Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV
Here is the list of new releases for January 22 to January 28!
Darci Hannah : Murder at the Blarney Bash (5th in the Beacon Bakeshop Mysteries)
Edward Marston (aka Keith Miles and Conrad Allen): Murder in Transit (24th in the Railway Detective Mysteries)
J. D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts): Random In Death (Non-Cozy, 58th of the Eve Dallas In Death Mysteries)
February will soon be upon us, and, difficult as it may be to believe, it’s Leap Year! I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my extra day, but I’m going to try to make it a good one!
The Turner Classic Movies channel doesn’t have an extraordinary amount of mystery movies scheduled for February 2024, however there are quite a few Alfred Hitchcock movies sprinkled throughout the month. When I say “sprinkled” – that’s exactly what I mean… it seems the channel decided to put a few on one day, then skip a few days before adding a few more, etc. They all start on Monday, February 5. As an Alfred Hitchcock fan, I have to admit that I have seen almost all of them. (There is one I’m not sure about.) Still, I plan on watching several of them again — that’s how much I enjoy his films.
***** ***** ***** *****
***** ***** ***** *****
11:30 AM Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
Desperate losers plan a bank robbery with unexpected results.
Dir: Robert Wise. Cast: Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters
95 mins
6:00 PM In the Heat of the Night (1967)
A black detective teams up with a racist white sheriff to solve a murder in a small town in the South. Over time, they begin to find respect for one another.
Dir: Norman Jewison. Cast: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates
109 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
8:00 AM Guns of Darkness (1962)
Vacationing Englishman David Niven faces a moral crisis when he agrees to smuggle the deposed president of a South American country across the border.
Dir: Anthony Asquith. Cast: Leslie Caron, David Niven, David Opatoshu
102 mins
2:30 PM Libel (1959)
A former POW is accused of being an impostor.
Dir: Anthony Asquith. Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Olivia De Havilland, Paul Massie
100 mins
8:00 PM Notorious (1946)
A U.S. agent recruits a German expatriate to infiltrate a Nazi spy ring in Brazil.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains
101 mins
10:00 PM The Wrong Man (1956)
Based on the true story of a musician wrongly accused of robbing an insurance company and the grave effect his predicament has on his family.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle
105 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
12:00 AM I Confess (1953)
Based on a 1902 play, a Jesuit priest is wrongly accused of murder and cannot defend himself because he has vowed to protect the confession of the real criminal.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden
95 mins
2:00 AM The 39 Steps (1935)
Richard Hanney has a rude awakening when a glamorous female spy falls into his bed — with a knife in her back. Having a bit of trouble explaining it all to Scotland Yard, he heads for the hills of Scotland to try to clear his name by locating the spy ring known as “The 39 Steps.”
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim
87 mins
3:30 AM 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
5:15 AM The Girl Was Young (1937)
A young girl helps an innocent man escape the law when he’s framed for murder.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Nova Pilbeam, Derrick De Marney, Percy Marmont
70 mins
3:00 PM The Tall Target (1951)
A detective tries to prevent the assassination of President Lincoln during a train ride.
Dir: Anthony Mann. Cast: Dick Powell, Paula Raymond, Adolphe Menjou
78 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
8:00 PM The Sting (1973)
Two clever con artists arrange an elaborate sting against a powerful crime lord who murdered their friend.
Dir: George Roy Hill. Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw
127 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
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
101 mins
![North by Northwest [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51oKC4rMY1L._SL500_.jpg "North by Northwest [DVD]")
***** ***** ***** *****
3:15 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
***** ***** ***** *****
3:45 PM Rebecca (1940)
The second Mrs. de Winter is a shy and naive young woman, besotted with charming and urbane Maxim de Winter. They meet and fall in love while vacationing on the Riviera, and after a speedy marriage, return to Maxim’s vast English estate, Manderly. His wife is introduced to an army of servants who immediately, if subtly, …
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders
115 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
6:00 AM 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
12:30 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
2:30 PM 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
71 mins
![The Window [Remaster]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Le9F1gB5L._SL500_.jpg "The Window [Remaster]")
***** ***** ***** *****
11:15 AM The Window (1949)
A boy who always lies witnesses a murder but can’t get anyone but the killer to believe him.
Dir: Ted Tetzlaff Cast: Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart
73 mins
*****That’s right – Barbara Hale before she “became” Perry Mason’s Della Street…*****
3:00 PM Odd Man Out (1947)
A wounded IRA man faces betrayal on all sides when the British put a price on his head.
Dir: Carol Reed. Cast: James Mason, Robert Newton, Kathleen Ryan
116 mins
8:00 PM Bullitt (1968)
A detective is sent by a politician to catch a big-time gangster so he can procure him before a Senate crime committee for selfish gain. When the gangster is killed before this can happen, the detective and the politico clash with each other.
Dir: Peter Yates. Cast: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset
114 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
2:45 AM The Naked City (1948)
A step-by-step look at a murder investigation on the streets of New York.
