Friday, July 30 - The City That Sold America

The City That Sold America (2018)

An entertaining and informative look at how Chicago's creative community pioneered modern advertising, forever influencing consumer behavior and culture in America.

Thursday, July 29 - Unpublished Story

Unpublished Story (1942)

In May 1940 Bob Randall (Greene), a war correspondent with a (fictional) London newspaper, the Gazette, is evacuated with British troops from the beaches of Dunkirk. He writes a hard-hitting story about his experiences, but it is censored by the Ministry of Information. Randall goes to see Lamb (Radford), the official responsible, but Lamb will not change his decision.

As London burns in the Blitz and the newspaper struggles to stay in business, Randall writes several more eyewitness articles, and then learns of People For Peace, a pacifist organisation. He suspects that its members are tools of the Nazis and investigates the group. He finds the Gazette's fashion journalist, Carole Bennett (Hobson), at the group's meeting, also there after a story. Later, following up the story at the group's offices, Randall is surprised to see Lamb there and obviously familiar with the leading members. Afterwards Lamb tells him that he is with British counter-intelligence and that Randall's suspicions are correct, but with the group under official investigation he must drop his coverage of the story.

Trapes, one of the group's members, changes his views after his own home is bombed and sends Bennett a statement denouncing the organisation, but, still suffering from shock, he naively informs his fellow "pacifists". Revealing themselves to be Nazi agents, they force him to contact Bennett in an attempt to retrieve the letter. However, at the rendezvous they are captured after a shoot-out with the authorities. The two reporters think they have a great story, but Lamb makes it clear that the incident must remain unpublished. The closing scene shows Randall and Bennett, now lovers, kissing and posed against the backdrop of war-damaged London.

Wednesday, July 28 - Mannix: Another Final Exit

Mannix: Another Final Exit - Season 1 Episode 20 (aired Feb 10, 1968)

Down on his luck Bernie Farmer is married to Rose, who's the sister of a mobster. When the criminal is about to be paroled, Bernie decides to open a box the mobster had entrusted to him. But the box is empty. Mannix and Intertect boss Wickersham, against their better judgment, opt to help Bernie find what was in the box. Mannix sets himself up as a target, letting people think he has the box and its contents. The detective will endure multiple beatings as he tries to solve the case.

Tuesday, July 27 - Lunch Hour

Lunch Hour (1963)

A recently graduated art school designer joins a wallpaper manufacturing company and catches the eye of a married middle manager. They begin a workplace affair during their lunchtime breaks, but their attempts to find privacy are continually thwarted.

The man eventually locates a small hotel where he books a room for just one hour, but then feels the need to invent a hugely complicated tale to tell the hotel manager about a troubled marriage and a wife travelling down from Scarborough for a heart-to-heart.

The still-suspicious hotel manageress continually interrupts the couple and, as the man slowly tells the story to his would-be lover, she starts to believe the whole fantasy. She sees herself as the stay-at-home wife, ironing the man's shirts, and starts to have sympathy with the wife. The couple argue over the woman's imagined life, and as their hour in the hotel is up, the affair between the couple ends and they return separately to their work roles. There, the man appears sullen and unhappy, while the woman smiles quietly to herself as she works.

Monday, July 26 - 10:30 P.M. Summer

10:30 P.M. Summer (1966)

Maria and Paul, a couple in their forties, travel through Spain with a new friend, Claire (Romy Schneider), a younger woman. The couple's daughter is also part of the trip. On their way to Madrid, they stop in a small town and are told by police that a local man who has killed his wife and her lover is on the loose in the area. There is a massive thunderstorm and the group has no choice but to stay in the town's only hotel, which is jammed beyond capacity with other travelers in the same situation. Maria, an out of control alcoholic who lives most of her life in a walking, booze-fueled dream state, seems to be subtly encouraging her husband Paul to have a sexual relationship with Claire as a way to reintroduce sexuality into their situation. While the thunderstorm is still raging, Maria secretly steps out of the crowded hotel onto a low balcony to down a bottle of booze and accidentally sees Paul and Claire kissing on a higher balcony. She is simultaneously excited and devastated. While out in the rain Maria discovers the fugitive hiding on a nearby rooftop and decides to help him escape. She then hides the murderer, a young man, in an outcropping of rocks out in lonely stretch of highway in the desert.

