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:
Constance S. says
Thank you for this list of great movies that I haven’t seen for a very long time. I look forward to watching them.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Constance, you’re welcome!
Sheila in CT says
The month of August on the Hallmark Mystery channel there will be 4 new Garage Sale Mysteries.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Sheila, thanks for the heads up! I don’t keep track of the Hallmark movies as well as I used to.
Janie says
I think you forgot a very excellent mystery series on PBS and also showing on Acorn TV. Grantchester is a show about a vicar in Britain during the 50’s, I think, could be mid to late 40’s. The characters are flawed, but have heart and the mysteries are excellent.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Janie, thanks for the suggestion! I’ve actually seen Grantchester – maybe I’ll write about it someday!
Lydia says
On Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel, there will be 4 new Garage Sale Mysteries each Sunday in August, at 9pm (Eastern). Also, this coming Saturday will be a Matlock marathon; and Sunday will have a Jesse Stone marathon. Both start at 9am (Eastern).
On PBS, season 4 of Endeavour begins on Sunday, Aug. 20, at 9pm (Eastern) and there are 4 episodes to this season.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Lydia, thanks for the heads up – I haven’t been keeping track of Hallmark movies lately, but I’m sure people appreciate hearing about things like this!
Faith says
Gaslight is one of my favorites.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Faith, I’m glad you’ll have something to look forward to seeing in August then!
Hanna says
Why would I want to see the June movies when we are in the end of July?
Did you mean July?
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Hanna, thanks! I’ve just changed it to July.
Pamela says
I just want to say how much I love this site. Your thoughtfulness, attention to detail, tireless dedication, obvious love of this genre just shines of the site. I also love how you share your own personal self. Thank you so much you’re amazing. Pam
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Pamela, thank you so much for your kind words! Messages like this really do brighten my day!
Hanna says
I finally concluded that I should not watch shows based on stories with which I am familiar. I am a fan of Joanne Fluke, but I finally gave up watching the adaptations on the Hallmark channel under “Murder she baked.” The characters are so different. And then, I remember an Agatha Christie story on PBS where the identity of the murderer was changed!
This past month PBS ran two Christie books from the “Partners in Crime” series. I’ve re-read both books. The first one, the Secret Adversary was OK. But the second N or M – we knew who the bad guys (and gals) were before the first episode was over. Did not bother to watch the rest.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Hanna, it can be a bit difficult watching a mystery you’re already familiar with, especially if you feel that they’ve “got it wrong”. Sometimes the best thing to do might just be to enjoy the version you’ve already come to love!
Petie says
I am set to record those that air while I’m not at home. But a ‘must see’ for me will be THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY. I’ve only seen it once before but the actor who is Dorian is wonderful. And the story line …. never a dull moment in this one.
Thanks so much for all your hard work … it is appreciated!!!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Petie, you’re very welcome! And yes, I’d definitely say that the Picture of Dorian Gray qualifies as a “must see.”