The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Oh, my! It’s already May! I’m getting this Turner Classic Mystery Movies list ready in mid April, and already we’ve had several days in the mid 80s. It’s going to be a hot summer for us down here in San Antonio!

I don’t usually do this, but I’m going to highlight three mystery movies that the Turner Classic channel will be showing during May 2024. Two of them are directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and one by Otto Preminger. Hitchcock’s are the 1940 Rebecca (based on the terrific novel by Daphne du Maurier) and the 1938 The Lady Vanishes (based on Ethel Lina White’s novel The Wheel Spins). I haven’t seen either of them in a few years, so I’m going to be sure to “tape” them this time when they are shown. Rebecca will be playing on Wednesday the 1st and The Lady Vanishes on Wednesday the 22nd. The third movie I want to highlight is the 1944 Laura, directed by Otto Preminger. It will be aired on Wednesday the 1st. I’ll be “taping” this one also since I haven’t seen it in years.

Also, I want to tell you about two Agatha Christie Miss Marple mystery movies Turner will be showing: the 1961 Murder She Said and the 1963 Murder at the Gallop. They are “very sixties movies” – don’t expect a quiet time with this Miss Marple! (They’ll be airing on Sunday, May 12.)

Three Falcon movies will be airing this month: The Falcon Takes Over, The Falcon’s Brother, and The Falcon in Danger. George Sanders started the Falcon mystery movies and then his brother (literally!) took over the role of the sleuth. The three movies will be aired on the first three Saturdays of the month.

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

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES CHANNEL MYSTERY MOVIES – May 2024

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

Wednesday – May 1, 2024

8:00 PM Laura (1944)
A hard-boiled detective falls hard for a murder victim. Every man who knew her fell in love with her, and now that she’s dead, the obsessed detective can’t get her out of his mind.
Dir: Otto Preminger. Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb
88 mins

9:45 PM Rebecca (1940)
A self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat’s wife and avoiding being intimidated by the memory of his first wife.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders
115 mins

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

Thursday – May 2, 2024

12:15 AM Marnie (1964)
A woman with a penchant for stealing money from the places she works as a receptionist marries one of her bosses who knows she’s guilty. He then proceeds to try to uncover the mysteries surrounding her past.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery, Diane Baker
130 mins

2:45 AM Agatha (1979)
Based on the actual 11-day disappearance of famed mystery writer Agatha Christie in 1926, the film fictionalizes her whereabouts during that time.
Dir: Michael Apted. Cast: Dustin Hoffmyu7an, Timothy Dalton, Timothy West
98 mins

6:30 AM The Angry Hills (1959)
A World War II correspondent fights to get strategic information out of occupied Greece.
Dir: Robert Aldrich. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Stanley Baker, Elisabeth Mueller
105 mins

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

Friday – May 3, 2024

10:45 AM Flamingo Road (1949)
A stranded carnival dancer takes on a corrupt political boss when she marries into small-town society.
Dir: Michael Curtiz. Cast: Joan Crawford, Zachary Scott, Sydney Greenstreet
94 mins

12:30 PM The Unholy Three (1930)
A ventriloquist, a strong man and a midget form a criminal alliance.
Dir: Jack Conway. Cast: Lon Chaney, Lila Lee, Elliott Nugent
72 mins

8:00 PM Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982)
A private eye hunts a Nazi for a svelte client and meets rough characters clipped from 1940s films.
Dir: Carl Reiner. Cast: Steve Martin, Rachel Ward, Carl Reiner
88 mins

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

Saturday – May 4, 2024

10:07 AM The Falcon Takes Over (1942)
A society sleuth and a lady reporter try to track down a murderous thug’s lost girlfriend.
Dir: Irving Reis. Cast: George Sanders, Lynn Bari, James Gleason
63 mins

3:45 PM The Liquidator (1966)
A killer-for-hire gets mixed up with a plot to assassinate England’s Prince Phillip.
Dir: Jack Cardiff. Cast: Rod Taylor, Trevor Howard, Jill St. John
104 mins

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

Sunday – May 5, 2024

12:15 AM Dark Passage (1947)
A man falsely accused of his wife’s murder escapes to search for the real killer.
Dir: Delmer Daves. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett
106 mins

10:00 AM Dark Passage (1947)
A man falsely accused of his wife’s murder escapes to search for the real killer.
Dir: Delmer Daves. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett
106 mins

10:15 PM White Heat (1949)
A government agent infiltrates a gang run by a mother-fixated psychotic.
Dir: Raoul Walsh. Cast: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O’Brien
114 mins

