar Khayyám and Swinburne, her father prevents her from ever seeing him again and forces her to write a letter denouncing him. Heartbroken, Richard drowns his sorrow in a local bar, drinking and smoking with a vamp called Belle, and comes home drunk. Alcoholic uncle Sid, who is used to the effects of liquor, nurses Richard back to sobriety, but Richard still must face the uncertain punishment of his father as ...

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Saturday, Oct. 14 - Adventures of Captain Marvel - Chapter 3: Time Bomb

Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941) - Chapter 3: Time Bomb

Cap is too tough for the blade. Scorpion is still trying to get the lens. Betty heads for the safe. Billy is flying out to meet her. But there's a bomb in his plane - a you guessed it time bomb.

Saturday, October 14, 2017

Friday, Oct. 13 - Think Fast, Mr. Moto

Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937)

This was the first by 20th Century-Fox in a series of several films which tried to emulate the success of their own popular Charlie Chan series. THINK FAST, MR. MOTO introduced us to Peter Lorre's portrayal of a seemingly meek and mild mannered Asian man in glasses who secretly becomes a very clever and rough and tumble detective, excelling in martial arts and physical combat. The story involves jewel smuggling aboard a cruise ship.

Mr Moto encounters mysterious goings-on on a ship bound for Shanghai. He recognises his steward as the murderer of a man in San Francisco, and catches him trying to steal an important letter from the stateroom of another passenger, Robert Hitchings. Hitchings, son of the owner of the shipping line, falls in love with Gloria, who refuses to tell him anything about her life and disappears when they arrive in Shanghai. In Shanghai, Mr Moto uncovers the secret which links the murder in San Francisco, the mysterious letter, and Gloria.

Friday, October 13, 2017

Thursday, Oct. 12 - Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Violent Suitor

Sherlock Holmes (1954–1955): The Case of the Violent Suitor (Season 1 | Episode 25 - Episode aired 18 April 1955)

"Aunt Lottie", an advice columnist who is actually a man named Alex Doogle, advises a young woman to break up with her violent fiancé, Jack Murdock. The groom-to-be pretends to be wealthy to mask his motive of acquiring the wealth of his intended bride. He finds Doogle, severely beats him and threatens his life. Doogle turns to Sherlock Holmes, both for his own protection and to save the young woman from her crazed fiancé.

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Wednesday, Oct. 11 - The Veil: Summer Heat & The Return of Madame Vernoy

The Veil (1958– ): Summer Heat (Season 1 | Episode 8 - Episode aired 1958)

A man witnesses a robbery and murder in the apartment across the street from his own. When the police are called, it is discovered that the apartment is empty. Then the murder actually occurs...

The Veil (1958– ): The Return of Madame Vernoy (Season 1 | Episode 9 _ Episode aired 1958)

In August of 1927, Madame Sita Vernoy dies in a small town in India, leaving a grieving husband and a newborn son. One year and ten days later, Santha Naidu is born in Delhi: a girl-child who slowly begins to remember her previous life as Madame Vernoy. When she grows to maturity, these memories are instrumental in changing the life of her widowed husband and the son who is one year older than herself. In other words, she goes to their house and brings out the hidden jewels.

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Tuesday, Oct. 10 - Sky Murder

Sky Murder (1940)

A body is found in a locked airplane compartment and a German female refugee is a suspect. Passenger detective Nick Carter is convinced she didn't do it and works to solve the mysterious murder.

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Monday, Oct. 9 - The Devil to Pay!

The Devil to Pay! (1930)

Ronald Colman is the devil-may-care son of a rich old man who has squandered various opportunities, and is returning home from his most recent in British East Africa. He's so charming and smooth, and you can't help but like the lightness with which he approaches life. He's got a girlfriend in theater star Myrna Loy, but soon falls for the engaged daughter of a friend of the family, Loretta Young.

Monday, October 9, 2017

Sunday, Oct. 8 - Her Husband Lies

Her Husband Lies (1937)

J. Ward Thomas of Park Avenue leads a double life as an investment broker and as notorious gambler Spade Martin, despite the protests of his beautiful wife Natalie, a nightclub singer who retired when they married. Spade's younger brother "Chick" wires Spade from Seattle that he has quit gambling for a job in real estate and is about to marry a nice girl named Betty. Relieved to find his kid brother is straight, Spade sends him $10,000 cash as a wedding present. Tired of Spade's gambling, Natalie books a return engagement at Cafe Nocturne, telling him that she is a singer rather than a wife now. Spade promises to go straight in six days; however, Chick arrives in New York with a cocky attitude after having made fifty grand out of the ten. He is now ready to gamble against Spade Martin himself, unaware Spade is his brother.

