The Cozy Mystery List Blog

I’ve been a fan of the Turner Classic Movies channel for a long time. I love the old black and white classic 1930s and 1940s movies. I used to really enjoy seeing Robert Osborne introducing the old classics. He always had interesting tidbits to tell us, and it seemed like there were more introductions to movies back then.

I always think of “classic movies” as those from the 30s and 40s. I don’t think of the 1950s through 1980s as “classic” – however, I probably should since they are at least 40 years old! The movies really need to stand out when I see (what I consider) “not classic” movies.

Having said all of the above, let me tell you about a movie from the 1970s that, although I may not think is a “classic”, I think you might find interesting. It has an extremely original premise – which I don’t think I have ever seen before. The movie will be airing on Sunday, September 18th. It’s called “The Last of Sheila” and is two hours long. I had DVRd it a while back but kept putting off watching it. I watched it yesterday, and really enjoyed it. (I must warn you that it is not for children.)

So, as they say, if you’re in the neighborhood (of your DVR or TV) you might want to give it a try.

5:45 PM The Last of Sheila (1973)
A game of murder among wealthy vacationers turns into the real thing.
Dir: Herbert Ross. Actors: James Coburn, Raquel Welch, Dyan Cannon
120 mins

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

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES CHANNEL MYSTERY MOVIES – August 2022

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

Thursday – September 1, 2022

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. Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George
100 mins

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

Friday – September 2, 2022

4:00 AM Key Largo (1948)
A returning veteran tangles with a ruthless gangster during a hurricane.
Dir: John Huston. Actors: Humphrey Bogart,Edward G. Robinson,Lauren Bacall
101 mins

8:00 AM 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. Actors: Humphrey Bogart,Lauren Bacall,John Ridgely
114 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. Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett
106 mins

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

Saturday – September 3, 2022

6:00 AM Gaslight (1944)
A young woman has given up a promising singing career to marry. She refuses to believe that her new husband is a thief and murderer. Something evil happens every time she sees a dimming of the Gaslight…
Dir: George Cukor. Actors: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten
114 mins

8:00 PM Double Indemnity (1944)
An insurance salesman gets seduced into plotting a client’s death.
Dir: Billy Wilder. Actors: Fred MacMurray,Barbara Stanwyck,Edward G. Robinson
106 mins

10:00 PM The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
A frustrated wife seduces a drifter into murdering her husband.
Dir: Tay Garnett. Actors: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway
111 mins

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

Sunday – September 4, 2022

2:00 AM A Soldier’s Story (1984)
A black army attorney is sent to an all-black army camp during World War II to investigate the murder of a sergeant and sees first hand the racial strife between the black soldiers and the white officers who run the boot camp.
Dir: Norman Jewison. Actors: Howard E Rollins, Adolph Caesar, Denzel Washington
101 mins

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

Wednesday – September 7, 2022

2:15 AM The Unholy Three (1930)
A ventriloquist, a strong man and a small person form a criminal alliance.
Dir: Jack Conway. Actors: Lon Chaney, Lila Lee, Elliott Nugent
72 mins

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

Thursday – September 8, 2022

6:15 AM King of the Underworld (1939)
A lady doctor gets mixed up with a criminal gang.
Dir: Lewis Seiler. Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Kay Francis, James Stephenson
69 mins

7:30 AM The Doorway to Hell (1930)
Despite his efforts to go straight, a young gangster keeps falling back into crime.
Dir: Archie Mayo. Actors: Lew Ayres, Charles Judels, Dorothy Mathews
78 mins

9:00 AM Keeper of the Flame (1943)
Top-notch reporter Stephen O’Malley travels to a small town to investigate the death of a national hero.
Dir: George Cukor Actors: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Richard Whorf
100 mins

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

Friday – September 9, 2022

12:00 AM Marked Woman (1937)
A crusading DA fights to get a nightclub hostess to testify against her gangster boss.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon. Actors: Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart
96 mins

1:45 AM The Big Shot (1942)
A mob leader escapes prison and flees with his love to a mountain hideaway, where he tries to atone for his sins.
Dir: Lewis Seiler. Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Irene Manning
82 mins

