Friday, December 30 - Our Wife

Our Wife (1941)

Jerry Marvin, a talented musician and composer, wallows in drunken self-pity after he is divorced by his wife Babe. Along comes new love Susan, who rescues Jerry and provides him with fresh inspiration to complete his trumpet concerto. He performs it, it's a hit, and the jubilant Jerry and Susan plan to marry. There's just one hitch: Now Babe wants him back... and the unscrupulous ex-wife will stop at nothing to recapture her man.

Thursday, December 29 - A Dandy in Aspic

A Dandy in Aspic (1968)

In West Berlin at the height of the Cold War, British spy Eberlin (Laurence Harvey) is tasked with the dangerous assignment of finding and assassinating the treacherous KGB agent Krasnevin, who has killed many undercover British agents. He's given a new partner, Gatiss (Tom Courtenay), to help eliminate the deadly Russian. What neither his bosses nor his partner know, however, is that Eberlin himself is Krasnevin, a double agent whose secret identity his Moscow bosses don't want compromised.

Wednesday, December 28 - Fools' Parade

Fools' Parade (1971)

Mattie Appleyard (James Stewart) has spent the last 40 years behind bars and is finally out. A model prisoner and a hard worker, Appleyard saved up over $25,000 while in prison and entrusted the money to prison guard "Doc" Council (George Kennedy). Appleyard, along with his two ex-con friends, plans to become a respectable citizen by using the money to open a general store -- but it soon becomes clear that Doc and an unscrupulous banker have no intention of letting him go straight.

Tuesday, December 27 - Three Hats for Lisa

Three Hats for Lisa (1965)

Three young Cockneys take a day off work to meet a foreign movie star at Heathrow Airport. She joins them and their taxi driver while she collects some typically British hats. The main rule of the game is to steal a hat from its wearer, so the film is a musical chase around Swinging Sixties London, evading press and police.

Monday, December 26 - The St. Louis Bank Robbery

The St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959)

George Fowler is introduced to a gang planning to rob a bank in St. Louis that they expect will have $100,000 on hand on an upcoming Friday. George is drawn into the plan as the gang's driver by Gino, an old girlfriend's older brother. As the gang goes about its planning, George and Gino have to find a way to live for the next two weeks and they turn to Gino's sister, Ann, for help. George is hoping to go back to college and the money he would make would go a long way to helping him do that. Not trusting George to keep his nerve, the gang's leader John Egan moves him to the inside, but the robbery doesn't go off as planned.

Sunday, December 25 - Alfred Hitchcock Presents: O Youth and Beauty!

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: O Youth and Beauty! (Season 6 Episode 8 - aired Nov 22, 1960)

Cash Bentley is having a hard time coping with middle age. A one-time champion hurdler, he now drinks a bit too much and doesn't quite earn enough money to pay for the lifestyle he would like to provide for his family, such as a membership at the local country club. Despondent he decides to try one last "race," with tragic results.

Saturday, December 24 - The Return of Sherlock Holmes

The Return of Sherlock Holmes TV Movie (1987)

Boston private eye Jane Watson (Margaret Colin) works with her great-grandfather's partner (Michael Pennington), unfrozen after 51 years.

Friday, December 23 - A Girl in a Million

A Girl in a Million (1946)

After divorcing his nagging wife, researcher Tony (Hugh Williams) takes charge of a government project in a remote setting, with only two assistants, Prendergast (Basil Radford) and Fotheringham (Naunton Wayne), and a butler (Wylie Watson). The men's solitude is disrupted by the arrival of Gay Sultzman (Joan Greenwood), a young woman traumatized into muteness when her evacuee ship was torpedoed. Initially annoyed with her presence, the men soon find themselves mesmerized by Gay's silence.

Thursday, December 22 - Shadow of Fear

Shadow of Fear Original title: Before I Wake (1955)

Returning home to England from the United States following news of her father's sudden death in a boating accident, April Haddon meets her stepmother Florence for the first time. The former nurse of her mother, she had married April's father after her death. April finds that in the few years she has been away her stepmother has completely changed the house, the old furnishings replaced with modernist art and the old family housekeepers replaced by a maid with loyalty to her new mistress.

When her father's will is read, it becomes clear that the redrawn will Florence had been expecting had never been completed and the old will still stands, leaving most of his inheritance to April in three weeks when she turns twenty one. Convinced that Florence intends to murder her first, April turns to an old friend the local doctor to help her.

