Friday, September 30, 2022

Thursday, September 29 - Dear Brigitte

Dear Brigitte (1965)

Poet and professor Robert Leaf (James Stewart) has a disdain for the sciences. Unfortunately for him, his son Erasmus (Bill Mumy) is colorblind, completely tone-deaf and a natural math prodigy. While the professor tires to comes to terms with his son's predilection for numbers, the talented youth and his sister Pandora (Cindy Carol) use his math talents to win at the race track. Erasmus hopes to use the money he makes to fly to Paris and meet Brigitte Bardot, with whom he is infatuated.

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Wednesday, September 28 - Home, Sweet Homicide

Home, Sweet Homicide (1946)

Mystery writer Marian Carstairs is hard at work trying to finish her latest novel. Her three children meanwhile are entertaining themselves trying to solve a murder in their own neighborhood. In between gathering clues, the kids play matchmaker by trying to fix up their widowed mom with the handsome detective investigating the case.

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Tuesday, September 27 - Once a Thief

Once a Thief (1935)

John Stuart plays a chemist. He has a valuable patent for a paint spraying process. He is penniless and gets an interview with a paint company. He is desperate to borrow £5 to buy a new suit. By chance he comes across a young woman who has fallen ill in her car. He takes her handbag and gets a doctor but she has gone by his return.

He "borrows" £5 from her bag which also contains a valuable bracelet. He goes to the interview in the new suit and gets the job. The girl turns out to be the chairman's daughter. Unfortunately for Stuart, Ronnie Shiner, a friend of the maid has gone to his room and pinched the bracelet. So when Stuart sends the bag to the police he is thought to have stolen that and sent to prison for 12months.

During this time the dishonest manager of the company has made use of the patent, collecting the royalties for himself. As the process is imperfect he is happy to reemploy Stuart. Stuart discovers the manager's villainy, falls in love with the Chairman's daughter and all ends happily.

Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Monday, September 26 - The Long Dark Hall

The Long Dark Hall (1951)

Suburban businessman Arthur Groome (Rex Harrison) has been carrying on an extramarital affair with Rose (Patricia Wayne), a chorus girl. One night, Arthur lets himself into Rose's small apartment and discovers that she has been brutally stabbed to death. Fleeing in a panic, Arthur incriminates himself in her death and is charged with her murder. As the case goes to trial, the real killer becomes friendly with Arthur's steadfast wife, Mary (Lilli Palmer).

Monday, September 26, 2022

Sunday, September 25 - Dude Ranch

Dude Ranch (1931)

Stuart Erwin is Chester Carr, a manager of a dude ranch in the Rockies that is falling on hard times. Guests are leaving because it is too tame. When a traveling troupe of ham actors arrive, having fallen on hard times, Carr hatches a plan (in exchange for food and lodging) for the troupe to rustle up some thrills and excitement so that irritated guest, Spruce Meadows (Charles Sellon) will be entertained enough to stay on.

The troupe put on an old fashioned melodrama, complete with a dastardly villain, Black Jeb (Eugene Palette), hero Mr. Kilroy (Jack Oakie) and defenseless child (Mitzi Green). Their play is instantly believed and Kilroy is praised as a hero - he later spies Sue Meadows (the lovely June Collyer) and is completely smitten. Meanwhile a group of robbers pay the dude ranch a visit and the leader also falls for Sue. The troupe stage a mock fight and when the gangster leader draws a gun on Kilroy, and Kilroy stands up to him, Sue realises Kilroy is the man for her.

The gangsters hold up the local bank but when people offer up descriptions, it also fits Kilroy (white ten gallon hat, white chaps etc)!!! When Alice (Mitzi Green) is told to get the make up case from the barn she accidentally picks up the wrong case - it is the one with cash that the robbers have stored there. When the sheriff arrests Kilroy the robbers kidnap Sue and it is up to Alice to round up the troupe and save the day. Kilroy, who has been branded a coward gets to show all his wild west skills as he captures the caravan and saves the girl.

