Movies/TV Shows

Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for December 2013

November 30, 2013

I have found these mystery movies from TCM’s Now Playing for December 2013. (TCM stands for the Turner Classic Movie channel.) There are less mystery movies being shown this month because of TCM’s great holiday line-up of movies.

I’m listing the movies in Central time zone. If you know of any other mystery movies that are going to be aired on television during December 2013, please post a comment.

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Monday – December 2, 2013

7:30 AM
THE AMAZING DR. CLITTERHOUSE (1938)
A doctor plots crimes so he can study criminal psychology.
Dir: Anatole Litvak Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor, Humphrey Bogart.
BW-87 mins, TV-PG, CC

9:00 AM
TORCHY RUNS FOR MAYOR (1939)
After digging up the dirt on local politicians, a newswoman decides to run for office.
Dir: Ray McCarey Cast: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Tom Kennedy.
BW-60 mins, TV-G, CC

10:15 AM
HAVING WONDERFUL CRIME (1945)
Three amateur detectives try to find a missing magician.
Dir: Eddie Sutherland Cast: Pat O’Brien, George Murphy, Carole Landis.
BW-70 mins, TV-PG

11:30 AM
THE BIG STEAL (1949)
Seduction and murder follow the theft of an Army payroll.
Dir: Don Siegel Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, William Bendix.
BW-71 mins, TV-PG, CC

3:15 PM
STOP, YOU’RE KILLING ME (1952)
The surprise appearance of four corpses interferes with a beer baron’s plans to crash high society.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth Cast: Broderick Crawford, Claire Trevor, Virginia Gibson.
BW-86 mins, TV-G

4:45 PM
DEATH OF A SCOUNDREL (1956)
A Czech refugee uses women to advance his business interest.
Dir: Charles Martin Cast: George Sanders, Yvonne De Carlo, Zsa Zsa Gabor.
BW-120 mins, TV-PG

***** ***** ***** *****

Tuesday – December 3, 2013

11:00 PM
THE BIG HEAT (1953)
A police detective whose wife was killed by the mob teams with a scarred gangster’s moll to bring down a powerful gangster.
Dir: Fritz Lang Cast: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando.
BW-90 mins, TV-14, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Thursday – December 5, 2013

8:00 AM
ANGEL FACE (1953)
An unscrupulous woman murders her loved ones for profit.
Dir: Otto Preminger Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Mona Freeman.
BW-91 mins, TV-G, CC

11:45 AM
ANATOMY OF A MURDER (1959)
A small-town lawyer gets the case of a lifetime when a military man avenges an attack on his wife.
Dir: Otto Preminger Cast: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara.
BW-161 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

5:00 PM
BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING (1965)
A distraught mother searches for her seemingly non-existent daughter, bringing her sanity into question.
Dir: Otto Preminger Cast: Keir Dullea, Carol Lynley, Lucie Mannheim.
BW-107 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

11:00 PM
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967)
A black police detective from the North forces a bigoted Southern sheriff to accept his help with a murder investigation.
Dir: Norman Jewison Cast: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates.
C-110 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

***** ***** ***** *****

Friday – December 6, 2013

7:45 AM
BLACKMAIL (1929)
A shopkeeper’s daughter fights off blackmail after she kills a young artist who had tried to rape her.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Anny Ondra, Sara Allgood, Charles Paton.
BW-86 mins, TV-PG

***** ***** ***** *****

Monday – December 9, 2013

5:15 PM
13 GHOSTS (1960)
A family inherits a house haunted by 13 ghosts and a living killer.
Dir: William Castle Cast: Charles Herbert, Jo Morrow, Martin Milner.
BW-82 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

***** ***** ***** *****

Tuesday – December 10, 2013

2:15 AM
MEMORIES OF MURDER (2003)
A big-city detective helps two inept small-town cops investigate a serial killer.
Dir: Joon-ho Bong Cast: Kang-ho Song, Sang-kyung Kim, Roe-ha Kim.
C-131 mins, TV-MA, Letterbox Format

***** ***** ***** *****

Friday – December 13, 2013

10:00 AM
GRAND CENTRAL MURDER (1942)
A detective investigates an actress’s murder in a train car.
Dir: S. Sylvan Simon Cast: Van Heflin, Patricia Dane, Cecilia Parker.
BW-74 mins, TV-G, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – December 14, 2013