Wednesday, December 21 - I Love Trouble

I Love Trouble (1948)

A wealthy politician, Ralph Johnston, has hired detective Stuart Bailey to investigate his missing wife's background. Bailey discovers that the wife had been a dancer under her maiden name of Jane Breeger and had left her Oregon home town with Buster Buffin, a nightclub entertainer, who says Jane changed her name to Janie Joy and enrolled at UCLA. Buffin is killed before Bailey can question him further.

Norma Shannon shows up, looking for her sister Jane, but when Bailey shows her a photograph of the missing woman, Norma says it's not her. Bailey learns that the wife had used stolen papers from a girlfriend to enter college after she stole $40,000 from the club where she worked, owned by a man named Keller.

The detective eventually learns that Johnston had killed his wife when he had himself discovered her past, in order to avoid a scandal, and that he had hired the detective in order to frame him for the killing.

Tuesday, December 20 - Paid to Dance

Paid to Dance (1937)

Government undercover agents William Dennis (Don Terry) and Joan Bradley (Julie Bishop as Jacqueline Wells) are working to solve the disappearances of girls working as "taxi-dancers" from dance halls operated by Jack Miranda (Arthur Loft) and his henchman Nifty (Paul Fix). Dennis sets himself up as a theatrical booking agent, and shows his power by the opening and closing of Miranda's Paradise Club at will.

Monday, December 19 - Murder in Reverse

Murder in Reverse (1945)

William Hartnell plays a man suspected of murdering a love rival after being cuckolded by his wife. He goes to prison for 15 years but comes out convinced his 'victim' is still alive.

Sunday, December 18 - The Girl Said No

The Girl Said No (aka With Words and Music) (1937)

Jimmy, a bookie cum horse buying agent, meets a beautiful dance hall girl. After leading him on, and out of his money, she rejects him. Jimmy hatches a scheme to wreak revenge on her. He pretends to be a talent agent and that she is his new discovery. he promises to make her a stage star. He engages an out of work Gilbert & Sullivan troupe on a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado in order to convince the girl that he is for real. All goes well and his scheme works. The only problem is that the girl now loves him, as does the entire, previously down on their luck troupe of players.

Saturday, December 17 - Kiss Her Goodbye

Kiss Her Goodbye (1959)

An attractive young couple's car is broken down on the side of the road on a hot afternoon in rural Florida. The young man refuses help from the local police who stops to help but then asks a young farmer looking on nearby to take them into town. The farmer agrees to do this attracted by the girl.

Suffering from what is now known as arrested development, the girl has a six-year-old mind in a 19 year old body and that brings trouble from the men drooling over her in this Florida wasteland. Stritch is a young widow with a baby, perhaps too big-hearted for her own good, and even though she knows about Farrell's situation, hires her simply because of her feelings for Farrell's brother, Hill. Of course when Farrell becomes too close with one of the local young man, violence ensues because of her child like nature, bringing heartache for everybody.

Friday, December 16 - Date with Death

Date with Death (1959)

A homeless guy gets kicked off a freight train and finds a car containing the body of the local town's new chief of police. He pulls the body out and drives into town, assuming the role of the dead man. He is then assigned the task of ridding the town of big-time racketeers.

Thursday, December 15 - Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

Why Didn't They Ask Evans? TV Movie (1980)

Bobby Jones, the cheerful son of a vicar, discovers a dying man on the rocks at the foot of some cliffs. The man's final, enigmatic words prompt Bobby to play amateur sleuth and resolve the mystery of the stranger's death.

Wednesday, December 14 - The Driver's Seat

The Driver's Seat Original title: Identikit (1974)

Elizabeth Taylor, in one of her least-known performances, stars as a deranged, psychotic spinster looking for a man to whom she can give herself - completely. Set in Italy's romantic and tragedy-filled Rome, she embarks on a series of chilling adventures as she seeks to keep a date with a mystery lover - but when she finds him, she demands much more than love... She demands murder.

Tuesday, December 13 - Inside Out

Inside Out (1986)

Suffering from agoraphobia, New Yorker Jimmy Morgan (Elliott Gould) leads a life of near-solitude in his apartment, but he finds plenty of ways to get by without stepping foot onto the city streets below, including home deliveries, call girls and house calls. However, Morgan's regular visitors -- friend Jack (Howard Hesseman) and prostitute Amy (Jennifer Tilly) -- recognize his problem and push for his recovery. Morgan instead spirals into self-destructive behavior but soon must face his phobia.

