I’m adding four more new authors to the site. As usual, these are authors I’ve heard of from visitors to the site, either through comments or by email.
Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for August 2017
It’s the time of the month again to find out about next month’s upcoming mystery movies that will be on television. As usual, I’m posting the Turner Classic Movies channel mysteries (and some non-mystery movies with my favorite actors and actresses) that I think are definitely worth looking at.
For all you “Murder, She Wrote” fans – TCM will be showing Angela Lansbury movies all day on Saturday, August 19 – before her Jessica Fletcher days.
***** ***** ***** *****
August 2017 Turner Classic Movies Channel Mystery Movies (Central time zone):
Tuesday – August 1, 2017
8:30 AM
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950)
A gang of small time crooks plots an elaborate jewel heist.
Dir: John Huston Cast: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen.
BW- 112 mins, CC
9:00 PM
NIAGARA (1953)
Honeymooners get mixed up with an obsessive husband and his cheating wife.
Dir: Henry Hathaway Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters.
C- 89 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Wednesday – August 2, 2017
6:15 AM
BULLDOG DRUMMOND ESCAPES (1937)
Captain Drummond becomes a prisoner when he intents to protect a beautiful heiress of an espionage organization.
Dir: James Hogan Cast: Ray Milland, Sir Guy Standing, Heather Angel.
BW- 67 mins
7:00 PM
THE BIG CLOCK (1948)
A corrupt publisher tries to frame a career-driven editor for murder.
Dir: John Farrow Cast: Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O’Sullivan.
BW- 95 mins, CC
9:00 PM
DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954)
A straying husband frames his wife for the murder of the man he’d hired to kill her.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings.
C- 105 mins, CC
Thursday – August 3, 2017
3:00 AM
HOSTILE WITNESS ( 1969)
A lawyer out to avenge his daughter’s death becomes the suspect in a suspect’s murder.
Dir: Ray Milland Cast: Ray Milland , Sylvia Syms , Felix Aylmer .
C- 103 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
***** ***** ***** *****
Friday – August 4, 2017
5:00 AM
DEAD END (1937)
A killer returns to his childhood home to plot his escape from the law.
Dir: William Wyler Cast: Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, Humphrey Bogart.
BW- 92 mins, CC
6:45 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, CC
5:30 PM
JOHNNY ANGEL (1946)
A sailor sets out to solve his father’s murder.
Dir: Edwin L. Marin Cast: George Raft, Claire Trevor, Signe Hasso.
BW- 79 mins, CC
7:00 PM
BORN TO KILL (1947)
A murderer marries a young innocent then goes after her more experienced sister.
Dir: Robert Wise Cast: Claire Trevor, Lawrence Tierney, Walter Slezak.
BW- 92 mins, CC
9:00 PM
MURDER, MY SWEET (1944)
Detective Philip Marlowe’s search for a two-timing woman leads him to blackmail and murder.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk Cast: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley.
BW- 95 mins, CC
11:00 PM
CRACK-UP (1946)
An art critic risks his reputation and his life to track down a forgery racket.
Dir: Irving Reis Cast: Pat O’Brien, Claire Trevor, Herbert Marshall.
BW- 93 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Saturday – August 5, 2017
1:00 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.
BW- 100 mins, CC
3:00 AM
BORDERLINE (1950)
A policewoman goes undercover to infiltrate a drug smuggling ring.
Dir: William A. Seiter Cast: Fred MacMurray, Claire Trevor, Raymond Burr.
BW- 88 mins, CC
Sunday – August 6, 2017
6:30 AM
WHEN STRANGERS MARRY (1944)
After a whirlwind romance, a small-town girl suspects she¿s married a murderer.
Dir: William Castle Cast: Dean Jagger, Kim Hunter, Robert Mitchum.
BW- 67 mins
8:00 AM
CROSSFIRE (1947)
A crusading district attorney investigates the murder of a Jewish man.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk Cast: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan.