12:00 AM
CHINATOWN (1974)
A Los Angeles private eye unwittingly sets up an innocent man for murder, then joins his seductive widow to unearth the corruption behind the crime.
Dir: Roman Polanski Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, Perry Lopez.
C-130 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox Format

***** ***** ***** *****

Monday – December 16, 2013

8:30 AM
SCREEN DIRECTORS PLAYHOUSE: WHITE CORRIDORS (1956)
An American tourist fights to get the staff of a British hospital to believe she’s witnessed a murder.
Dir: Ted Post Cast: Linda Darnell, John Bentley, Scott Forbes.
BW-26 mins, TV-PG,

***** ***** ***** *****

Tuesday – December 17, 2013

8:45 PM
REMEMBER THE NIGHT (1940) *** This is a Christmas movie, not a mystery. I really like it. >>> It gets the two stars of Double Indemnity together in a different venue.
An assistant D.A. takes a shoplifter home with him for Christmas.
Dir: Mitchell Leisen Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi.
BW-94 mins, TV-G, CC,

***** ***** ***** *****

Friday – December 20, 2013

9:00 PM
THE BIG HEAT (1953)
A police detective whose wife was killed by the mob teams with a scarred gangster’s moll to bring down a powerful gangster.
Dir: Fritz Lang Cast: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando.
BW-90 mins, TV-14, CC

1:00 AM
THE STEPFORD WIVES (1975)
A recent arrival in suburbia suspects a sinister reason for the local women’s model behavior.
Dir: Bryan Forbes Cast: Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson.
C-115 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

***** ***** ***** *****

Sunday – December 22, 2013

1:00 PM
CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945) ***This is probably my very favorite Christmas movie. I watch it once every year. It is not a mystery.
A homemaking specialist who can’t boil water is forced to provide a family holiday for a war hero.
Dir: Peter Godfrey Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet.
BW-102 mins, TV-G, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Tuesday – December 24, 2013

*****Neither of today’s movies are mystery movies. However, they are really good Christmas movies with phenomenal casts.

10:15 AM
THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER (1941)
An acerbic critic wreaks havoc when a hip injury forces him to move in with a midwestern family.
Dir: William Keighley Cast: Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan, Monty Woolley.
BW-113 mins, TV-G, CC

7:00 PM
CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945)
A homemaking specialist who can’t boil water is forced to provide a family holiday for a war hero.
Dir: Peter Godfrey Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet.
BW-102 mins, TV-G, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Thursday – December 26, 2013

5:00 AM
THE NARROW MARGIN (1952)
A tough cop meets his match when he has to guard a gangster’s moll on a tense train ride.
Dir: Richard Fleischer Cast: Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White.
BW-72 mins, TV-PG, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Friday – December 27, 2013

8:45 PM
OUT OF THE PAST (1947)
A private eye becomes the dupe of a homicidal moll.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas.
BW-97 mins, TV-PG, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – December 28, 2013

7:00 PM
GASLIGHT (1944)
A newlywed fears she’s going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion.
Dir: George Cukor Cast: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten.
BW-114 mins, TV-PG, CC

9:00 PM
SUSPICION (1941)
A wealthy wallflower suspects her penniless playboy husband of murder.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Sir Cedric Hardwicke.
BW-100 mins, TV-PG, CC

11:00 PM
LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (1945)
A beautiful neurotic will stop at nothing to hold onto her husband’s love.
Dir: John M. Stahl Cast: Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain.
C-110 mins, TV-PG, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Monday – December 30, 2013

10:30 PM
THE CHEAP DETECTIVE (1978)
A private dick tackles two tough cases while trying to clear himself of a murder charge.
Dir: Robert Moore Cast: Peter Falk, Ann-Margret, Eileen Brennan.
C-92 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

***** ***** ***** *****

If you know of any other mystery movies that are going to be airing this month, feel free to post a comment.

(All of the above descriptions were copied from the TCM site. I hope they don’t change their line-up!)

If you would like to see more Television and Movies ideas, click on this link.

McBride Mystery Television Shows Marathon Airing This Sunday, November 17, 2013 (& Monday the 18th) on the Hallmark Movie Channel

November 14, 2013

Here is an addendum to the entry I just wrote yesterday. Colleen just commented that the Hallmark Movie channel will be showing the McBride mystery shows this coming Sunday, November 17 (and continuing on early Monday, November 18).

