Sunday, Nov. 13 - Jack the Ripper: Episode 1

Jack the Ripper TV Series (1988– ) Episode 1 (aired 11 October 1988)

In 1888, a reign of murderous terror struck East London. To this day, the case is unsolved. And the killer is known only by his infamous nickname: Jack the Ripper. But the truth may at last have been found.

Based on breakthrough research at the time it was first broadcast in 1988, this gripping “what if” television miniseries suggests who wielded the surgically sharp blade of death – and why his identity has been concealed.

Saturday, Nov. 12 - It's a Dog's Life

It's a Dog's Life (1955)

In the early 1900s, a bull terrier living on the streets of the Bowery rises from a street-tough engaging in dogfights to pedigreed show dog among the upper crust. All the while, he has two ambitions--to be reunited with his mother and to get even with his father who deserted her.

Friday, Nov. 11 - Swing Hostess

Swing Hostess (1944)

Judy Alvin (Martha Tilton) wants to be a singer. All she needs is a break. She has a room at Mrs. Blodgett's Theatrical Boarding House where her friend, Marge O'Day (Iris Adrian) also lives. Also around are a magician, acrobats, specialty acts and a chicken named Mary...the usual crowd at a boarding house. There's also Phoebe Forbes, with a southern accent as shaky as her high notes. She's determined to be a singer, too. Well, demonstration records are made, auditions are taken, Phoebe's singing is mistaken for Judy's, Benny Jackson (as in Benny Goodman, get it?), an orchestra leader about to open a new show, gets confused, his double-talk speaking side-kick doesn't help. After approximately 65 minutes, things start to sort themselves out. There is a happy ending onstage for Judy and Benny, and Phoebe winds up in the magicians box for sawing in two.

Thursday, Nov. 10 - Red-Headed Woman

Red-Headed Woman (1932)

A gold digger (Jean Harlow) breaks up her boss's (Chester Morris) marriage and sins her way to financial success.

Wednesday, Nov. 9 - Too Many Cooks

Too Many Cooks (1931)

Busybody relatives jinx an engaged couple (Bert Wheeler, Dorothy Lee) who are building their dream house.

Tuesday, Nov. 8 - Congo Maisie

Congo Maisie (1940)

Maisie Ravier, a fast-talking showgirl with a heart of gold, is stranded in an African village when she slips out of her hotel window to beat her bill, and stows away on a Congo riverboat in hopes of reaching another town where a job awaits her. On board, she meets the boat's only other passenger, Dr. Michael Shane, a doctor-turned-rubber planter, and the ship's captain Finch, who offers her the dubious privilege of sharing his cabin. When the boat blows a boiler, Maisie and Shane find refuge at a rubber company's medical station manned by Dr. John McWade, the doctor who succeeded Shane, and McWade's wife Kay. At the station, Shane denounces his former bosses at the rubber company for their indifference to the health of the natives, and he urges McWade to leave the shelter of his laboratory and make contact with the natives. Kay, who is lonely and homesick, is on the verge of succumbing to Shane's charms when Maisie intervenes to save the McWades' marriage. After John falls gravely ill, Maisie intercedes once again to save his life by persuading Shane to perform an emergency appendectomy. Soon afterward, all their lives are threatened when the witch doctors incite the natives to rebel. The fast-thinking Maisie quells the uprising by donning her sequined dress and performing a series of magic tricks, which are highlighted by a rain storm that proves her "power" to the natives. Having fallen in love with Maisie, Shane then agrees to take over the medical station with her at his side. Thus McWade and Kay are free to return to America to begin life anew.

Monday, Nov. 7 - The Crash

The Crash (1932)

During the late 1920s, attractive Linda Gault flirts with important men to get stock market tips for her financier husband Geoffrey. In spite of the fact that Linda has just broken off her affair with banker John Fair, Geoffrey asks her to question him once more that evening at dinner. Reluctantly, she does, but Fair is suspicious and refuses to answer. To cover her failure, Linda lies to Geoffrey and pretends that Fair told her the market was going up. When the market crashes, Geoffrey loses his money. Because she is afraid to live in poverty as she did when she was a child, Linda runs away to Bermuda with a letter of credit. While waiting for Geoffrey to recover his wealth, she meets Ronnie Sanderson, an Australian sheep rancher. He falls in love with her and begs her to return to New York, get a divorce and marry him. At first she hesitates, thinking Australia will be dull, but when she learns that Geoffrey has lost everything, she agrees. Linda discovers that her maid, Celeste, has stolen her pearl necklace and sold it to cover her boyfriend's losses on the market. Now Linda has no money either, so she takes a job selling gowns in order to earn money for her divorce. Ronnie follows her from Bermuda and offers to pay all her expenses himself if she will leave with him that evening. She agrees, but on the way to the boat, stops to say goodbye to Geoffrey. When she realizes that he really loves her and that he needs her, she decides to stay with him.