She eventually tells Paul and Claire about the man, but when they go out to the desert they find that the fugitive has committed suicide with the same gun he'd killed his cheating wife with. Maria, Paul and Claire decide to keep quiet and simply travel on to Madrid as planned. While in Madrid, Maria tells Paul and Claire that she'd had hopes of adding the fugitive to the odd situation as a "fourth player" in the game, but that her true desire was to sleep with Paul once again. Maria drinks herself unconscious and scenes of Paul and Claire making love were shown while we hear Maria's voice saying how she'd been envisioning the pair making love ever since she'd first seen Claire naked. It is never made clear whether this sequence is a dream or something Maria actually observed while massively drunk. But the next day she tells Paul about it and it seems to excite him. They start to make love, but she can't. She tells him she doesn't love him anymore. He tells her he doesn't believe her. Later, the trio goes to a club to watch flamenco dancers. Maria, who seems to be having a good time, slips out during the performance and disappears into the city. Paul and Claire search for her, but they cannot find her.

Sunday, July 25 - Mannix: You Can Get Killed Out There

Mannix: You Can Get Killed Out There -  Season1 Episode19 (aired Feb 3, 1968)

Mannix quits Intertect after Wickersham agrees to accept a case from suspected gang boss Aram Karmalis. Striking out on his own, Mannix agrees to help a young woman. But it turns out that Mannix is now working a different angle of the same case.

Saturday, July 24 - Jack the Ripper: Episode 2

Jack the Ripper: Episode 2 (aired Oct 18, 1988)

Pressure increases on the police to catch the Ripper killer. There is a threat of public order as the killings of prostitutes continue in Whitechapel. Each new killing is more frenzied. Inspector Abberline believes that someone with royal connections is the killer.

Friday, July 23 - The Giant Spider Invasion

The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)

After a black hole strikes, it opens up another dimension in a rural Wisconsin town, and soon there is an invasion of gigantic arachnids who crave human flesh. NASA scientists Dr. Vance (Steve Brodie) and Dr. Jenny Langer (Barbara Hale) try their best to save humanity as a romance blooms between them. Meanwhile, local Dan Kester (Robert Easton) squabbles with his wife, Ev (Leslie Parrish), and has a dalliance with local bartender Helga (Christiane Schmidtmer).

Thursday, July 22 - Street Scene

Street Scene (1931)

Adapted from a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, this slice-of-life tale captures one day on a residential Manhattan street. Brownstone neighbors gather on a sweltering summer evening to swap the latest gossip about the philandering Mrs. Maurrant (Estelle Taylor) and her alcoholic husband (David Landau). The Maurrants' daughter, Rose (Sylvia Sidney), who longs to escape her seedy existence, must deal with her parents' sins when her father learns of his wife's infidelity.

Wednesday, July 21 - The Lady in Scarlet

The Lady in Scarlet (1935)

When a wealthy art dealer is murdered, the private investigator hired for the case discovers a web of blackmail, corruption and stolen bonds.

Tuesday, July 20 - Naked City: The Fingers of Henri Tourelle

Naked City: The Fingers of Henri Tourelle - Season3, Episode 4 (aired Oct 18, 1961)

A business owner is killed by gunshot in his office. The person who fired the shot couldn't have left the premises before the police arrived to investigate, but the responsible gunman proves elusive.

Monday, July 19 - Mannix: Deadfall

Mannix: Deadfall - Part 1 & 2 (Episodes aired Jan 20 & 27, 1968)

An Intertect security chief apparently has been killed while driving. At almost the same time, an explosion at an Intertect client has killed a technician and destroyed a new laser device. Mannix suddenly is thrust into the case while Intertect chief Wickersham begins acting erratically, the side effect of medication for an infection. Mannix concludes that the Intertect security man may have sold out, along with somebody at the client. Mannix later finds that the Intertect security man is still alive...