Monday, December 12 - Theodora Goes Wild

Theodora Goes Wild (1936)

Theodora Lynn (Irene Dunne) is secretly the author of a salacious novel written under a pen name. She must hide her identity from the residents of her small, conservative Connecticut town, who disapprove of the book. When Theodora goes to New York to visit her publisher (Thurston Hall), she meets the book's cover artist, Michael Grant (Melvyn Douglas), who tries to convince her to reveal herself as the real author. When Theodora falls for Michael, she soon finds that he has secrets of his own.

Sunday, December 11 - The Hard Way

The Hard Way (1943)

Ambitious Helen Chernin (Ida Lupino) pushes her talented younger sister Katherine (Joan Leslie) into marriage with broken down song-and-dance man Albert Runkel (Jack Carson) so that the two women can leave the dirty steel town where they live. Runkel's partner Paul Collins (Dennis Morgan), however, sees through Helen's plan.

Helen continues driving her sister's career and eventually Katherine becomes a star on Broadway, while Runkel and Collins' act flounders. Success soon goes to Katherine's head and she becomes a fast-living party girl.

Time passes and Helen and Katherine run into Paul, now a successful band leader. He and Katherine soon fall in love. The two sisters eventually have a showdown on opening night of Katherine's latest show when Katherine discovers that Helen is also in love with Paul.

Saturday, December 10 - Villain

Villain (1971)

Of East London, Vic Dakin dotes on his aged and largely bedridden mother. He is also the leader of a criminal gang whose proceeds are largely from the regular collection of "protection money" from their victims. Vic often uses brutal violence against enemies as well as "friends" to prove a point, the violence in and of itself which he seems to relish.

While not a regular means to money, Vic decides that his gang will work on a tip to rob a factory payroll, which, somewhat against his wants, will entail working with fellow criminal Frank Fletcher, who understands such a job better than Vic or anyone on his team.

Making the job more complex at this time are: the police being after Vic for the vicious attack on one of Vic's associates who acted as a police snitch; and Vic's association with Wolfie Lissner, who procures sexual services for a number of people, including some fairly high profile ones, and who often acts as Vic's "on demand" sexual partner.

Friday, December 9 - Who Killed Teddy Bear

Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965)

Sal Mineo, wearing tight pants, a tight shirt and a tight jacket, is a busboy obsessed with record spinner Juliet Prowse. He makes dirty phone calls to her and follows her around NYC. Prowse suspects cop Jan Murray of being the perp and her lesbian boss Elaine Stritch thinks she's just plain crazy.

Thursday, December 8 - Horror of Dracula

Horror of Dracula Original title: Dracula (1958)

On a search for his missing friend Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen), vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) is led to Count Dracula's (Christopher Lee) castle. Upon arriving, Van Helsing finds an undead Harker in Dracula's crypt and discovers that the count's next target is Harker's ailing fiancée, Lucy Holmwood (Carol Marsh). With the help of her brother, Arthur (Michael Gough), Van Helsing struggles to protect Lucy and put an end to Count Dracula's parasitic reign of terror.

Wednesday, December 7 - Crosstrap

Crosstrap (1962)

Geoff and his wife have rented an isolated countryside bungalow to enable Geoff to finish his latest book without any distractions. Upon their arrival, they see a dead man in the bathtub and before they can report the discovery they are confronted by a gangland boss, and his henchmen who have been using the empty property as a hide-out.

Meanwhile another gang is trying to horn in on the action. Mayhem results.

Tuesday, December 6 - Let No Man Write My Epitaph

Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960)

In this sequel to "Knock On Any Door", the residents of a Chicago tenement building band together to insure that the son of Nick Romano does not follow in his father's footsteps...to the electric chair.

Monday, December 5 - Johnny Staccato: Solomon & Space Is the Place

Johnny Staccato: Solomon (Season 1 Episode 22 - aired Feb 11, 1960)

High-profile attorney Solomon Bradshaw is desperate for a defense of his wealthy client Jessica Winthrop who is charged with murdering her husband. Bradshaw is utterly convinced of her innocence, yet Mrs. Winthrop refuses to answer any questions in her own defense, maintaining that it would violate her self-avowed pacifist ideals. Bradshaw intends to hire private detective Johnny Staccato to commit perjury in court and provide an alibi for Mrs. Winthrop. Johnny agrees on the condition that he is given the opportunity to meet Mrs. Winthrop first. In her holding cell, Johnny interrogates her and many shocking revelations are exposed.

