Monday, February 27 - Account Rendered

Account Rendered (1957)

When wealthy Lucille Ainsworth is found strangled on Hampstead Heath, Detective Inspector Marshall is put on the case. Lucille's husband Robert suspected her of being unfaithful, and had been following her. But he is just one of many suspects with a motive for murder.

Sunday, February 26 - Dick Tracy Episodes - 5 & 6

Episode 5: Brother Against Brother

Tracy and Junior parachute to safety from their crashing plane, after which Tracy plants the false Mogra necklace for the Spiders men to pick up. He follows them to their Beachwood hotel hideout and infiltrates the building. After he is captured by Gordon (whom he does not recognize), a fight breaks out and Tracy makes a break for it with the real necklace, crawling around on the roof before Gordon shoots and Dick plummets over the edge.

Episode 6: Dangerous Waters

Escaping the shootout from Beachwood, a clue leads Dick to a scientist named Randolph who has created a valuable formula for Nickolanium. The Spider's men steal the formula and Tracy's team follows a footprint clue to the new hideout on the waterfront and get into a large fist fight. Gordon tries to sell the formula to a foreign agent who has arrived via submarine, but Tracy breaks up the purchase and the agent's submarine submerges to escape. Tracy's foot is caught on a rope and he's pulled under water.

Saturday, February 25 - The Great Bookie Robbery: Episode 2

The Great Bookie Robbery TV Mini Series (1986) (Episode 2 - aired Nov 15, 1986)

Part 2 of the story of the armed robbery of 50 bookmakers in Melbourne in 1976, organised by a group of thieves, one of them on a 7 day leave from Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight. The robbery netted $1.7 million and no one has yet been charged with the crime.

Friday, February 24 - Rock, Pretty Baby!

Rock, Pretty Baby! (1956)

Young musician Jimmy Daley (Saxon) needs to come up with $300 to purchase the electric guitar he wants. He pawns his law books (I thought they were medical books), to the disappointment of his father (Platt), a doctor whose goal is for Jimmy to become a lawyer (huh? doctor, I thought).

Jimmy's jealous nature results in a ruckus at a party and $150 in damage to a neighbor, which Dr. Daley insists his son pay. His girlfriend Joan Wright (Patten) learns that a battle of the bands has a cash prize. Jimmy and his group end up losing the contest, but he earns the respect of his dad.

Thursday, February 23 - Kill or Be Killed

Kill or Be Killed (1950)

Engineer Robert Warren (Lawrence Tierney) on assignment in Brazil, is set up for a murder when he discovers a client dead in his office and he is discovered standing over the body. After giving chase to the real killer and trying to elude the police until he can prove his innocence, Warren ends up hiding on a steam boat heading into the Amazon. Along the way he becomes involved with an unhappily married woman, her husband and his business partner (Marissa O'Brien, Rudolph Anders, George Coulouris) while trying to sort out the details of the crime.

Wednesday, February 22 - Wise Girl

Wise Girl (1937)

A socialite (Miriam Hopkins) goes bohemian to save her sister's children from their starving-artist father (uncle, actually) (Ray Milland) in Greenwich Village.

Tuesday, February 21 - Super-Sleuth

Super-Sleuth (1937)

Self-absorbed actor Bill Martin (Jack Oakie) plays detectives on-screen so often that he has fooled himself into believing he can fill the same role in real life. When a series of celebrity murders perplexes the police, Bill announces that he can easily solve the crimes. As the clueless sleuth investigates, he draws the ire of the case's real detectives as well as the consternation of his long-suffering publicist, Mary Strand (Ann Sothern), and the unwanted attentions of the actual killer.

Monday, February 20 - The Great Bookie Robbery: Episode 1

The Great Bookie Robbery TV Mini Series (1986) (Episode 1 - aired Nov 15, 1986)

Story of the armed robbery of 50 bookmakers in Melbourne in 1976, organised by a group of thieves, one of them on a 7 day leave from Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight. The robbery netted $1.7 million and no one has yet been charged with the crime.

Sunday, February 19 - Strait-Jacket

Strait-Jacket (1964)

Though still mentally shaky, convicted axe-murderess Lucy Harbin (Joan Crawford) is released from the asylum where she was sent 20 years ago for slaying her unfaithful husband. Lucy goes to stay at her brother's farm and reconnect with her grown daughter, Carol (Diane Baker), who saw her mother chop her father to pieces as a tot. Carol helps Lucy regain her old glamorous look -- but suspects that history might be repeating itself when anyone who angers her mother turns up hacked to death.

Saturday, February 18 - Too Many Husbands

Too Many Husbands (1940)

It's been a year since Bill Cardew was declared dead by drowning, and his widow Vicky is now married to his old friend and business partner, Henry Lowndes. When Bill unexpectedly returns from the island where he was marooned, what is Vicky to do? Well, having twice been a rather neglected wife, Vicky finds all the attention from two husbands competing for her favors delightful, and is in no hurry to make a decision...much to the discomfiture of hapless Bill and Henry.

