Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV
I’m adding three more authors to the site! This is almost an accidental theme, as each of these authors had already written at least one other series in a different genre before starting on mysteries… but not quite, as the first doesn’t fit that category. So close!
Here is the April 2023 Turner Classic Movies channel roster – and there are a few mystery movies that I think you’ll enjoy. I am finding myself re-watching old black and white mystery movies that I have already seen – several times. Do any of you do this? If so, you are not alone!
On an aside: I love the Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre duo! Turner Classic Movies will be showing three movies this month that have this duo: The Mask of Dimitrios (1944) and Three Strangers (1946) on Wednesday the 19th AND The Verdict (1946) on Thursday the 20th.
***** ***** ***** *****
***** ***** ***** *****
2:00 PM Night Nurse (1931)
A nurse discovers that the children she’s caring for are murder targets.
Dir: William A. Wellman. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Ben Lyon, Joan Blondell
72 mins
3:30 PM Jewel Robbery (1932)
A jewel thief falls for a tycoon’s wife in Vienna.
Dir: William Dieterle. Cast: William Powell, Kay Francis, Helen Vinson
70 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
6:30 AM Little Caesar (1930)
A small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there?
Dir: Mervyn Leroy. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks, Glenda Farrell
80 mins
8:30 AM ‘G’ Men (1935)
A mob protege joins the FBI when a friend is gunned down.
Dir: William Keighley. Cast: James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, Ann Dvorak
85 mins
10:15 AM Bullets or Ballots (1936)
A maverick cop gets thrown off the force in disgrace, and goes to the city’s gang lords and offers to join their side, helping them to get around the police. But in fact, he is still a cop, and is working undercover to break apart the gangs.
Dir: William Keighley. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton Maclane
77 mins
12:00 PM Each Dawn I Die (1939)
A crusading reporter becomes a hardened convict when he’s framed.
Dir: William Keighley. Cast: James Cagney, George Raft, Jane Bryan
92 mins
2:00 PM High Sierra (1941)
An aging ex-con sets out to pull one more big heist.
Dir: Raoul Walsh. Cast: Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Curtis
100 mins
4:00 PM 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 Larceny, Inc. (1942)
An ex-convict and his gang try to use a luggage store to front a bank robbery, but business keeps getting in the way.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford
95 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
***** ***** ***** *****
1:15 AM One Way Passage (1932)
An ocean voyage leads to romance for a dying heiress and a condemned criminal.
Dir: Tay Garnett. Cast: William Powell, Kay Francis, Aline Macmahon
69 mins
2:45 AM Two Seconds (1932)
In the last moments of his life, a criminal reviews the circumstances that led him to death row.
Dir: Mervyn Leroy. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Vivienne Osborne, Guy Kibbee
68 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
10:15 AM The Maltese Falcon (1931)
Detective Sam Spade investigates the theft of a priceless statue.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth. Cast: Bebe Daniels, Ricardo Cortez, Dudley Digges
75 mins
5:15 PM Smart Blonde (1936)
An ambitious reporter forces her policeman boyfriend to let her help with a murder case.
Dir: Frank Mcdonald. Cast: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Winifred Shaw
59 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
5:00 AM From Headquarters (1933)
A police lieutenant uses scientific methods to solve a decadent playboy’s murder.
Dir: William Dieterle. Cast: George Brent, Margaret Lindsay, Eugene Pallette
64 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
12:00 AM Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939)
An FBI agent risks his life to infiltrate Nazi sympathizers in the U.S.
Dir: Anatole Litvak. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Francis Lederer, George Sanders
110 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
3:15 AM 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
***** ***** ***** *****
10:15 AM 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
***** ***** ***** *****
9:45 AM They Drive by Night (1940)
Truck driving brothers are framed for murder by a lady psycho.
Dir: Raoul Walsh. Cast: George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino
93 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
12:15 AM 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
105 mins
11:00 AM 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
1:30 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
3:30 PM What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
A crazed, aging star torments her sister in a decaying Hollywood mansion.
Dir: Robert Aldrich. Cast: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono
132 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 AM The Petrified Forest (1936)
When a burned out Brit wanders into a diner and gas station in the middle of the desert, the owner’s daughter falls for him. However, the situations of all concerned change when the restaurant is held up at gunpoint by a desperate gangster.
Dir: Archie L. Mayo. Cast: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Genevieve Tobin
83 mins
9:30 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
1:00 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
3:30 PM The Yakuza (1974)
Harry Kilmer is an ex-soldier who returns to Japan to help his friend George Tanner whose daughter has been kidnapped by the Japanese mafia known as the Yakuza.