Sunday, July 18 - Who?

Who? (1974)

An enigmatic individual with a metal face is returned from East Germany and claims to be Lucas Martino, an American scientist who was working on a top-secret project but was severely injured and scarred in a car crash. American authorities hold him in custody while they try to establish whether the man is the real Martino or an impostor.

Saturday, July 17 - Waterloo Bridge

Waterloo Bridge (1931)

In World War I London, Myra is an American out of work chorus girl making ends meet by picking up men on Waterloo Bridge. During a Zeppelin air raid she meets Roy, a naive young American who enlisted in the Canadian army. They fall for each other, and he tricks Myra into visiting his family who live in a country estate outside London, where his step-father is a retired British Major. However Myra is reluctant to continue the relationship with Roy, because she has not told him about her past.

Friday, July 16 - Cage of Gold

Cage of Gold (1950)

A young woman, Judith Moray, deserts her prospective fiancé, the nice doctor Alan Kearn, for an old flame - the dashing, but roguish, former wing commander Bill Glennan. Glennan makes her pregnant and marries her, but leaves her on the morning after the wedding when he learns that her father can't offer him financial support. Two years later, she - having been told that Glennan is dead - has married Kearn and they keep Glennan's son. But then, Glennan suddenly re-appears, and begins to blackmail her.

Thursday, July 15 - She Knows Y' Know

She Knows Y' Know (1962)

There's a fuss in the neighborhood in a fictional Lancashire town, where the son of the house, Cyril Smith, is accused of getting the neighbor's daughter, Linda Castle, with child. Her parents want them married ASAP, but his mother, Hylda Baker, is adamant he's going to finish getting his B.Sc and move on. There's fussing and fight and Miss Baker gets to utter her catchphrase, which is also the title of the movie.

Wednesday, July 14 - Checkmate: Voyage Into Fear

Checkmate: Voyage Into Fear (Episode aired May 6, 1961)

Joan Fontaine plays a woman who claims her husband is trying to kill her. Corey accompanied her on a cruise ship to protect her but her odd behavior raises doubts. Also onboard watching her closely is a private detective who claims to be hired by her husband.

Tuesday, July 13 - Naked City: The Corpse Ran Down Mulberry Street

Naked City: The Corpse Ran Down Mulberry Street (Episode aired Oct 11, 1961)

After a car wreck between a truck and a hearse, a "corpse" gets up and walks away. The casket used was really a "submarine" - a means to smuggle an illegal immigrant into the U.S. The Undertaker tied to the incoming delivery did not know his "fixer" friend was also having something else illegally brought into the country.

Monday, July 12 - Cheer Up

Cheer Up (1936)

Stanley Lupino and Roddy Highes have written a musical play, been thrown out of every theatrical office in the city and are stone cold broke. Sally Gray -- whose character's name is Sally Gray -- can't even get an audition and is likewise stony. So is the kindly couple who take her in. Fortunately, she comes up with the idea of turning their home into a hotel. When she is at another hotel talking it up for prospective guests, she is accosted, and is rescued by Lupino. This causes an agent to look her up and offer to bankroll her until she has a paying career; the report is that Wilfrid Harman, the son of the biggest backer of plays rescued her. When she runs into Lupino, she thinks he's Wilfrid Harman and he thinks she's the answer to his dreams in every way.

Sunday, July 11 - Naked City: Dead on the Field of Honor

Naked City: Dead on the Field of Honor (Episode aired Oct 4, 1961)

A 35 year old man, raised by his cultured Southern grandmother to be a "man of honor", has not had fortune shine upon him. He becomes unbalanced and begins to use a dueling pistol to right wrongs in his "field of honor" - Central Park. The bizarre shootings are thoroughly looked into by the NYPD as the man's mental state worsens.

