The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Oh my goodness, it’s October again! I say this probably every October, but here goes again: I love the old movies during this month that star actors like Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Bela Lugosi, and Boris Karloff. I don’t know what it is that attracts me to these old, black and white “horror” movies, and by “horror” – I mean nothing like today’s horror movies! Anyway, I haven’t listed those movies, but there will be plenty of them sprinkled throughout October.

For those of you who enjoy the 1930s and 1940s detective movies that are based on fiction novels, Philo Vance (written by S. S. Van Dine) and Perry Mason (written by Erle Stanley Gardner) will be shown on Monday, October 23. Be sure to set up your modes of DVR-ing.

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

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES CHANNEL MYSTERY MOVIES – October 2023

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

Tuesday – October 3, 2023

8:00 PM Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Young Charlie is a small-town girl consumed with finding out whether her unhinged Uncle Charlie is a serial killer.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey
108 mins

10:00 PM Dressed To Kill (1980)
After wife and mother discusses her sexual frustrations with her psychiatrist, she goes to meet her husband at a museum. At the museum, she meets a strange man who she follows to a cab and then has sex with him at his apartment. After the affair, Kate is brutally murdered in the elevator by a blonde woman …
Dir: Brian De Palma. Cast: Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen
104 mins

12:00 AM Cat People (1942)
A newlywed fears that an ancient curse will turn her into a bloodthirsty beast.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur. Cast: Simone Simon, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph
71 mins

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

Saturday – October 7, 2023

1:45 AM Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
A scientist’s investigations into the nature of good and evil turn him into a murderous monster.
Dir: Victor Fleming. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner
127 mins

3:45 AM 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
110 mins

8:31 AM Arrest Bulldog Drummond (1939)
Scotland Yard and Captain Drummond attempt to track down the murderer of a scientist who had invented a “death-ray” device.
Dir: James P. Hogan. Cast: John Howard, Heather Angel, H.B. Warner
57 mins

10:00 PM Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
The Brewster sisters are spinster pillars of Brooklyn society, except for their secret penchant for poisoning old male callers with their homemade elderberry wine, to end the men’s loneliness!
Dir: Frank Capra. Cast: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey
118 mins

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

Sunday – October 8, 2023

12:15 AM Deception (1946)
A woman tries to protect her refugee husband from her rich and powerful ex-lover.
Dir: Irving Rapper. Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
110 mins

10:00 AM Deception (1946)
A woman tries to protect her refugee husband from her rich and powerful ex-lover.
Dir: Irving Rapper. Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
110 mins

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

Monday – October 9, 2023

6:45 AM Blind Alibi (1938)
A man pretends to be blind to foil blackmailers.
Dir: Lew Landers. Cast: Richard Dix, Whitney Bourne, Eduardo Ciannelli
62 mins

1:00 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
93 mins

2:45 PM 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
91 mins

4:30 PM The Fake (1953)
An American investigator in London discovers that a posh museum’s da Vinci is a fake.
Dir: Godfrey Grayson. Cast: Dennis O’Keefe, Coleen Gray, Hugh Williams
80 mins

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

Tuesday – October 10, 2023

1:30 AM Dangerous Mission (1954)
A woman flees westward after witnessing a mob killing.
Dir: Louis King. Cast: Victor Mature, Piper Laurie, William Bendix
75 mins

3:00 AM Gun Crazy (1950)
Two disturbed young people release their fascination with guns through a crime spree.
Dir: Joseph H. Lewis. Cast: Peggy Cummins, John Dall, Berry Kroeger
87 mins

10:45 AM The Death Kiss (1933)
A movie actor is killed while filming a scene.
Dir: Edwin L. Marin. Cast: David Manners, Adrienne Ames, Bela Lugosi
75 mins

6:45 PM The Leopard Man (1943)
When a leopard escapes during a publicity stunt, it triggers a series of murders.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur. Cast: Dennis O’Keefe, Margo, Jean Brooks
66 mins

8:00 PM Cape Fear (1962)
A released convict decides to menace and wreak havoc on the family of his defense lawyer.
Dir: J. Lee Thompson. Cast: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen
105 mins