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

Tuesday – May 7, 2024

11:30 AM The Blue Gardenia (1953)
A telephone operator kills in self-defense but can’t remember the details of the encounter.
Dir: Fritz Lang. Cast: Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Ann Sothern
90 mins

4:15 PM Brother Orchid (1940)
After a failed hit, a mob chief recuperates in a monastery.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Ann Sothern, Humphrey Bogart
90 mins

8:00 PM North by Northwest (1959)
A suave, successful New York advertising executive finds himself, through a case of mistaken identity, embroiled in a web of intrigue and murder that takes him across the country to prove his innocence to the police.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason
136 mins

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

Saturday – May 11, 2024

10:08 AM The Falcon’s Brother (1942)
A gentlemanly detective calls on his brother to help him stop the Nazis from assassinating a key diplomat.
Dir: Stanley Logan. Cast: George Sanders, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph
63 mins

2:45 PM Point Blank (1967)
A professional thief seeks revenge on his unfaithful wife and a fellow mobster who double-crossed him.
Dir: John Boorman. Cast: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn
92 mins

4:30 PM Roadblock (1951)
An insurance agent’s greedy wife leads him to a life of crime.
Dir: Harold Daniels. Cast: Charles McGraw, Joan Dixon, Lowell Gilmore
73 mins

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

Sunday – May 12, 2024

12:45 AM Follow Me Quietly (1949)
Police track a mysterious killer nicknamed “The Judge.”
Dir: Richard O. Fleischer. Cast: William Lundigan, Dorothy Patrick, Jeff Corey
59 mins

2:15 AM Murder She Said (1961)
When nobody will believe she witnessed a murder, elderly sleuth Miss Marple takes a job as a maid to ferret out clues.
Dir: George Pollock. Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavlow
86 mins

4:00 AM Murder at the Gallop (1963)
Elderly sleuth Miss Marple suspects foul play when an old friend is supposedly scared to death by a cat.
Dir: George Pollock. Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Robert Morley, Flora Robson
81 mins

10:00 AM Follow Me Quietly (1949)
Police track a mysterious killer nicknamed “The Judge.”
Dir: Richard O. Fleischer. Cast: William Lundigan, Dorothy Patrick, Jeff Corey
59 mins

3:45 PM Mildred Pierce (1945)
A woman’s ambitions for her daughter drastically impact her life.
Dir: Michael Curtiz. Cast: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott
113 mins

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

Monday – May 13, 2024

12:45 PM Intruder in the Dust (1949)
Only a young boy and an old woman stand between an innocent black man and a lynch mob.
Dir: Clarence Brown. Cast: David Brian, Claude Jarman Jr., Juano Hernandez
89 mins

11:45 PM Daughter of the Dragon (1931)
A Chinese princess gets caught between the ruthless warlord Fu Manchu and a handsome secret agent.
Dir: Lloyd Corrigan. Cast: Anna May Wong, Warner Oland, Sessue Hayakawa
70 mins

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

Tuesday – May 14, 2024

1:00 AM Daughter of Shanghai (1938)
A young woman tracks down the smugglers who killed her father.
Dir: Robert Florey. Cast: Anna May Wong, Charles Bickford, Larry Crabbe
63 mins

6:00 AM Key Largo (1948)
A returning veteran tangles with a ruthless gangster during a hurricane.
Dir: John Huston. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall
101 mins

6:00 PM The Drowning Pool (1975)
Harper, the wisecracking private investigator, goes to New Orleans to help out an old flame, Iris Deveraux. After the murder of her mother- in-law, someone implicates Iris.
Dir: Stuart Rosenberg. Cast: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Tony Franciosa
106 mins

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

Thursday – May 16, 2024

7:15 AM Pitfall (1948)
A married insurance man falls for a criminal’s girlfriend.
Dir: Andre Detoth. Cast: Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt
84 mins

10:15 AM The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue.
Dir: John Huston. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George
100 mins

12:00 PM Lady in the Lake (1947)
Philip Marlowe searches for a missing woman in this mystery shot entirely from the detective’s viewpoint.
Dir: Robert Montgomery. Cast: Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan
103 mins

2:00 PM They Live by Night (1948)
After an unjust prison sentence, a young innocent gets mixed-up with hardened criminals and a violent escape.
Dir: Nicholas Ray. Cast: Cathy O’Donnell, Farley Granger, Howard Da Silva
95 mins