Here is the Hallmark Movie channel schedule in Central time zone.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

8:00 AM McBride: It’s Murder, Madam

10:00 AM McBride: Dogged

12:00 PM McBride: Fallen Idol

2:00 PM McBride: Anybody Here Murder Marty?

4:00 PM McBride: Murder Past Midnight

6:00 PM McBride: Requiem

8:00 PM McBride: Semper Fi

10:00 PM McBride: Tune In For Murder

Monday, November 18, 2013

1:00 AM McBride: The Chameleon Murder

3:00 AM McBride: The Doctor is Out… Really Out

Thanks, again, Colleen!

(As I mentioned in the previous entry, we DVR-ed all of the McBride mystery shows and then watched them later. I’m not sure if I’m totally correct on the following chronological list of the McBride movies, but this is the list my husband and I used – since we wanted to watch the shows in an orderly fashion)

The Chameleon Murder ’05

Murder Past Midnight ’05

It’s Murder, Madam ’05

The Doctor Is Out… Really Out ’05

Tune in for Murder ’05

Anybody Here Murder Marty? ’05

Fallen Idol ’06

Semper Fi ’07

Dogged ’07

Requiem ’08

McBride Television Series

November 13, 2013

In 2005, the Hallmark channel started showing a rotation of mystery television shows. McBride was one of those mystery shows. (The other two were Mystery Woman and Jane Doe.)

John Larroquette is the star of these ninety minute television movies, and it’s almost as if the part was written for him. He is so perfect in the “”Mac” McBride role.

Each television movies starts out with a scene that takes place in a courtroom. This is where we are generally introduced to some rather slick “lawyery” action. McBride either catches the accuser in a lie, or he shows a wrongfully accused person in an innocent light. We sometimes see an exacerbated prosecuting attorney in an unprepared state. Oh, did I mention McBride is a defense lawyer?

Mac does a lot of pro bono work. He tries to make sure that innocent people get competent representation in the courts.

The two supporting roles are very capably portrayed by Marta DuBois and Matt Lutz. Marta plays the homicide detective (Roberta) who prefers to lose a collar than jail an innocent man/woman. She and Mac worked together (and were romantically involved) when he was a police detective working his way through law school. They’re an on-again, off-again couple >>> more off than on. Roberta knows Mac enough to not take him too seriously, unless it’s when he insists his client is innocent.

Matt Lutz plays Mac’s young assistant, Phil. He’s sort of the opposite of Mac. If it were up to Mac, their office would have a stove-top on which to make coffee rather than a coffee machine and they would be using legal pads instead of a computer. Phil is also responsible for tracking down witnesses, uncovering helpful information, and working his magic with the pretty young women.

Oh, I don’t know how I forgot the fourth of the main characters >>> Jesse, an irresistible dog that Mac inherited. My one disappointment in the show is that Jesse stopped joining Mac on his trips out of the office in the later episodes.

McBride was created by Dean Hargrove, who, incidentally also created the much-loved Columbo series. One of the producers of McBride is Larry Levinson, who also produced Columbo, the Ellery Queen Mysteries television shows, and Murder, She Wrote. A pretty impressive pedigree!

While both my husband and I enjoy McBride a lot, my husband has told me (many times) that the continuous background music always reminds him of our many visits to the Baltimore Aquarium… sort of a “floating in water” type of music. As for me, it doesn’t.

PS >>> This series is not available on Amazon or Netflix. I put it on my DVR queue of titles I wanted to get, and that’s how we were able to get all of the shows. Hallmark shows them every once in a while. (But, you’ll have to check, since we got a lot of Martina McBride appearances, also.)

For more Cozy viewing ideas, click on my Cozy Mystery TV & Movies page.

Hallmark Channel & Lifetime Channel New Holiday Movies for 2013

October 30, 2013

I went over to the Hallmark channel‘s site to see if I could find a list of all of their new 2013 holiday movies. Sure enough, I did! They will be showing their original holiday movies during an allotted time they are calling their “Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas“, which will be at 7:00 (Central time zone) every Saturday and Sunday night.

I then went over to the Lifetime channel to see what they have in store for us. Lifetime is calling their holiday schedule “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” and it airs at 7:00 PM (Central) on Saturday nights.

(Yikes! Both Hallmark and Lifetime are airing their original holiday movies at 7:00 PM Central? OK, not to worry… We’re just going to have to do some choosing and then re-arranging to find out which holiday movie will air again the quickest.)