10:00 PM The Night of the Hunter (1955)
After hearing an about-to-be-hanged murderer’s story about some hidden money he left in the care of his two young kids, the murderer’s cell-mate is released and embarks on a journey to find the killer’s family.
Dir: Charles Laughton. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
93 mins

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

Wednesday – October 11, 2023

1:45 PM Dead Ringer (1964)
One of a pair of twins, jealous that the other became wealthy and took away her husband, kills her sister and takes over the latter’s identity.
Dir: Paul Henreid. Cast: Bette Davis, Karl Malden, Peter Lawford
115 mins

6:00 PM 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
109 mins

8:00 PM Touch of Evil (1958)
A narcotics agent risks his wife’s life to investigate a crooked cop.
Dir: Orson Welles. Cast: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles
95 mins

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

Thursday – October 12, 2023

10:00 PM I Accuse! (1958)
True story of writer Emile Zola’s defense of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer framed by anti-Semites.
Dir: Jose Ferrer. Cast: Jose Ferrer, Anton Walbrook, Viveca Lindfors
99 mins

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

Saturday – October 14, 2023

6:00 PM Once a Thief (1965)
A young ex-con trying to go straight gets caught up in another criminal scheme.
Dir: Ralph Nelson. Cast: Alain Delon, Ann-Margret, Van Heflin
107 mins

8:00 PM The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Recently paroled master criminal Erwin “Doc” Riedenschneider gathers several crooks together in Cincinnati for a heist. The robbery is pulled off successfully until an alert night watchman shoots the team’s safe-cracker.
Dir: John Huston. Cast: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen
112 mins

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

Sunday – October 15, 2023

12:00 AM The Big Caper (1957)
A con artist moves into a small town to spearhead a payroll robbery.
Dir: Robert Stevens. Cast: Rory Calhoun, Mary Costa, James Gregory
84 mins

10:00 AM The Big Caper (1957)
A con artist moves into a small town to spearhead a payroll robbery.
Dir: Robert Stevens. Cast: Rory Calhoun, Mary Costa, James Gregory
84 mins

3:45 PM Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
In the early 1930s, a car thief and the daughter of his intended victim team up to become America’s most feared and ruthless bank robbers.
Dir: Arthur Penn. Cast: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard
111 mins

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

Monday – October 16, 2023

6:00 AM Bulldog Drummond in Africa (1938)
Bulldog Drummond must race to Africa to save his friend from a madman.
Dir: Louis King. Cast: John Howard, Heather Angel, H. B. Warner
60 mins

12:30 PM Port Afrique (1956)
Returning to his home in French Morocco, an ex-army flier finds his wife dead and suspects murder.
Dir: Rudolph Maté. Cast: Pier Angeli, Eugene Deckers, Pat O’Mera
92 mins

8:00 PM Saboteur (1942)
A young man accused of sabotage goes on the lam to prove his innocence.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings, Otto Kruger
108 mins

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

Tuesday – October 17, 2023

12:30 AM 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

10:00 PM Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
An aging and mad spinster, haunted by her one and only lover’s murder, lives alone with her maid in a large mansion, until her cousin arrives with a plot to drive her even madder and inherit the family’s wealth.
Dir: Robert Aldrich. Cast: Bette Davis, Olivia De Havilland, Joseph Cotten
133 mins

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

Thursday – October 19, 2023

11:45 AM Miracles for Sale (1939)
A magician turns detective to investigate murder and a phony seance.
Dir: Tod Browning. Cast: Robert Young, Florence Rice, Frank Craven
71 mins

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

Friday – October 20, 2023

2:45 AM The Heiress (1949)
A plain young woman’s wealth makes her prey to fortune hunters.
Dir: William Wyler. Cast: Olivia De Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson
115 mins
*****Not a mystery movie – but well worth watching!*****

11:30 AM Star Witness (1931)
An old man who witnessed a crime is threatened by gangsters.
Dir: William A. Wellman. Cast: Walter Huston, Frances Starr, Grant Mitchell
68 mins