Sunday, September 25, 2022

Saturday, September 24 - Operation Bullshine

Operation Bullshine (1959)

A married couple (Donald Sinden, Barbara Murray) must hide their relationship when she arrives as a private at the military post where he is a lieutenant.

Saturday, September 24, 2022

Friday, September 23 - Book of Numbers

Book of Numbers (1973)

Two waiters (Raymond St. Jacques, Philip Michael Thomas) leave the city to run a numbers racket in a Southern town during the Depression.

Friday, September 23, 2022

Thursday, September 22 - Mad Dog Coll

Mad Dog Coll (1961)

Young neighborhood hoodlum Viccent Coll is attracted to music student Elizabeth. Their paths cross several times as the tries to climb to the top of the reckets on the bodies of his murder victims. Because of the pleasure he takes in killing, everybody but his mob and his moll, ex-stripper Clio, calls him "Mad Dog." He is hunted by both the police and gang leader Dutch Schultz on whom he has declared war.

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Wednesday, September 21 - Sitting Pretty

Sitting Pretty (1933)

Jack Oakie and Jack Haley are songwriters who want to hit the big time. They hichhike their way to Hollywood. Along the way, they meet Ginger Rogers.

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Tuesday, September 20 - Everything Happens at Night

Everything Happens at Night (1939)

American Geoffrey Thompson and Englishman Ken Morgan are reporters from rival newspapers who are sent to a remote Swiss village to find Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Hugo Norden. Nodern escaped from a concentration camp and was reportedly killed but there are rumors he is living in the village.

Both men arrive in the village and are forced to share a room together. They meet Louise, a young woman whom both men fall in love with. It turns out that Louise is Norden's daughter.

Geoffrey intercepts Ken's cable to his paper and directs it to his own paper. The story upsets Louise, who was unaware they were reporters, and brings the Gestapo on a mission to kill Norden. Geoffrey and Ken team up to smuggle Louise and her father across the border to the safety of France.

They are all about to sail to America. Ken arranges for Geoffrey to miss the boat, ensuring that he will have Louise to himself.

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Monday, September 19 - A Gentleman After Dark

A Gentleman After Dark (1942)

On New Year's Eve in 1923, "Heliotrope Harry" Melton steals a fifty-thousand dollar bracelet and then goes to a hospital where his wife, Flo, is about to have a baby. He is followed to the hospital by Police Lieutenant Tom Gaynor, a life-long friend. Harry avoids arrest by slipping the jewels to Flo. When the child, Diana, is born, Harry decides to go straight.

Eddie Smith, a confederate of Harry's, long in love with Flo, suggests to her they team up and get rid of Harry in the process. Harry kills Eddie and spares Flo on the condition she stay out of his and Diana's life, and then gives himself up to Gaynor, on the condition that Gaynor raise Diana for him. The years pass and Gaynor, now a justice of the state's supreme court is being blackmailed by Flo in exchange of her not suing for custody of Diana, now 18. Harry learns about this and escapes from jail and confronts Flo.

Monday, September 19, 2022

Sunday, September 18 - Mr. Ricco

Mr. Ricco (1975)

A San Francisco lawyer (Dean Martin) helps his client (Thalmus Rasulala) beat a murder rap marked by racial overtones.

And then he becomes the victim of a series of assassination attempts. Several witnesses see the wouldbe assassin, and they all describe him as looking exactly like the militant. The question bothering Ricco is a simple one: Why would the guy try to kill the lawyer who won him his freedom?

Sunday, September 18, 2022

Saturday, September 17 - Dark Passage

Dark Passage (1947)

Bogart plays a man convicted of murdering his wife who escapes from prison in order to prove his innocence. Bogart finds that his features are too well-known, and is forced to seek illicit backroom plastic surgery. The entire pre-knife part of the film is shot from a Bogart's-eye-view, with the viewer seeing the fugitive for the first time as he starts to recuperate from the operation in the apartment of a sympathetic young artist (Bacall) for whom he soon finds affection. But what he's really after is revenge.