BW- 86 mins, CC
1:15 PM
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, CC
7:00 PM
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955)
A bogus preacher marries an outlaw’s widow in search of the man’s hidden loot.
Dir: Charles Laughton Cast: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish.
BW- 93 mins, CC
9:00 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, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Tuesday – August 8, 2017
1:00 AM
THE WOMAN IN WHITE (1948)
Classic mystery about the adventures of a young tutor sent to a ghostly country estate.
Dir: Peter Godfrey Cast: Alexis Smith, Eleanor Parker, Sydney Greenstreet.
BW- 109 mins, CC
9:45 AM
FAST AND FURIOUS (1939)
Married book-dealers Joel and Garda Sloane get mixed up with murder during a beauty pageant.
Dir: Busby Berkeley Cast: Franchot Tone, Ann Sothern, Ruth Hussey.
BW- 73 mins, CC
8:45 PM
THE UNGUARDED HOUR (1936)
A blackmailer tries to stop a woman from revealing evidence that could save a condemned man.
Dir: Sam Wood Cast: Loretta Young, Franchot Tone, Lewis Stone.
BW- 87 mins, CC
Thursday – August 10, 2017
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, CC, Letterbox Format
***** ***** ***** *****
Friday – August 11, 2017
11:30 AM
STAR OF MIDNIGHT (1935)
A New York lawyer tries to track down a kidnapped actress.
Dir: Stephen Roberts Cast: William Powell, Ginger Rogers, Paul Kelly.
BW- 90 mins, CC
9:00 PM
TOP HAT (1935)
A woman thinks the man who loves her is her best friend’s husband.
Dir: Mark Sandrich Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton.
BW- 100 mins, CC
***If you haven’t seen this non-mystery movie >>> be prepared to laugh.***
***** ***** ***** *****
Saturday – August 12, 2017
12:45 AM
TIGHT SPOT (1955)
A district attorney tries to get a hardboiled woman to testify against the mob.
Dir: Phil Karlson Cast: Ginger Rogers, Edward G. Robinson, Brian Keith.
BW- 96 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Sunday – August 13, 2017
9:30 AM
THE MAD MISS MANTON (1938)
A daffy socialite gets her friends mixed up in a murder investigation.
Dir: Leigh Jason Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Sam Levene.
BW- 80 mins, CC
11:00 AM
THE LADY EVE (1941)
A lady cardsharp tries to con an eccentric scientist only to fall for him.
Dir: Preston Sturges Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn.
BW- 94 mins, CC
***This is another very funny (non-mystery) movie.***
Monday – August 14, 2017
1:00 PM
AGATHA (1979)
A fictional account of the real life, eleven day, never explained 1926 disappearance of famed murder mystery writer Agatha Christie.
Dir: Michael Apted Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Vanessa Redgrave, Timothy Dalton.
C- 98 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
3:00 PM
THE SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION (1976)
Sherlock Holmes seeks psychiatric help from Sigmund Freud and gets caught up in mystery.
Dir: Herbert Ross Cast: Alan Arkin, Vanessa Redgrave, Robert Duvall.
C- 113 mins, CC
11:30 PM
BLOW-UP (1966)
A photographer discovers a murder in the background of a candid photo.
Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni Cast: Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, David Hemmings.
C- 111 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Tuesday – August 15, 2017
11:00 PM
MYSTERY STREET (1950)
Criminal pathologists try to crack a case with nothing but the victim’s bones to go on.
Dir: John Sturges Cast: Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett.
BW- 93 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Thursday – August 17, 2017
6:30 AM
TROUBLE FOR TWO (1936)
Before he can marry, a European prince gets mixed up with a suicide club.
Dir: J. Walter Ruben Cast: Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell, Frank Morgan.
BW- 74 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Saturday – August 19, 2017
1:00 PM
KIND LADY (1951)
A con artist and his criminal cohorts hold an old lady hostage in her own home.