Friday, February 17 - Women Without Men

Women Without Men (1956)

The story opens with Angie, the Beverly Michaels character in jail explaining via narration and a flashback how she arrived there. She is serving seven months for an assault on her agent who tried to rape her. She has a date to meet her fiancé at a hotel on New Years Eve but will be in jail. Life in the prison and the various characters take up most of the show until Angie gets to put on a Xmas entertainment for the other inmates. She teams up with the ever reliable Thora Hird to break out. She gets to the rendezvous hotel and finds it out of business, but will the fiancé turn up?

I don't  know, on account I fell asleep.

(For U.S. release the film was retitled Blonde Bait and substantially re-edited, with new scenes filmed by the American distributors)

Thursday, February 16 - She Married Her Boss

She Married Her Boss (1935)

After six years of unrequited love for her boss, Richard Barclay (Melvyn Douglas), executive secretary Julia Scott (Claudette Colbert) refuses a job in Paris, yet declares her plans to move to France to find a husband. Fearful of losing Julia's talents, Richard marries her and demands she sort out his messy home life with his young daughter and overbearing sister. When she realizes Richard only wants a business partner, Julia agrees to reorganize a rival's store to gain Richard's attention.

Wednesday, February 15 - Sing Boy Sing

Sing Boy Sing (1958)

Virgil Walker, raised in the South by his Revivalist- preaching grandfather and aunt, is taken in tow by an unscrupulous manager who builds him into a guitar-swinging, rock 'n' roll teenage idol. He scores a tremendous success at New York's Roxy Theatre, to the squealing delight of his thousands of fans, and goes on to make many hit recordings and eventually lands a Hollywood picture contract. Despite his fame and fortune, however, Virgil is lonesome, and "hires" a teenage companion, C. K. Judd, a swingin', hep character who hangs by Virgil's coat tails of success wherever they go. When Virgil's grandfather is stricken by a heart attack, Sharkey, the manager, and Fisher, his press agent, keep the news from him for fear the boy will return to a life of preaching, a long-standing aim of the boy's grandfather. But Virgil discovers the truth and returns to the South.

Tuesday, February 14 - Marry Me

Marry Me (1949)

Several individuals consult a marriage bureau, including a peer of the realm, his butler, a lonely school teacher, a French girl on the run, a country vicar and a newspaper reporter sent by his editor to do an undercover story.

Monday, February 13 - Dancers in the Dark

Dancers in the Dark (1932)

Jack Oakie is a band leader at a dance hall who is worried that his best friend (William Collier), the band's saxophonist, is getting in over his head with taxi dancer Miriam Hopkins. Oakie arranges for Collier to get hired by another band in order to get him out of town for a month, hoping this will cool down the affair. In the ensuing month, gangster George Raft shows up with designs on Hopkins and Oakie himself starts falling for the dame. There's music, and a shoot-out at the end.

Sunday, February 12 - Miss Robin Hood

Miss Robin Hood (1952)

Richard Hearne plays Wrigley, the writer of an adventure story for girls, called Miss Robin Hood. Miss Robin Hood is a young woman who, aided by schoolgirls, sets out to right wrongs and fight the money grubbing bad guys of the world.

Wrigley is living a sort of mundane existence where he receives little credit from his newspaper bosses and he thinks little of his own creation. He is totally unaware that a group of children and one elderly fan, Miss Honey (Margaret Rutherford), use his stories as a model to live life by. One day, Miss Honey introduces herself and Wrigley is transformed into living for the same ideals as Miss Honey and his own creation, Miss Robin Hood.

Miss Honey and Wrigley team up to snatch an old recipe from a whiskey manufacturer. A recipe that was swiped from Miss Honey's family years before.

Saturday, February 11 - Libido

Libido (1965)

In a cliffside mansion, a young boy named Christian witnesses his sex maniac father murder his mistress in a room lined with mirrors. The father then kills himself by jumping off the cliff. Years later, the now adult Christian returns to inherit the family home with his fiancee Helene, his attorney Paul and Paul's wife Brigitte. Christian fears that his father may still be alive, and that he may inherit his father's insanity along with his house. The room of mirrors continues to haunt Christian in adulthood, reflecting and amplifying his own sexual obsessions. Strange events occur that lead Christian to believe his father may still be actually living in the house.

Friday, February 10 - The Heatwave Lasted Four Days

The Heatwave Lasted Four Days (1975)

A TV newsman (Gordon Pinsent) gets involved with a narcotics dealer sought by killers and police.

Thursday, February 9 - Wiretapper

Wiretapper (1955)

Jim Vaus returns from the war (he spent much of the war in prison) and marries Alice. He struggles to make a living. He was hired by Charles Rumsden to fix a doorbell, and realizes that his client is a mob boss. Alice discovers the source of Jim's income and their relationship was expired and strained to the breaking point. She forces Jim to attend a Billy Graham's Los Angeles Crusade, in her attempt to save their marriage and Jim's soul.

Wednesday, February 8 - Breakaway

Breakaway (1956)

The BREAKAWAY plot is a bit of a mishmash about a chase to find a secret formula which prevents metal fatigue. There's a dying inventor, a kidnapping, a rescue, and in the middle of it all is the suave, calm Duke Martin (Conway), who seems unruffled even when bad guys are holding a gun on him.