Saturday, September 17, 2022

Friday, September 16 - The Glass Web (1953)

The Glass Web (1953)

The ice-cold diva Paula ruthlessly exploits the guys she dates. While blackmailing the married Don with a recent one-night-stand, she has a secret affair with Henry, who works as researcher for the weekly authentic TV show "Crime of the Week", which Don writes for. When Henry fails to help her to a role, she insults him deadly... and ends up dead herself. Now Don desperately tries to hide his traces, but Henry sabotages his efforts and suggests he write the unsolved murder case for next week's show...

Thursday, September 15, 2022

Wednesday, September 14 - Blonde Crazy

Blonde Crazy (1931)

Bert Harris works for a hotel as a bellboy. One day, he meets Anne Roberts, who signs up as a chambermaid. He takes a fancy to her and lets her in on his racket, conning people out of money. They arrange for married hotel guest A. Rupert Johnson Jr. to be caught in a compromising position with Anne and get $5000 to keep a (fake) policeman from taking him to jail. From there, they leave town and embark on ever grander crooked schemes.

Anne falls in love with Bert, but he does not realize it until it is too late. By the time he proposes to her, she has transferred her affections to the respectable Joe Reynolds and marries him. Bert travels around Europe for a year. When he returns to the United States, he is no longer interested in crime.

However, Anne tracks him down and asks him for $30,000. It turns out that Joe has embezzled that amount from his employer. Bert does not have that much, but he comes up with a plan. He gets Joe to give the keys to the office and the combination of the company safe. He will break into the safe and steal what is left. Everyone will assume that he also took the $30,000 in negotiable bonds. However, Joe double crosses him; he has the police waiting. Bert manages to speed away in his car, but is shot and captured. When Anne comes to see him in his cell, she informs him that she found out what Joe did. Bert persuades her not to reveal everything to the police, telling her it would not help him anyway. She vows to be waiting for him after he serves his sentence, cheering him up.

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Tuesday, September 13 - Blueprint for Robbery

Blueprint for Robbery (1961)

A gang plots the robbery of an armored-car company headquarters. Although the robbery itself goes off as planned, it's not long before the gang members are fighting among themselves over everybody's share of the loot and trying to avoid capture by the police, who are pouring all their resources into capturing the robbers. Based on a real-life 1950 Brinks Armored Car Co. robbery in Boston.

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Monday, September 12 - Don't Bet on Women

Don't Bet on Women (1931)

Edmund Lowe is a dapper playboy who has a cynical attitude towards women after being taken to the cleaners by one. He's also not too crazy about his banker Roland Young who holds the purse strings on his trust fund. Young is married to Jeanette whom of course he takes for granted. In fact the funniest line in the film for me was Young declaiming how he doesn't think excitement is good for a woman.

Well with that kind of attitude no wonder Jeanette starts looking on Lowe. Especially after Lowe makes a bet with Young that he can get any woman to kiss him within 24 hours and wouldn't you know it, Jeanette comes on a veranda and becomes the bet object.

Monday, September 12, 2022

Sunday, September 11 - 20,000 Eyes

20,000 Eyes (1961)

Dan (Gene Nelson) is a fast-talking and conscience-impaired investment counselor. He always seems to have a scheme up his sleeves and this appears to finally coming home to roost when he plays fast and easy with a mobster's money! The mobster, Novak (John Banner) soon discovers that Dan's been playing with other people's money and threatens to kill him unless he makes good. So, the ever-scheming Dan comes up with a way to use some other folks' diamonds in order to pay back Novak. Things go remarkably well...but soon Dan gets cocky and even considers keeping everything for himself.

Sunday, September 11, 2022

Saturday, September 10 - Dangerous When Wet

Dangerous When Wet (1953)

The health conscious, dairy-farming Higgins family begin each day with an invigorating swim. One day, traveling health-tonic salesman, Windy Weebe, comes to town and suggests they could swim the English Channel. Sponsored by "Liquapep" and coached by Windy, the family arrive in Europe. There it is decided that daughter Katie is the only one strong enough to enter the contest. But while she should be focused on the difficult and risky task ahead, Katie is pursed by dashing Frenchman, André Lanet... This comedic musical is well remembered for the scene when Katie dreams she is swimming with cartoon characters Tom & Jerry!