Space Is the Place (1974)

Sun Ra--space-age prophet, pharoanic jester, shaman-philosopher and avant-jazz keyboardist/bandleader--lands his spaceship in Oakland, having been presumed lost in space for a few years. With Black Power on the rise, Ra disembarks and proclaims himself "the alter-destiny." He holds a myth-vs.-reality rap session with black inner-city youth at a rec center, threatening "to chain you up and take you with me, like they did you in Africa," if they resist his plea to go to outer space. He duels at cards with The Overseer, a satanic overlord, with the fate of the black race at stake. Ra wins the right to a world concert, which features great performance footage of the Arkestra. Agents (white) sent by the Overseer attempt to assassinate Ra, but he vanishes, rescues his people, and departs in his spaceship from the exploding planet Earth.

Sunday, December 4 - The Fiction-Makers

The Fiction-Makers (1968)

Simon Templar is hired by a friend in the book publishing trade to protect one of his authors, a secretive recluse called Amos Klein who writes a popular series of spy novels.

When he arrives at Klein's house in the country, he hears a woman's screams and several gunshots. Rushing to the rescue, he finds a woman tied up and gripping a revolver behind her back. He discovers that she is "Amos Klein", a woman who adopted a male pen name to increase sales of her novels. She explains that she has to be able to do everything her character in the novels does and that she was just doing some research. The pair are soon kidnapped by a group of people who claim to be members of S.W.O.R.D., the evil organization from Amos Klein's novels. Their leader, "Warlock", the mastermind of the group, mistakenly assumes that Simon Templar is Amos Klein and that the woman is his secretary. The kidnappers want Amos Klein to plot a grandiose heist.

Saturday, December 3 - Thieves' Highway

Thieves' Highway (1949)

A war-veteran-turned-truck driver Nico "Nick" Garcos arrives at home to find that his foreign-born father, a California fruit farmer, has lost his legs and was forced to sell his truck. He learns that his father was crippled at the hands of an unscrupulous produce dealer in San Francisco, Mike Figlia. Garcos vows revenge.

Garcos goes into business with Ed Kinney, who bought the Garcos truck, and drives a truckload of apples to San Francisco, where he runs into Figlia when his truck is immobilized with a suspiciously cut tire, blocking Figlia's busy wholesale stand, and cannot be towed.

Figlia hires a streetwalker, Rica, to seduce and preoccupy Nick in her room while his men unload the apples without Nick's permission. Figlia later pays Nick for his fruit, but that night his goons waylay and rob Nick of the cash.

Meanwhile, Kinney is killed when his own truck mechanically fails, veers off the road, and burns after speeding out of control down a long hill. Polly, Nick's hometown sweetheart, then arrives in the city ready to marry him, but leaves disillusioned after she finds him recovering from his beating in Rica's apartment and with no money. Nick and a friend finally confront the cowed bully Figlia at a tavern, and have him arrested, restoring Nick's family honor. Nick and Rica happily drive off and plan to get married.

Friday, December 2 - Gumshoe

Gumshoe (1971)

Ginley (Albert Finney) is a nightclub bingo caller eager for a career change. On his thirty-first birthday, he advertises himself as a private eye in the newspaper. He dons a trench coat, and begins engaging others in rapid-fire dialogue as if he were Humphrey Bogart, or some Dashiell Hammett creation.

Soon after, Ginley is phoned by a fat man, who gives him a package containing a gun, a photograph, and a large sum of money. Eventually Ginley is investigating a case involving smuggling of weapons as well as drugs. Ginley also finds himself at odds with his unsupportive brother, who offers Ginley payment to break off his investigations.

Eventually Ginley learns of his brother-in-law's involvement in the crimes at hand. Ginley faces a series of daunting tasks: solving the crimes, bringing justice to the smugglers (and a murderer), as well as maintaining his safety and sanity in the process.

Thursday, December 1 - Diary of a High School Bride

The Diary of a High School Bride (1959)

A 17-year-old high-school senior must justify her wedding to a 24-year-old law student to both her parents and her unbalanced ex-boyfriend.

Wednesday, November 30 - Robbery

Robbery (1967)

Based on the infamous "Great Train Robbery," this film follows Paul Clifton (Stanley Baker) as he forms a team to carry out an ambitious heist of cash from a government mail train traveling from Scotland to London. Clifton feels it necessary to add incarcerated money expert Robinson (Frank Finlay) to the group, so he organizes a jailbreak to free him as well. Although the theft succeeds, the criminals are still hounded by Scotland Yard detective Langdon (James Booth).