Dir: John Sturges Cast: Ethel Barrymore, Maurice Evans, Angela Lansbury.
BW- 78 mins, CC
*** I love this mystery movie! Ethel Barrymore is terrific! ***
9:30 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, CC
Sunday – August 20, 2017
1:00 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- 99 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Monday – August 21, 2017
12:30 PM
THE WITNESS CHAIR (1936)
A woman lets her lover stand trial for the murder she committed.
Dir: George Nicholls Jr. Cast: Ann Harding, Walter Abel, Douglass Dumbrille.
BW- 64 mins, CC
3:30 PM
EYES IN THE NIGHT (1942)
Blind detective Duncan Maclain gets mixed up with enemy agents and murder when he tries to help an old friend with a rebellious stepdaughter.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann Cast: Edward Arnold, Ann Harding, Donna Reed.
BW- 80 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Tuesday – August 22, 2017
9:15 PM
THE VIOLENT MEN (1955)
The wife of a crooked cattle baron plots his murder.
Dir: Rudolph Maté Cast: Glenn Ford, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson.
C- 96 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
***** ***** ***** *****
Thursday – August 24, 2017
11:30 AM
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- 101 mins, CC
***This isn’t a mystery, but it’s a terrific Christmas movie.***
Saturday – August 26, 2017
7:45 AM
JIMMY THE GENT (1934)
An unscrupulous detective makes a killing locating missing heirs.
Dir: Michael Curtiz Cast: James Cagney, Bette Davis, Allen Jenkins.
BW- 68 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Wednesday – August 30, 2017
5:00 AM
CAIRO (1963)
Master thieves set their sights on King Tut’s jewels in this remake of The Asphalt Jungle.
Dir: Wolf Rilla Cast: George Sanders, Richard Johnson, Faten Hamama.
BW- 91 mins, CC
7:00 AM
BLUEBEARD’S TEN HONEYMOONS (1960)
A gold digger persuades her older lover to murder for her.
Dir: W. Lee Wilder Cast: George Sanders, Corinne Calvet, Jean Kent.
BW- 91 mins
10:30 AM
THE SAINT STRIKES BACK (1939)
The Saint helps a young beauty take vengeance on the mobsters who ruined her father.
Dir: John Farrow Cast: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Jerome Cowan.
BW- 64 mins, CC
11:45 AM
THE GAY FALCON (1942)
A society sleuth tries to break up an insurance scam.
Dir: Irving Reis Cast: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Allen Jenkins.
BW- 67 mins, CC
1:00 PM
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945)
A man remains young and handsome while his portrait shows the ravages of age and sin.
Dir: Albert Lewin Cast: George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield, Donna Reed.
BW- 110 mins, CC
3:00 PM
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940)
An American reporter covering the war in Europe gets mixed up in the assassination of a Dutch diplomat.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall.
BW- 121 mins, CC
5:15 PM
A SHOT IN THE DARK (1964)
Inspector Clouseau tries to clear a beautiful woman accused of shooting her husband.
Dir: Blake Edwards Cast: Peter Sellers, Elke Sommer, George Sanders.
C- 102 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
***** ***** ***** *****
Thursday – August 31, 2017
1:00 AM
LURED (1947)
A woman helps the police catch the serial killer who murdered her best friend.
Dir: Douglas Sirk Cast: George Sanders, Lucille Ball, Charles Coburn.
BW- 103 mins
Friday – September 1, 2017
2:00 AM
NIGHT WATCH (1973)
A woman recovering from mental problems witnesses a murder, but nobody believes her.
Dir: Brian G. Hutton Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, Billie Whitelaw.
C- 99 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
If you’re particularly looking forward to these or other mystery-themed TV movies coming up in August, 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 July television mystery movies schedule:
Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for July 2017
And of course, here is the page on my site with plenty of entries about movies and television shows you may enjoy:
New Releases – July 24 to July 30, 2017
Allyson K. Abbott (aka Annelise Ryan & Beth Amos): A Toast to Murder (This will be the 5th in the Mack’s Bar Mystery Series. This is a New Year’s Eve mystery.)