10:00 PM The House of the Seven Gables (1940)
A man frames his brother for murder to secure the family fortune for himself.
Dir: Joe May. Cast: George Sanders, Margaret Lindsay, Vincent Price
89 mins

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

Saturday – October 21, 2023

1:30 AM The Haunting (1963)
A mysterious New England mansion has been the scene of grisly murders. But when four people spend the night, they find themselves trapped by The Haunting
Dir: Robert Wise. Cast: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson
112 mins

3:45 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
109 mins

6:30 PM Side Street (1950)
A New York City mailman is chased by both cops and crooks when he steals a shipment of dirty money.
Dir: Anthony Mann. Cast: Farley Granger, Cathy O’Donnell, James Craig
83 mins

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

Sunday – October 22, 2023

12:00 AM Casque d’Or (1952)
The year is 1898. A beautiful woman named Marie, also known as Casque d’Or, has fallen in love with a carpenter named Manda. The problem is Marie is the girlfriend of a hoodlum in the Leca gang. So in order to have the lovely Marie, Manda faces and defies the gang and kills Leca.
Dir: Jacques Becker. Cast: Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Claude Dauphin
96 mins
*****In French*****

10:00 AM Casque d’or (1952)
The year is 1898. A beautiful woman named Marie, also known as Casque d’Or, has fallen in love with a carpenter named Manda. The problem is Marie is the girlfriend of a hoodlum in the Leca gang. So in order to have the lovely Marie, Manda faces and defies the gang and kills Leca.
Dir: Jacques Becker. Cast: Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Claude Dauphin
96 mins
*****In French*****

12:00 PM The Stranger (1946)
A small-town schoolteacher suspects her new husband may be an escaped Nazi war criminal.
Dir: Orson Welles. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, Orson Welles
95 mins

2:00 PM The Bad Seed (1956)
An eight year old girl–a quintessential psychopath–kills a schoolmate, an old woman, an apartment janitor and prompts the suicide of her despairing mother before fate intervenes bringing this “bad seed” to her own premature finish.
Dir: Mervyn Leroy. Cast: Gage Clarke, Jesse White, Joan Croyden
129 mins

4:15 PM The Nanny (1965)
A conniving nanny of a well-to-do family “accidentally” drowns the family’s daughter and blames it on their troubled young son, whom she blackmails into taking the rap for the crime.
Dir: Seth Holt. Cast: Bette Davis, Wendy Craig, Jill Bennett
93 mins

6:00 PM Wait Until Dark (1967)
A blind woman fights against drug smugglers who’ve invaded her home.
Dir: Terence Young. Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna
108 mins

8:00 PM Mirage (1965)
A biochemist suffers memory lapses, finds bad guys after him, and has no idea why.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk. Cast: Gregory Peck, Diane Baker, Walter Matthau
109 mins

10:00 PM 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

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

Monday – October 23, 2023

6:00 AM The Bishop Murder Case (1930)
Quick-witted private investigator Philo Vance is in search of a cryptic killer. The body of Joseph Cochrane Robin is discovered pierced by an arrow with a note that contains a snippet of the nursery rhyme “Who Killed Cock Robin”, which is curiously signed the Bishop. Vance is on the case but the pressure to uncover the …
Dir: David Burton. Cast: Basil Rathbone, Leila Hyams, Roland Young
88 mins

7:45 AM The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1937)
Perry Mason tries to find out if a long-lost heiress is the real thing.
Dir: William Clemens. Cast: Donald Woods, Ann Dvorak, Anne Nagel
70 mins

10:30 AM The Case of the Curious Bride (1935)
Perry Mason helps a young woman whose supposedly dead husband suddenly returns to life.
Dir: Michael Curtiz. Cast: Warren William, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Woods
80 mins

12:00 PM The Case of the Black Parrot (1941)
A newspaperman sets out to catch a sea-going thief.
Dir: Noel M. Smith. Cast: William Lundigan, Maris Wrixon, Eddie Foy Jr.
60 mins