3:30 AM The Big Shot (1942)
A mob leader escapes prison and flees with his love to a mountain hideaway, where he tries to atone for his sins.
Dir: Lewis Seiler. Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Irene Manning, Richard Travis
82 mins

5:45 AM Brother Orchid (1940)
After a failed hit, a mob chief recuperates in a monastery.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon. Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Ann Sothern, Humphrey Bogart
90 mins

9:30 AM It All Came True (1940)
A gangster hides out in a boardinghouse full of eccentrics.
Dir: Lewis Seiler. Actors: Ann Sheridan, Jeffrey Lynn, Humphrey Bogart
97 mins

12:45 PM High Sierra (1941)
An aging ex-con sets out to pull one more big heist.
Dir: Raoul Walsh. Actors: Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy
100 mins

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

Saturday – September 10, 2022

2:00 AM Five Minutes to Live (1961)
A deranged bandit holds a bank president’s wife hostage.
Dir: Bill Karn. Actors: Johnny Cash, Donald Woods, Cay Forrester, Pamela Mason, Vic Tayback
80 mins

6:00 AM Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Detective Philip Marlowe’s search for a two-timing woman leads him to blackmail and murder.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk. Actors: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley
95 mins

12:00 PM I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
A World War I veteran faces inhuman conditions when he’s sentenced to hard labor.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. Actors: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson
72 mins

6:00 PM Get Carter (1971)
A small-time gangster searches for the truth behind his brother’s death.
Dir: Mike Hodges. Actors: Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, Britt Ekland
112 mins

10:00 PM Wait Until Dark (1967)
A blind woman fights against drug smugglers who’ve invaded her home.
Dir: Terence Young. Actors: Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna
108 mins

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

Sunday – September 11, 2022

12:00 AM Obsession (1949)
A jealous husband plots to dispose of his wife’s lover in an acid bath.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk. Actors: Robert Newton, Phil Brown, Naunton Wayne
96 mins

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

Tuesday – September 13, 2022

1:45 PM The Woman on the Beach (1947)
A coast guardsman begins to think his mistress’s blind husband can really see.
Dir: Jean Renoir. Actors: Joan Bennett, Robert Ryan, Charles Bickford
71 mins

3:00 PM The Haunting (1963)
You may not believe in ghosts…but you cannot deny terror! Hill House has a reputation for evil. A mysterious New England mansion has been the scene of grisly murders. Four people spend the night in the mansion and find themselves trapped by The Haunting.
Dir: Robert Wise. Actors: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson
112 mins

5:00 PM The Smiling Ghost (1941)
A newswoman investigates a haunted house.
Dir: Lewis Seiler. Actors: Wayne Morris, Brenda Marshall, Alexis Smith
71 mins

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

Thursday – September 15, 2022

12:45 AM The Maltese Falcon (1931)
Detective Sam Spade investigates the theft of a priceless statue.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth. Actors: Bebe Daniels, Ricardo Cortez, Dudley Digges
75 mins

7:30 AM Doctor X (1932)
A reporter investigates a series of cannibalistic murders at a medical college.
Dir: Michael Curtiz. Actors: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy
76 mins

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

Friday – September 16, 2022

2:45 PM The House Across the Street (1949)
Mob pressure sends a crusading reporter from the front page to the advice column.
Dir: Richard Bare. Actors: Wayne Morris, Janis Paige, Bruce Bennett
69 mins

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

Saturday – September 17, 2022

1:30 PM Act of Violence (1949)
An embittered veteran tracks down a POW camp informer.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann. Actors: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh
82 mins

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

Sunday – September 18, 2022

5:45 PM The Last of Sheila (1973)
A game of murder among wealthy vacationers turns into the real thing.
Dir: Herbert Ross. Actors: James Coburn, Raquel Welch, Dyan Cannon
120 mins

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

Monday – September 19, 2022

5:45 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. Actors: Bette Davis, Karl Malden, Peter Lawford
115 mins

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

Wednesday – September 21, 2022

9:45 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. Actors: Margaret Rutherford, Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavlow
86 mins

11:15 AM The Unsuspected (1947)
The producer of a radio crime series commits the perfect crime, then has to put the case on the air.
Dir: Michael Curtiz. Actors: Joan Caulfield, Claude Rains, Audrey Totter
103 mins