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Saturday, Oct. 7 - Adventures Of Captain Marvel - The Guillotine & The Bloodstained Butterfly

Adventures Of Captain Marvel - Chapter 2 The Guillotine

Kidnap! And a fiendish device.

The Bloodstained Butterfly (1971) Una farfalla con le ali insanguinate (original title)

A young pianist, Giorgio, has kept his highly delicate happiness only by having his girl friend, Francoise, and therefore when someone stabs her to death at a park everything is badly changed. Although the police arrests a middle-aged man named Alessandro as the primal suspect of the murder case, Giorgio isn't and can't be satisfied with the judicial system itself any longer. But the whole situation becomes more complex when he meets a girl, Sarah, who is a daughter of Alessandro...

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Friday, Oct. 6 - You're Only Young Once

You're Only Young Once (1937)

On vacation with his family on California's Catalina Island, Andy Hardy falls head over swim fins for a sophisticated young beauty. Judge Hardy warns his son that she is too fast for him.

Friday, October 6, 2017

Thursday, Oct. 5 - Wodehouse Playhouse: The Editor Regrets

Wodehouse Playhouse (1974–1978): The Editor Regrets (Season 3 | Episode 5 - aired 28 November 1978)

"Tonight's story, 'The Editor Regrets', concerns Bingo Little, the husband of best-selling novelist Rosie M. Banks and editorial force behind 'Wee Tots', that popular and influential journal which has done so much to mold thought in the nursery and has now led to a sort of literary renaissance at the Drones Club". Reveling in his fame as editor of Wee Tots magazine, Bingo Little is the toast of his club. Trouble ensues when he brushes off an American children's author being pursued by his boss.

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Wednesday, Oct. 4 - The Veil: Jack the Ripper

The Veil (1958– ): Jack the Ripper Season 1 | Episode 10 - aired 1958)

A clairvoyant, in dreams and visions, sees a series of grisly murders in London's Whitechapel district. But his knowledge of the details of the crimes makes him a suspect in the eyes of the police.

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Tuesday, Oct. 3 - Playing Around

Playing Around (1930)

New York girl has a dull boyfriend and seems destined for a dull marriage when she meets a rich playboy who has money to burn and places to go. She gets involved with the playboy and never seems to notice that he might by shady, until he shoots her father in a cigar-store holdup!

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Monday, Oct. 2 - Beauty for the Asking

Beauty for the Asking (1939)

Denny drops fiancée Jean and marries Flora who is worth ten million dollars. When Jean is fired from her job she decides to market the face cream she invented. She goes to Jeffrey and he sends a sample of the product to 12 selected rich women. Only one woman invests in the business and Jean is happy until she learns that it is Flora - but she takes the money. As Denny has no job, the girls give him an office at the factory. The business takes off, but Jean finds that she is still in love with Denny and Denny seems to forget he is married to Flora. So Jean and Flora send him to California for six weeks to open the West Coast branch of Jeanne Varelle.

Monday, October 2, 2017

Sunday, Oct. 1 - Route 66: Soda Pop and Paper Flags

Route 66 (1960–1964): Soda Pop and Paper Flags (Season 3 | Episode 31 - aired 31 May 1963)

Tod and Linc are en route from St. Louis to Memphis, Tennessee. They stop in Mapleton, Mo., for gas. Tod defends a transient hobo from troublemakers. Deciding to stay, Tod & Linc go to work for a rubber processing plant. Later when the hobo is accused by a mob of vigilantes of bringing a sleeping virus into town Tod once again helps him.

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Saturday, Sept. 30 - The Horn Blows at Midnight

The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945)

A trumpet player in a radio orchestra (Jack Benny) falls asleep during a commercial and dreams he's the angel Athanael. The beautiful angel Elizabeth (Alexis Smith) delivers Athanael to the head of heaven's orchestra, where he's told to return to earth and blow his trumpet at midnight, thus marking the end of the world. When he fails his assignment, he becomes a fallen angel, and though he's given a second chance, his fellow fallen angels conspire to keep him from completing his mission.

Falling asleep during the Paradise Coffee ("The Coffee that Makes You Sleep") Program, the band's third trumpeter dreams he's Athanael, an angel deputized to blow the Last Trumpet at exactly midnight on Earth. But Osidro and Doremus, two fallen angels enjoying the physical pleasures of an earthly existence, try to steal Athanael's trumpet, enlisting the aid of suave jewel thief Archie Dexter. Athanael fumbles his first try when he saves Archie's accomplice, Fran, from suicide. His second chance seems doomed when he's forced to leave his trumpet as security for a meal he can't pay for. But he gets it back just in time for a final confrontation with his desperate adversaries, dangling with them from the roof, only seconds from Midnight.