Sunday, Nov. 6 - Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)

New York sophisticates David Smith and Ann Smith née Krausheimer have been lovingly and passionately married for three years, or so they believed. They are told individually that due to a technicality - an unresolved municipal and state jurisdictional issue at the time of their supposed marriage - their wedding was not legal, and as such they are not really married. Despite David saying earlier in the day that if he had to do his life all over again that he would not have married her (even though he loves her), it is Ann that decides not to marry David this second time around due to an action, or in reality inaction, by David in reaction ("an action or inaction in reaction" Gotta remember that one!) to the news of their marriage being invalid. While Ann goes about her life as a supposedly single woman (which includes calling herself Ann Krausheimer), David does whatever he can to win Ann back. But winning Ann's hand may be difficult as part of Ann's new life is dating other men. One of those other men and the most serious is David's best friend and business partner, Jefferson Custer. Ann and Jeff's relationship quickly gets to the point where Jeff introduces her to his visiting parents, with whom Ann and Jeff are going on a skiing vacation to Lake Placid. David hopes to exploit that vacation in order to win Ann back.

Saturday, Nov. 5 - Strange Illusion & The Ladykillers

Strange Illusion (1945) 

Paul, a young man whose father was once lieutenant Governor of California before his untimely death, has a strange, recurring dream in which his mother falls in love with a dangerous man (Brett Curtis), a dream which also contains the image of his father's death in an automobile accident under mysterious circumstances. Through the help of his friend, a psychiatrist, Paul realizes that his dream is coming true, and that his mother is falling under Curtis's influence. Curtis, in fact, is a homicidal maniac who lives as an out-patient at the sanitarium of the unscrupulous Dr. Muhlbach. When Curtis makes an attempt to marry Paul's mother, Paul intervenes, and after a series of events discovers the truth behind his dreams.

The Ladykillers (1955)

Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) likes to report suspicious behavior to the police. Unaware of her reputation, the dapper thief Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness) rents rooms in the elderly widow's home for himself and his band of cohorts. Posing as a string quintet, the thieves pull off a bank robbery, but slip up in front of the old woman as they try to escape. Agreed that they need to murder her, the bumbling crooks wind up double-crossing each other and slowly killing themselves off.

Friday, Nov. 4 - Lovejoy: Breaking the Broker

Lovejoy (1986–1994): Breaking the Broker (Season 6 Episode 7 - aired 13 November 1994)

D.S. Arnie Pulver, an old Lovejoy nemesis, has become frustrated by his inability to obtain a case against a "likeable" Polish sea captain who has been smuggling art treasures from the churches of Poland. Pulver feels he needs an antiques expert, so he has Tinker framed on charges of pornography (then drugs) when he lectures a woman's club or erotic art in order to coerce both Lovejoy and Tinker into helping him run a sting on the captain and his British buyer, an upscale pawnbroker.

Thursday, Nov. 3 - Baby Face

Baby Face (1933)

This film follows the sexual escapades of Lily Powers (Barbara Stanwyck), the beautiful daughter of a speakeasy owner. Lily's dreary life in Pennsylvania takes a sudden turn when her father is killed in an accident. Unmoved by her father's death, Lily, along with friend Chico (Theresa Harris), jumps on a freight train and seduces a worker to avoid being arrested. Now in New York City, Lily uses her beauty and sexual prowess to seduce a string of successful men as she works her way to the top.

Wednesday, Nov. 2 - Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood

Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood (2008)

Various film historians, film makers, and cultural commentators (including, I'm sorry to say, Camille Paglia) discuss the cultural, political, economic and religious reasons for what is known as the pre-code era of Hollywood movie making in the early 1930s, and those same factors which resulted in the drastic turn to working under the "code" for the twenty or so years starting in 1934.