Tuesday, February 7 - The Blue Gardenia

The Blue Gardenia (1953)

In Los Angeles, on the day of her birthday, the telephone operator Norah Larkin decides to celebrate dining alone at home, with the picture of her beloved fiancé, a soldier overseas, and reading his last letter to her. In the letter, he tells her that he met an Army nurse stationed in Japan and plans to marry her.

Norah, completely upset, accepts a blind date with the Don Juan and photographer of calendar girls, Harry Prebble. They go to the Blue Gardenia Club, and Norah drinks six strong cocktails, Polynesian Pearl Divers, and gets very, very drunk. Harry takes her to his apartment and tries to force Norah to have sex, and she grabs a fireplace poker to fend off Harry.

On the next morning, she wakes up in her apartment with her two roommates, but she cannot remember what happened. When she reads the newspaper, she finds that Harry is dead and the police have her handkerchief, her high heels, and her blue gardenia, and they are trying to locate the woman who killed the famous wolf Harry.

When she reads in the newspaper that the journalist Casey Mayo is offering his support, as well as his newspaper's, in exchange for an exclusive interview, Norah decides to call him.

Monday, February 6 - One Man

One Man (1977)

Jason Brady is a hot crusading Montreal TV reporter who learns of the biggest story of his career. A female social worker shows him the carnage happening to children due to the criminally negligent behaviour of a corporation concerning their handling of a deadly chemical called B.A.P. As he investigates, he finds that not only does he have to face the corporation's underhanded efforts to silence him, but also the turmoil with his own family as he gets so emotionally involved in the story and the social worker that he is alienating his wife. Eventually, events lead to a point that forces him to make sacrifices he could not anticipate.

Sunday, February 5 - The Big Broadcast of 1936

The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935)

Spud Miller hopes to save his struggling radio station by winning a broadcast competition, with the help of the Radio Eye, an invention that can display live events from anywhere in the world.

Saturday, February 4 - The Killing

The Killing (1956)

Career criminal Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) recruits a sharpshooter (Timothy Carey), a crooked police officer (Ted de Corsia), a bartender (Joe Sawyer) and a betting teller named George (Elisha Cook Jr.), among others, for one last job before he goes straight and marries his fiancee, Fay (Coleen Gray). But when George tells his restless wife, Sherry (Marie Windsor), about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.

Friday, February 3 - The Dark Mirror

The Dark Mirror (1946)

After a doctor is murdered, Lt. Stevenson (Thomas Mitchell) questions the man's girlfriend, Terry Collins (Olivia de Havilland). Sensing that she's keeping a secret, Stevenson confronts Terry in her home, where he meets her identical twin sister, Ruth (also de Havilland). Both women appear exactly alike, sometimes even posing as each other. However, when twin expert Dr. Elliott (Lew Ayres) analyzes the sisters, he finds that one twin is normal, while the other is psychotic...

Thursday, February 2 - Arsenic and Old Lace

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Writer and notorious marriage detractor Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) falls for girl-next-door Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane) before the movie starts, and they tie the knot on Halloween. When the newlyweds return to their respective family homes to deliver the news, Brewster finds a corpse hidden in a window seat. With his eccentric aunts (Josephine Hull, Jean Adair), disturbed uncle (John Alexander), and homicidal brother (Raymond Massey), he starts to realize that his family is even crazier than he thought.

Wednesday, February 1 - Dick Tracy - Episodes 3 & 4

Episode 3: The Fur Pirates

In the third chapter, surviving the plane crash and watching the Flying Wing escape, Tracy stumbles upon a second Spider plot involving fur smuggling on the arriving S.S. Morovania. An adventure in the harbor leads to a motorboat chase after Gordon (who Tracy does not yet recognize) in which Tracy's boat is crushed between two large ships.

Episode 4: Death Rides the Sky

Having survived near death in the harbour, Dick Tracy and Steve Lockwood fly a biplane to the Pacific Queen, a dirigible flying to America with the famous Mogra necklace on board. One of the Spider's agents has stolen the necklace and bails out with a parachute to escape capture. Tracy uses a ruse that the necklace was a fake to get the Spider to make another theft attempt, but Junior ends up in the robot plane that is the bait!

Tuesday, January 31 - Dick Tracy - Episodes 1 & 2

Dick Tracy (1937)

Episode 1: The Spider Strikes

In the opening chapter we are introduced to the Lame One (the Spider) and Dick Tracy's team as he investigates one of the mastermind's murders. Dick's brother Gordon is captured and brainwashed by The Dr. Moloch and Gordon then attacks the new San Francisco Bay Bridge with a sonic weapon mounted on a flying wing aircraft. Tracy races to save the bridge and may be crushed by an eminent collapse.

Episode 2: The Bridge of Terror

In this second chapter, Tracy tracks the Flying Wing to a Steam Power Plant which he investigates with partner Steve. During a chase and shootout through the plant, Tracy destroys the sonic weapon before he and Steve escape on a Biplane. Gunfire from below cripples the plane, which crashes into a railroad bridge and tumbles to the ground on fire.