Saturday, September 10, 2022

Friday, September 9 - The Assassination Bureau

The Assassination Bureau (1969)

For her first assignment, a lady journalist tracks down the head of an organization offering to kill, for money, people deserving of such a fate. She thinks herself very clever when he agrees to take a contract with himself as the target. What she doesn't know is that her paper's owner is second-in-command in the Bureau, and has his own reasons for supporting her challenge.

Friday, September 9, 2022

Thursday, September 8 - Pickup

Pickup (1951)

Hugo Haas plays Jan "Hunky" Horak, a hard-of-hearing (suddenly struck deaf) railroad dispatcher who lives in a poor neighborhood by the railroad tracks and is seduced by Betty (Michaels), who is after his money. After they marry, Betty and her lover Steve Kowalski (Nixon) scheme to murder him. But in a chance accident, Jan regains his hearing and discovers their plot. Steve has a last-minute change of heart and Betty leaves, disgusted with Steve's inaction.

Thursday, September 8, 2022

Wednesday, September 7 - Change of Heart

Change of Heart (1934)

Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, James Dunn, and Ginger Rogers all experience a "Change of Heart" in this 1934 film about college graduates moving to New York City to "make it."

Mack (James Dunn) is smitten with Catherine (Janet Gaynor), who is in love with Chris (Charles Farrell), who has eyes for Madge (Ginger Rogers), who is interested in both boys.

The romances get straightened out by the end of the film.

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Tuesday, September 6 - The Hound of the Baskervilles

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1988) TV Movie

Sir Charles Baskerville dies on the moor under mysterious circumstances and rumors abound about a demonic hound. When the American heir arrives to take charge, a family friend calls in Holmes and Watson to get to the heart of the mystery.

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Monday, September 5 - Exposed

Exposed (1947)

A beautiful female private detective is hired by a wealthy businessman to check up on his stepson—the heir to the family fortune—who has been withdrawing large amounts of money from his bank account, taken an apartment in the city and is generally acting suspiciously. She soon finds herself mixed up in secret experiments, shadowy underworld figures and, finally, the murder of her employer.

Monday, September 5, 2022

Sunday, September 4 - Housekeeping

Housekeeping (1987)

After their mother commits suicide, two sisters end up living with their kind but peculiar aunt in their grandmother's old house in a small 1950s town.

Sunday, September 4, 2022

Saturday, September 3 - The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun

The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun (1970)

A secretary takes her boss's car for the holiday in the Mediterranean, oddly retracing a journey she has not taken, and is recognized by people she has not met before. Soon, things get serious.

Saturday, September 3, 2022

Friday, September 2 - Insurance Investigator

Insurance Investigator (1951)

John Hammond's partner, George Sullivan, dies in an apparently accidental death, with Hammond the beneficiary of his double-indemnity insurance policy. Since this is the fourth double-indemnity death in the Sam Marlo, California vicinity in recent months, the company assigns investigator Tom Davison to the case. The partner's daughter, Nancy Sullivan, cooperates with Davison in the investigation, and Davison joins Hammond's business as a salesman. Davison is closing in on the gang, led by Chuck Malone, when the gamblers behind the racket kill Hammond, making it appear as a suicide to protect themselves. Davison gets conclusive evidence against the gang when they kill another man for his insurance, but the mob kidnaps Davison.

Friday, September 2, 2022

Thursday, September 1 - Man on a Swing

Man on a Swing (1974)

A small-town police chief investigating a murder is offered help by a self-described psychic. However, when the chief discovers that the "psychic" is in possession of information known only to the police, he suspects that the man may be more involved in the case than he lets on.

Thursday, September 1, 2022

Wednesday, August 31 - A Step Out of Line

A Step Out of Line (TV Movie 1971)

Peter Falk, Vic Morrow and Peter Lawford play three middle-aged friends in San Francisco who fall on hard times and engineer a robbery that they hope will net each of them $200,000.