Dir: Sydney Pollack. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Ken Takakura, Brian Keith
112 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
12:30 PM Ocean’s Eleven (1960)
A group of friends plot to rob a Las Vegas casino.
Dir: Lewis Milestone. Cast: Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra
127 mins
10:30 PM The Big Sleep (1946)
Called into a case involving a wealthy family, detective Philip Marlowe discovers blackmail and murder as he falls for the eldest daughter in the family.
Dir: Howard Hawks. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely
114 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
1:00 AM 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
3:00 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
10:45 AM Two Guys from Milwaukee (1946)
A runaway prince in disguise takes up with a taxi driver.
Dir: David Butler. Cast: Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie, Jack Carson
90 mins
6:00 PM Stage Fright (1950)
When witnesses see Jonathan Cooper fleeing the scene of a murder, Cooper asks his former girlfriend, Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts student Eve Gill, for help. Believing him innocent, she uses her skills at stagecraft to prove the real murderer is chanteuse Charlotte Inwood. Now, as Eve plays a game of cat and mouse with …
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding
110 mins
8:00 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
***** ***** ***** *****
2:00 AM Harper (1966)
A broken-down private eye sets out to find a rich woman’s missing husband.
Dir: Jack Smight. Cast: Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris
121 mins
8:00 AM The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)
A meek novelist investigates the mysterious death of a notorious scoundrel.
Dir: Jean Negulesco. Cast: Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson, Peter Lorre
95 mins
10:00 AM Three Strangers (1946)
Three people who share a sweepstakes ticket travel a tangled road to collect their winnings.
Dir: Jean Negulesco. Cast: Sydney Greenstreet, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Peter Lorre
92 mins
5:45 PM 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 PM 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
***** ***** ***** *****
6:00 AM The Verdict (1946)
A retired Scotland Yard chief tries to prove his friend is innocent of murder.
Dir: Don Siegel. Cast: Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Joan Lorring
86 mins
9:00 AM 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
1:30 PM 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
When his girl commits murder, a hardened criminal takes the rap to protect her honor.
Dir: Michael Curtiz. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Bette Davis, Arthur Byron
81 mins
4:30 PM Blackwell’s Island (1939)
A reporter gets himself sent to prison to expose a mobster.
Dir: William McGann. Cast: John Garfield, Rosemary Lane, Dick Purcell
71 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
4:45 AM Night Moves (1975)
An L.A. private detective puts aside his own marital woes while tracing a topless nymphet to the Florida Keys.
Dir: Arthur Penn. Cast: Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Susan Clark
99 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
2:00 PM 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
***** ***** ***** *****
1:30 AM Klute (1971)
A low-key small town detective journeys to New York City to investigate the murder of a friend and discovers that both the killer and the victim were clients of the same high-class call girl.
Dir: Alan J. Pakula. Cast: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi
114 mins
7:15 AM Deathtrap (1982)
Sidney Bruhl is a formerly successful writer of Broadway thrillers who is trying to recover from the failure of his latest play. When Sidney returns to his wife Myra, a rich woman with a heart problem who is prone to hysterics, he tells her of his jealousy and humiliation upon the receipt of the first play of a former student. …
Dir: Sidney Lumet. Cast: Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Dyan Cannon
115 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
6:30 AM A Slight Case of Murder (1938)
A gangster finds the straight life isn’t so simple.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Bryan, Allen Jenkins
85 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
If you’re really looking forward to these or other mystery-themed TV specials coming up in April, 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 March 2023 television mystery movies schedule:
Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for March 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.
Here is the list of new releases for March 20 to March 26!
Ellie Alexander (aka Kate Dyer-Seeley): Beer and Loathing (6th in the Sloan Krause Mysteries)
Frances Brody: A Mansion for Murder (This will be the 13th in the Kate Shackleton Mystery Series.)
Gigi Pandian: The Raven Thief (2nd in the Secret Staircase Mysteries)
Jacqueline Winspear: The White Lady (Stand-Alone Novel)
Here is the list of new releases for March 6 to March 19!
Rhys Bowen: All That Is Hidden (19th in the Molly Murphy Mysteries)
Laura Childs (aka Gerry Schmitt): Lemon Curd Killer (25th in the Tea Shop Mysteries)
Donna Leon: So Shall You Reap (32nd in Guido Brunetti Mysteries)
Joyce Carol Oates (Lauren Kelly & Rosamond Smith): 48 Clues in the Disappearance of My Sister (Stand-Alone Novel)
Deanna Raybourn: A Sinister Revenge (8th in the Veronica Speedwell Mysteries)
David Rosenfelt: Good Dog, Bad Cop (4th in the K Team Mysteries)