Saturday, July 10 - Naked City: Take Off Your Hat When a Funeral Passes

Naked City Take Off Your Hat When a Funeral Passes (Episode aired Sep 27, 1961)

After dodging a prison sentence by informing on his wife’s brother, who’s sent up for the robbery they committed, Paul Delito’s wife leaves him, vowing to teach their son to curse his father for snitching. (This all happens before the show starts.)

The only thing sustaining Delito is the hope of winning forgiveness, and when his brother-in-law is later released and in hiding after committing armed robbery and murder, he seeks out the man to plead for his pardon.

Friday, July 9 - Jack the Ripper: Episode 1

Jack the Ripper (TV Mini Series 1988) - Episode 1

London, autumn 1888. Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline of Scotland Yard is assigned by his superiors to investigate the murder and brutal mutilation of a prostitute in the East End of London. As the mutilated corpses of other "shilling whores" turn up in the same area, London's tabloid journalists – particularly Benjamin Bates of The Star – whip up a public frenzy. The killer is nicknamed "Jack the Ripper" after a letter bearing that name and supposedly from the killer, is forwarded to Scotland Yard. As the Ripper terrorizes London, public outrage erupts throughout the country, and Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren fears that a revolution is in the air in London's East End.

Thursday, July 8 - Checkmate: Hot Wind on a Cold Town

Checkmate: Hot Wind on a Cold Town (Episode aired Jun 10, 1961)

Ricardo Montalban guest stars as a movie stuntman with a hair trigger temper that the wife of director Jerome Thor has a big old yen for.

Thor wants to ruin him and is counting on Montalban's temper to do it. After firing him as a stuntman they hire him as a location manager for their new picture and some of it to be shot in an old western town called Thompsonville. It's inhabited by a lot of Deliverance like folks with warped old woman Betty Garde running the show and a half wit played by Martin Landau who likes to show off his new knife. They keep trying to press his buttons and his friend Anthony George from Checkmate is looking to find what's going on with these folks.

Wednesday, July 7 - Trouble in Store & Highway Patrol: Art Robbery

Trouble in Store (1953)

Norman (Norman Wisdom) is a hapless stock boy at an opulent London department store, but he dreams of someday being promoted to be the designer of display windows. While his antics have caught the eye of pretty young shopgirl Sally Wilson (Lana Morris), he hasn't yet garnered much notice from his superiors. But Norman is a man with a plan. Upon uncovering a thief's plot to rob the store, Norman decides to thwart the heist himself, in hopes of becoming a hero to his bosses and the lovely Sally.

Highway Patrol: Art Robbery (Episode aired May 21, 1956)

Working at the direction of George Mills, brothers Ed and Tony Wells hijack a panel truck carrying valuable paintings purchased by wealthy art collector Carter Giles. As Giles' trusted business manager, Mills provided the two with inside information concerning the truck's route. The plan was to steal the paintings and hold them for $500,000 in ransom, but the panel truck driver manages to escape in the Wells brothers' car and notify the Highway Patrol. The brothers panic, hijack a pickup truck, and escape after killing the driver and abandoning the paintings. Mills reluctantly agrees to hide the two at a house in the city, but when Dan Mathews convinces Giles to "pay" the ransom, Mills is certain that the Wells brothers have double-crossed him. Mills travels to the house to confront the brothers with a gun, unaware that Dan and Officer Dorsey are tailing him in the hope that he will lead them to the brothers and expose his own involvement.

Tuesday, July 6 - Mr. Lucky: Little Miss Wow & A Business Measure

Mr. Lucky: Little Miss Wow (Episode aired Dec 12, 1959)

An heiress running away from her sheltered life wants to dig the world in beatnik fashion. She ensnares Lucky and Andamo to show her the hip scene unaware she's become the target of a couple of hoods that want to kidnap her for ransom.

Mr. Lucky: A Business Measure (Episode aired Dec 19, 1959)

The Fortuna II's anchorage is used by gem smugglers as a drop off point.When Mr. Lucky and Andamo find this out and notify the police,the smugglers will stop at nothing to recover their booty.