Just to make it a little easier for all of us, I’m going to list the premier dates of both Hallmark’s 2013 holiday movies and Lifetime’s 2013 holiday movies under the correct dates. (You’ll have to check to see when they will be re-airing the shows if you miss these showings. Or, if you’re lucky, let your DVR figure it out!)

Also, I’ll be adding my comments about some of the actors/actresses I recognize. This will definitely date me! (As Joe Friday might say: Just the dates, Ma’am.)

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SATURDAY – NOVEMBER 2, 2013

The Thanksgiving House (Hallmark channel)
Premieres Saturday, November 2 at 7:oo PM PM central

Both Bruce Boxleitner and (the bionic) Lindsay Wagner are in this.

***** ***** ***** *****

FRIDAY – NOVEMBER 8, 2013

Pete’s Christmas (Hallmark channel)
Premieres Friday, November 8 at 7:oo PM central

Where in the world did Bruce Dern go? Good to see him again.

***** ***** ***** *****

SATURDAY – NOVEMBER 9, 2013

Snow Bride (Hallmark channel)
Premieres Saturday, November 9 at 7:oo PM central

Oh, my goodness, Patricia Richardson!

A Country Christmas Story (Lifetime channel)
Premieres Saturday, November 9 at 7:oo PM central

I can’t wait to see Dolly Parton and Mary Kay Place in this!

***** ***** ***** *****

SUNDAY – NOVEMBER 10, 2013

A Very Merry Mix-Up (Hallmark channel)
Premieres Sunday, November 10 at 7:oo PM central

I remember Alicia Witt from when she was Cybil’s daughter, more than a few years ago.

***** ***** ***** *****

SATURDAY- NOVEMBER 16, 2013

The Christmas Ornament (Hallmark channel)
Premieres Saturday, November 16 at 7:oo PM central

It’s good to see Kellie Martin back on the Hallmark channel, and Jewel Staite safely back from Firefly.

Twelve Trees of Christmas (Lifetime channel)
Premieres Saturday, November 16 at 7:oo PM central

**** ***** ***** *****

SUNDAY – NOVEMBER 17, 2013

Catch a Christmas Star (Hallmark channel)
Premieres Sunday, November 17 at 7:oo PM central

***** ***** ***** *****

SATURDAY – NOVEMBER 23, 2013

Window Wonderland (Hallmark channel)
Premieres Saturday, November 23 at 7:oo PM central

It will be nice to see Naomi Judd again.

Kristin’s Christmas Past (Lifetime channel)
Premieres Saturday, November 23 at 7:oo PM central

Oh my gosh, Judd Nelson…

***** ***** ***** *****

SUNDAY – NOVEMBER 24, 2013

Fir Crazy (Hallmark channel)
Premieres Sunday, November 24 at 7:oo PM central

***** ***** ***** *****

SATURDAY – NOVEMBER 30, 2013

Let it Snow (Hallmark channel)
Premieres Saturday, November 30 at 7:oo PM central

A reunion for Alan Thicke and Candace Cameron-Bure…

Dear Secret Santa (Lifetime channel)
Premieres Saturday, November 30 at 7:oo PM central

It’s always a treat to see Della Reese.

***** ***** ***** *****

SUNDAY – DECEMBER 1, 2013

The Christmas Spirit (Hallmark channel)
Premieres Sunday, December 1 at 7:oo PM central

I wonder if Nicolette Sheridan or Olympia Dukakis is the “ruthless real estate developer”…

***** ***** ***** *****

SATURDAY – DECEMBER 7, 2013

Santa Switch (Hallmark channel)
Premieres Saturday, December 7 at 7:oo PM central

I’m happy to see Sean Astin is back from Mount Doom.

Christmas in the City (Lifetime channel)
Premieres Saturday, December 7 at 7:oo PM central

Saving Grace’s Ashley Williams and Mathnet’s Beverly Leech will be a delight to see.

***** ***** ***** *****

SATURDAY – DECEMBER 14, 2013

Hats off to Christmas (Hallmark channel)
Premieres Saturday, December 14 at 7:oo PM central

Christmas on the Bayou (Lifetime channel)
Premieres Saturday, December 14 at 7:oo PM central

Ed Asner, Markie Post, and Randy Travis…

A Snow Globe Christmas (Lifetime channel)
Premieres Saturday, December 14 at 9:oo PM central

Yes, the Lifetime channel is bringing us a double-feature tonight. It’s good to see Donald Faison, again. (Alicia Witt has been busy at both networks!)

***** ***** ***** *****