1:15 PM The Fallen Sparrow (1943)
Nazi spies pursue a Spanish Civil War veteran in search of a priceless keepsake.
Dir: Richard Wallace. Actors: John Garfield, Maureen O’Hara, Walter Slezak
94 mins

3:00 PM The Scapegoat (1959)
A man is tricked into trading places with a look-alike nobleman with murderous plans.
Dir: Robert Hamer. Actors: Alec Guinness, Bette Davis, Nicole Maurey
92 mins

4:45 PM Strangers on a Train (1951)
A man’s joking suggestion that he and a chance acquaintance trade murders turns deadly.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Actors: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker
96 mins

6:30 PM The Blue Gardenia (1953)
A telephone operator kills in self-defense but can’t remember the details of the encounter.
Dir: Fritz Lang. Actors: Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Ann Sothern
90 mins

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

Friday – September 23, 2022

2:15 AM In a Lonely Place (1950)
An aspiring actress begins to suspect that her temperamental boyfriend is a murderer.
Dir: Nicholas Ray. Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy
91 mins

4:00 AM The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)
A new marriage proves to be more than the husband wanted…
Dir: Peter Godfrey. Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Alexis Smith
99 mins

8:45 AM One Fatal Hour (1936)
A radio-station manager tries to keep tabloid journalists from reviving a 20-year-old murder case.
Dir: William McGann. Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Beverly Roberts, Linda Perry
64 mins

10:00 AM The Amazing Doctor Clitterhouse (1938)
A doctor plots crimes so he can study criminal psychology.
Dir: Anatole Litvak. Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor, Humphrey Bogart
87 mins

12:45 PM The Big Steal (1949)
A man is on the trail of a thief who stole a $300,000 Army payroll, but there is someone else after him – a woman.
Dir: Don Siegel. Actors: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, William Bendix
71 mins

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

Sunday – September 25, 2022

8:15 AM The Thin Man (1934)
In New York, a detective, his wife and his dog solve the murder case of an eccentric inventor.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke. Actors: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O’Sullivan
80 mins

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

Tuesday – September 27, 2022

12:00 AM Whistling in the Dark (1941)
A radio detective is kidnapped and forced to plan the perfect murder.
Dir: S. Sylvan Simon. Actors: Red Skelton, Conrad Veidt, Ann Rutherford
77 mins

10:00 AM Scarlet Street (1945)
A middle aged would be painter falls into the clutches of an unscrupulous woman.
Dir: Fritz Lang. Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea
103 mins

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. Actors: Ethel Barrymore, Maurice Evans, Angela Lansbury
78 mins

2:30 PM Cast a Dark Shadow (1955)
A wife-killer marries an innocent barmaid and plots her death.
Dir: Lewis Gilbert. Actors: Margaret Lockwood, Dirk Bogarde, Kay Walsh
85 mins

6:00 PM The Honeymoon Killers (1969)
Two very-much-in-love con artists–a sadistic, corpulent nurse and a conscience-free ex-con–prey on lonely women as they plot to fleece and slaughter a succession of rich spinsters and widows.
Dir: Leonard Kastle. Actors: Shirley Stoler, Tony Lobianco, Mary Jane Higby
106 mins

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

Wednesday – September 28, 2022

6:00 AM The Longest Night (1936)
A department-store head tries to stop a gangland plot.
Dir: Errol Taggart. Actors: Robert Young, Florence Rice, Ted Healy
51 mins

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

Thursday – September 29, 2022

1:00 PM The Lodger (1927)
A family running a boarding house suspects their new tenant is Jack the Ripper.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Actors: Ivor Novello, Malcolm Keen, Marie Ault
75 mins (This is a silent film.)

8:00 PM They Drive by Night (1940)
Truck driving brothers are framed for murder by a lady psycho.vfg
Dir: Raoul Walsh. Actors: George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino
93 mins

10:00 PM Conflict (1945)
A man murders his wife so he can be free to marry her sister.
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt. Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, Sydney Greenstreet
86 mins

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

Friday – September 30, 2022

1:45 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. Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton Maclane
77 mins

10:00 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 Actors: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Genevieve Tobin
83 mins

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

If you’re really looking forward to these or other mystery-themed TV specials coming up in September, 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 August 2022 television mystery movies schedule:

Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for August 2022 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.