Laurie Cass (aka Laura Alden): Wrong Side of the Paw (This will be the 6th in the Bookmobile Cat Mystery Series.)
Kathi Daley: Camp Carter (This will be the 25th in the Zoe Donovan Mystery Series.)
Linda Fairstein: Deadfall (This will be the 19th in the non-Cozy Alexandra Cooper Series.)
Jean Flowers (aka Camille Minichino, Margaret Grace, & Ada Madison): Addressed to Kill (This will be the 3rd in the Postmistress Mystery Series.) (This will be a Valentine’s Day mystery.)
Victoria Hamilton (aka Amanda Cooper & Donna Lea Simpson): Muffin to Fear (This will be the in the Merry Muffin Mystery Series.)
Joan Hess (aka Joan Hadley) & Elizabeth Peters (aka Barbara Michaels & Barbara Mertz) & : The Painted Queen(This will be the 20th in the Amelia Peabody Mystery Series.)
Mary Marks: Knot What You Think (This will be the 5th in the Martha Rose Quilting Mystery Series.)
Alyssa Maxwell: Murder at Chateau sur Mer (This will be the 5th in the Gilded Newport Mystery Series.)
Elizabeth Peters (aka Barbara Michaels & Barbara Mertz) & Joan Hess (aka Joan Hadley): The Painted Queen(This will be the 20th in the Amelia Peabody Mystery Series.)
Peter Tremayne: Penance of the Damned (This will be the 27th in the Mystery of Ancient Ireland Mystery Series.)
Elaine Viets: Fire and Ashes (This will be the 2nd in the non-Cozy Death Investigator Mystery Series.)
Elizabeth J. Duncan: Penny Brannigan Mystery Series
In this, the first of eight books in the series (so far), we are introduced to Penny Brannigan and her new friend, Victoria Hopkirk. Penny and her friend live in a small town in North Wales, Llanelen. Penny is a 50 something Canadian who stopped in Llanelen while backpacking across Wales when in her 20s. She found the town so welcoming and picturesque, that she stopped there for the night and never left. Penny is a manicurist and a part time artist (thus the beautiful Welsh town and countryside are especially attractive to her.) Victoria is a harpist who recently relocated from London after a divorce. Both of the (amateur) sleuths are in their early 50s.
The mystery opens with the death of Emma Teasdale, the elderly friend of Penny who Penny first encountered on that fateful day when Penny was looking for a place to stay for one night. Emma was a long-time school teacher, and she and Penny became great friends during the 25 years or so after Penny arrived in Llanelen.
At the same time as Emma’s funeral is being planned, anticipation runs high in the small town for the imminent wedding of the local rich landowner’s son, Emyr, to a self-made beauty, Meg Wynne. When Meg Wynne goes missing on the day of her wedding, the mystery really begins.
Of course, there are several people who had a reason to wish Meg Wynne dead. And, Penny gets involved in the case because she was apparently the last person to see Meg Wynne before she disappeared. Also, Penny notices something wrong at her friend Emma’s funeral.
The police inspector in charge of the case is in his 50s and is also single – as is Penny. (Hmmm… Does this mean there will be an almost inevitable romance?) Victoria, of course, helps solve the case. More surprisingly, Emma also helps solve the case (I won’t give away the details of how except to mention that the mystery does not contain paranormal elements.)
This book is a great start to the mystery series. I can understand why this book was nominated for the Agatha Award for best best first novel. Penny, Victoria, Chief Inspector Gareth Davies and his Sergeant, Bethan Morgan, are all terrific Cozy Mystery characters. The small town setting is extremely well suited to the Cozy Mystery genre. And the mystery plays out in a very enjoyable way. After reading “The Cold Light of Mourning”, I felt as though I had found new friends to visit when I feel in the mood for a new Cozy!
Click here to read more posts about the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series.