1:15 PM The Garden Murder Case (1936)
Society sleuth Philo Vance suspects dirty doings behind a mysterious series of suicides.
Dir: Edwin L. Marin. Cast: Edmund Lowe, Virginia Bruce, Benita Hume
62 mins

2:30 PM The Famous Ferguson Case (1932)
Two reporters interested in different stories write about a murder.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon.Cast: Joan Blondell, Grant Mitchell, Vivienne Osborne
74 mins

4:00 PM The Case of the Velvet Claws (1936)
Perry Mason’s honeymoon with Della Street is interrupted by the murder of a scandal-sheet publisher.
Dir: William Clemens. Cast: Warren William, Claire Dodd, Winifred Shaw
63 mins

5:15 PM The Casino Murder Case (1935)
Society sleuth Philo Vance takes on a series of murders at an aging dowager’s mansion.
Dir: Edwin L. Marin. Cast: Paul Lukas, Alison Skipworth, Donald Cook
83 mins

6:45 PM The Case of the Black Cat (1936)
Perry Mason looks into a trio of murders heralded by the shriek of a cat.
Dir: William McGann. Cast: Ricardo Cortez, June Travis, Jane Bryan
62 mins

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

Tuesday – October 24, 2023

7:45 AM The People Against O’Hara (1951)
A defense attorney jeopardizes his career to save his client.
Dir: John Sturges. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Pat O’Brien, Diana Lynn
102 mins

9:30 AM Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero’s family.
Dir: John Sturges. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis
81 mins

11:00 AM 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
93 mins

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

Wednesday – October 25, 2023

5:45 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

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

Friday – October 27, 2023

10:15 AM 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

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

Saturday – October 28, 2023

11:30 AM A Gun in His Hand (1945)
In this short film, a man joins the police force with the intention of getting away with crimes.
Dir: Joseph Losey. Cast: Ray Teal, Arthur Space, Anthony Caruso
18 mins

2:30 PM Gun Crazy (1950)
Two disturbed young people release their fascination with guns through a crime spree.
Dir: Joseph H. Lewis. Cast: Peggy Cummins, John Dall, Berry Kroeger
87 mins

8:00 PM The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
International spies kidnap a doctor’s son when he stumbles on their assassination plot.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock.Cast: James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda De Banzie
119 mins

10:15 PM The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
While vacationing in Switzerland, a British couple gets wrapped up in an assassination plot.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Nova Pilbeam
84 mins

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

Sunday – October 29, 2023

12:00 AM Experiment in Terror (1962)
A master criminal tries to force a bank teller to help him pull off a big heist.
Dir: Blake Edwards. Cast: Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Stefanie Powers
123 mins

2:30 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 Hoffman, Timothy Dalton, Timothy West
98 mins

4:15 AM The Last of Sheila (1973)
A game of murder among wealthy vacationers turns into the real thing.
Dir: Herbert Ross. Cast: James Coburn, Raquel Welch, Dyan Cannon
120 mins

10:00 AM Experiment in Terror (1962)
A master criminal tries to force a bank teller to help him pull off a big heist.
Dir: Blake Edwards. Cast: Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Stefanie Powers
123 mins

12:15 PM The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
A scarred veteran and a homely woman are transformed by love.
Dir: John Cromwell. Cast: Dorothy McGuire, Robert Young, Herbert Marshall
91 mins
*****Not a mystery movie. I have seen this movie a few times and end up liking it even more each time!*****

6:00 PM Gilda (1946)
A gambler discovers an old flame in South America, but she’s married to his new boss.
Dir: Charles Vidor. Cast: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready
110 mins

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

Monday – October 30, 2023

2:00 AM Cure (1997)
A Tokyo detective is investigating a series of brutal murders in which each victim is found with an “X” carved into their chest. Their killers are apprehended nearby in a trance-like state with no memory of their acts. The detective enlists the help of a psychiatrist to establish a link between the murderers.
Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa Cast: Masato Hagiwara, Kôji Yakusho, Tsuyoshi Ujiki
115 mins
*****In Japanese*****

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

If you’re really looking forward to these or other mystery-themed TV specials coming up in October, 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 September 2023 television mystery movies schedule:

Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for September 2023 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.