4:00 PM The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Years after a murder drove them apart, an heiress tries to win back her lost love.
Dir: Lewis Milestone. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott
116 mins

6:00 PM The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
A frustrated wife seduces a drifter into murdering her husband.
Dir: Tay Garnett. Cast: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway
111 mins

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

Friday – May 17, 2024

11:30 AM The Prize (1963)
An American Nobel Prize-winner gets mixed up with spies when he travels to Stockholm to collect his award.
Dir: Mark Robson. Cast: Paul Newman, Edward G. Robinson, Elke Sommer
136 mins

2:00 PM The Venetian Affair (1967)
A reporter investigates an American diplomat’s murder in Venice.
Dir: Jerry Thorpe. Cast: Robert Vaughn, Elke Sommer, Felicia Farr
92 mins

11:30 PM The Murder of Mary Phagan (1988)
The fact-based events surrounding the murder of a young woman at the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta in 1913. Originally shown as a TV mini-series.
Dir: William Hale. Cast: Richard Jordan, Peter Gallagher, William H. Macy, Jack Lemmon
251 mins

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

Saturday – May 18, 2024

10:07 AM The Falcon in Danger (1943)
A society sleuth tracks a lost plane carrying $100,000.
Dir: William Clemens. Cast: Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Elaine Shepard
73 mins

3:15 PM The FBI Story (1959)
A dedicated FBI agent thinks back on the agency’s battles against the Klan, organized crime and Communist spies.
Dir: Mervyn Leroy. Cast: James Stewart, Vera Miles, Murray Hamilton
149 mins

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

Sunday – May 19, 2024

12:00 AM Take Aim at the Police Van (1960)
A prison truck is assaulted and the two convicts inside are murdered. The prison guard on duty gets suspended for negligence and takes it upon himself to track down the killers.
Dir: Seijun Suzuki. Cast: Michitaro Mizushima, Mari Shiraki, Misako Watanabe
79 mins
*****In Japanese*****

10:00 AM Take Aim at the Police Van (1960)
A prison truck is assaulted and the two convicts inside are murdered. The prison guard on duty gets suspended for negligence and takes it upon himself to track down the killers.
Dir: Seijun Suzuki. Cast: Michitaro Mizushima, Mari Shiraki, Misako Watanabe
79 mins

3:45 PM Adam’s Rib (1949)
A happily-married, middle-aged husband and wife strain their marriage while serving as trial attorneys on opposite sides of the same headline-making attempted murder-marital case. He is the prosecutor, and she is the defender.
Dir: George Cukor. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday
101 mins

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

Tuesday – May 21, 2024

1:00 PM Mr. and Mrs. North (1941)
A happily married couple discover a murder victim in their closet.
Dir: Robert B. Sinclair. Cast: Gracie Allen, William Post Jr., Paul Kelly
67 mins

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

Wednesday – May 22, 2024

1:45 PM The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Miss Froy disappears on her return train trip from a vacation in the Balkans. However, Iris Henderson is the only person, on a train filled with suspicious and unsavory characters, who can attest that Miss Froy was ever on that trip.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas
97 mins

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

Friday – May 31, 2024

3:30 PM The Getaway (1972)
Steve McQueen stars as “Doc” McCoy – a convict who makes a deal to split his hidden loot with a corrupt politician in exchange for early release from prison–in this fast-paced tale of greed and betrayal. Once free, McCoy tries to uphold his part of the agreement, but he quickly learns there is no one he can trust.
Dir: Sam Peckinpah. Cast: Steve McQueen, Ali Macgraw, Ben Johnson
122 mins

5:45 PM Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
On one of the hottest days of August 1972, three amateur bank robbers plan to hold up a Brooklyn bank. A nice simple robbery: Walk in, take the money, and run. Unfortunately, the supposedly uncomplicated heist suddenly becomes a bizarre nightmare as everything that could go wrong does.
Dir: Sidney Lumet/ Cast: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Carol Kane
130 mins

8:00 PM The Public Enemy (1931)
An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime.
Dir: William A. Wellman. Cast: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods
74 mins

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

If you’re really looking forward to these or other mystery-themed TV specials coming up in May, be sure to leave a comment below!

In case you’re interested in seeing the rest of this month’s television mystery movies, here’s the April television mystery movies schedule:

Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for April 2024 on Turner Classic Movies channel

And here is the page on my site with plenty of entries about movies and television shows you may enjoy:

Cozy Mystery List TV and Movie Section – all you have to do is click on the link to go to that page on my site.