Monday, July 5 - Look Up and Laugh

Look Up and Laugh (1935)

Gracie Pearson (Fields) is a singer/comedian who returns home to enjoy a little holiday, but there is trouble brewing. First, she has to use all of her hard-earned money to pay for part of what her brother owes to a money lender. Then when they go to see their father, they find he has collapsed due to the Plumborough Market (where he has a stall) is threatened with demolition to make way for a department store. She receives a telegram offering a West End singing job, but decides to try to save the market instead.

As time runs out, Gracie rallies the stall keepers together through a series of ever more hilarious schemes in their attempts to save their livelihoods.

Sunday, July 4 - Highway Patrol: Dead Patrolman

Highway Patrol: Dead Patrolman (Episode aired May 14, 1956)

Officer Allard's Highway Patrol car is found abandoned and his body is discovered in the brush nearby. Auto painter Frank Handley tells Dan Mathews that Officer Allard was pursuing a car that he had been asked to paint quickly for no apparent reason. Dan learns that the car was registered to spinsterish bookstore owner Theo Nielson. Miss Nielson reluctantly reveals that she had recently given $10,000 to her "fiance" Larry Gardner and had loaned her car to his "brother" George. When Dan advises her that Larry Gardner is a convicted car thief and that George is the likely murderer of Officer Allard, she agrees to help set a trap for them. The two felons attempt to flee, but they soon find themselves bottled in by roadblocks.

Saturday, July 3 - Penny Paradise

Penny Paradise (1938)

Comedy of a tug captain who has two ambitions: to captain the new tug and win the pools. He believes he has won the second until he finds the coupon was not posted, but gets the first.

Friday, July 2 - Encore

Encore (1951)

The film is made from three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham. The first, "The Ant and the Grasshopper" concerns the trials and tribulations a ne'er-do-well brother, Tom Ramsey, puts his prim-and-proper businessman brother, George Ramsey through. The escapades that drive George to absolute distraction eventually wins the hand of the world's third richest girl, Margaret Vyne, for shiftless Tom; "Winter Cruise" finds the crew of a cargo boat becoming unglued by the endless chatter of a spinster passenger named Miss Reid. In a desperate attempt to silence the prattling busybody, the ship's officers browbeat a French steward, Pierre into making love to her. The results provide some astounding surprises for the officers, Pierre, and, for certain, Miss Reid; In "The Gigolo and the Gigolette" segment, beautiful daredevil Stella Cotman, who entertains the jaded guests of a resort hotel by diving nightly from an eighty-foot platform into a flaming tank, is losing her nerve.

Thursday, July 1 - Checkmate: The Paper Killer

Checkmate: The Paper Killer (aired Mar 25, 1961)

Mickey Rooney guest stars as a cartoonist named Steve Margate, creator of a popular adventure strip named O’Hara. When Dr. Hyatt first met Margate, decades ago, he was a painfully shy young artist.

But in the wake of international success, Margate has become brittle, conceited and paranoid. He has a beautiful wife, Edna (Dianne Foster), but he’s convinced that she only married him for his money. He has a hard-working assistant, Andy Winston (played by William Schallert, the father on The Patty Duke Show), but Margate refuses to cede too much responsibility to an underling, lest his syndicate get any bright ideas about replacing him.

While his doctors try to ward off nervous exhaustion with sleeping pills, Margate revs back up with pep pills and works long into the night, hatching a plan to kill off his swashbuckling main character once and for all and then retire.

But in his weakened mental state, Margate has begun to hallucinate that O’Hara is trying to kill him.

Wednesday, June 30 - Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Crackpot &

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Crackpot (Episode aired Jan 6, 1957)

A Good Samaritan helps a newlywed couple with a flat tire. But when the groom accidentally dirties the man's suit, the stranger reveals himself to be a dangerous crackpot.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Nightmare in 4-D (Episode aired Jan 13, 1957)

A man who reads too much pulp fiction finds himself playing Sir Galahad to the blonde in the apartment downstairs. It seems she's burdened with a corpse.