Dir: Jules Dassin. Cast: Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart
96 mins
11:00 AM Crossfire (1947)
A crusading district attorney investigates the murder of a Jewish man.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk. Cast: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan
85 mins
12:30 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
***** ***** ***** *****
8:00 PM Topkapi (1964)
An international band of thieves plots to steal a priceless treasure from a heavily guarded museum.
Dir: Jules Dassin. Cast: Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov, Maximilian Schell
120 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
***** ***** ***** *****
10:30 PM Spellbound (1945)
A psychoanalyst falls in love with her new boss, and it is soon discovered that he has difficulty with remembering things as he is a troubled amnesiac, who may also be a killer.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov
111 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
11:45 PM Anne Frank Remembered (1995)
Documentary reconstructing the life of Anne Frank from her early childhood to her death in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp just weeks before the Third Reich fell.
Dir: Jon Blair. Cast: Miep Gies, Edith Frank, Kenneth Branagh
122 mins
*****This is not a mystery – it is a documentary.******
***** ***** ***** *****
2:00 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
6:00 PM Strangers on a Train (1951)
A man’s joking suggestion that he and a chance acquaintance trade murders turns deadly.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker
96 mins
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
***** ***** ***** *****
11:45 AM Suspicion (1941)
A young woman marries a charming man after a brief romance but then comes to believe that he is only after her money and will do anything to get it.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Sir Cedric Hardwicke
99 mins
1:30 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
![Mildred Pierce (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41sbQeJYTvL._SL500_.jpg "Mildred Pierce (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]")
***** ***** ***** *****
12:45 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
6:00 PM Gaslight (1944)
Young Paula Alquist has given up a promising singing career to marry Gregory Anton. Deeply in love, she refuses to believe – then cannot convince anyone else – that her new husband is a thief who murdered her aunt, that everyone in her household is plotting to kill her.
Dir: George Cukor. Cast: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten
114 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
10:30 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
4:00 PM Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
A British lawyer gets caught up in a couple’s tangled marital affairs when he defends the husband for murder.
Dir: Billy Wilder. Cast: Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton
114 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
If you’re really looking forward to these or other mystery-themed TV specials coming up in February, 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 January television mystery movies schedule:
Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for January 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.
Maddy Montgomery is anything but the typical Cozy Mystery sleuth. She’s the main character and narrator of Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder, the first book in the Baker Street Mystery series by Valerie Burns. While most cozy sleuth’s nowadays have been dreaming all their lives that they will be able to return to the small town of their idyllic youths to open the bake shop of their dreams, Maddy knows nothing of baking or cooking, and she spent her youth moving with her Navy dad from Navy base to Navy base as he climbed the ladder all the way to the rank of Admiral.
Instead, Maddy’s plan was always to marry a Doctor. How much farther her plan went than that we don’t learn, since her Doctor fiancé jilted Maddy at the altar. Luckily for young Maddy [she is just out of University with her art degree — yes, art degree (remember, her plan was to marry a Doctor)] Maddy’s great aunt has recently died and left her with a large sum of money, a great house, a bakery, and an English Mastiff named Baby. So Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder, begins with Maddy flying (in a small plane which Maddy is surprised to learn does not have a first class section) in a blizzard to the town of New Bison, a quaint town on the Michigan shoreline.
Maddy soon learns that her bequest comes with a catch. Maddy must live in her great aunt’s house and run the bakery (while taking care of the English Mastiff, Baby) for a year or she will forfeit the money, the house, the bakery, and the dog. And, she learns that her great aunt died in mysterious circumstances while investigating a possible conspiracy between some of the most powerful politicians and business people in the town. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that other murders begin to happen almost immediately upon Maddy’s arrival in town.
A quaint bakery, a social media loving young sleuth, several handsome men who seemingly are smitten upon sight of Maddy, a small town with friendly characters, a loving English Mastiff named Baby, and several murders upon a couple of days of Maddy’s arrival in town — what’s not to like for a cozy mystery lover?
Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder is a page turner and just about has it all. This first book in the Baker Street Mystery Series is this month’s entry in my series of posts about the Most Popular and Recommended Cozy Mystery Series.
If you’d like to see other entries about some of the most recommended Cozy Mystery authors, be sure to check out the Most Popular and Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.
P.S. Valerie Burns also writes the Mystery Bookshop Mystery Series, the Dog Club Mystery Series, and the RJ Franklyn Mystery Series as V.M. Burns.
P.P.S. For recipe fans, this book does include several recipes.
Here is the list of new releases for January 15 to January 21!
Lee Goldberg: Dream Town (Non-Cozy, 5th in the Eve Ronin Mysteries)
Larissa Reinhart: 19 Criminals (19th in the Maizie Albright Star Detective Mysteries)
Joyce Tremel (aka Joyce St. Anthony): Deadly to the Core (1st in the NEW Cider House Mystery Series)
