I have to say, for anyone who considers Barbara Stanwyck one the best actresses of all time, August is starting out with a big bang! Saturday, August 1, 2020 is an all-day celebration of Barbara Stanwyck movies >>> and I’m all in! I’ve seen most of them several times, but I enjoy them each and every time I watch them. (As if that isn’t enough, Sunday, August 23 will feature movies with Bette Davis in them!)
Unfortunately, August also brings us a month on the Turner Classic Movies channel that we won’t be seeing Eddie Muller or his film noir movies on Noir Alley. I real drag for many of us.
***** ***** ***** *****
TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES CHANNEL MYSTERY MOVIES – AUGUST 2020
***** ***** ***** *****
Saturday – August 1
5:00 AM
GAMBLING LADY (1934)
Two gamblers fall in love but one is already married to a possible murderer.
Dir: Archie Mayo Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Pat O’Brien.
BW- 66 mins, CC
10:00 AM
CRIME OF PASSION (1957)
An executive’s wife barters sex for her husband’s business success.
Dir: Gerd Oswald Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden, Raymond Burr.
BW- 86 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
11:30 AM
THE MOONLIGHTER (1953)
A former jailbird makes good after the wrong man is accused for his crime.
Dir: Roy Rowland Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Ward Bond.
BW- 78 mins, CC
3:00 PM
THE TWO MRS. CARROLLS (1947)
A woman slowly discovers that her artist husband is a deranged killer.
Dir: Peter Godfrey Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Alexis Smith.
BW- 99 mins, CC
9:00 PM
DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
An insurance salesman gets seduced into plotting a client’s death.
Dir: Billy Wilder Cast: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson.
BW- 108 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Sunday – August 2
1:15 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
9:00 AM
A FINE PAIR (1969)
A detective gets involved with a beautiful jewel thief.
Dir: Francesco Maselli Cast: Rock Hudson, Claudia Cardinale, Tomas Milian.
C- 89 mins, CC
4:15 PM
ICE STATION ZEBRA (1968)
A sub commander on a perilous mission must ferret out a Soviet agent on his ship.
Dir: John Sturges Cast: Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan.
C- 149 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
7:00 PM
PILLOW TALK (1959)
A man and woman carry their feud over the telephone line they share into their real lives.
Dir: Michael Gordon Cast: Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall.
C- 102 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
*****This is not a mystery movie, but it is a terrific Doris Day/Rock Hudson comedy.*****
***** ***** ***** *****
Monday – August 3
2:45 AM
PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW (1971)
A young man’s first sexual explorations are threatened by a string of murders.
Dir: Roger Vadim Cast: Rock Hudson, Angie Dickinson, Telly Savalas.
C- 91 mins, CC
5:00 AM
RENEGADE RANGER (1938)
A Texas Ranger discovers the man he’s chasing for murder is a woman.
Dir: David Howard Cast: George O’Brien, Rita Hayworth, Tim Holt.
BW- 59 mins, CC
11:30 AM
THE HAPPY THIEVES (1962)
A worldly art thief gets mixed up with murder.
Dir: George Marshall Cast: Rex Harrison, Rita Hayworth, Joseph Wiseman.
C- 89 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
***** ***** ***** *****
Friday – August 7
12:00 PM
MARY BURNS, FUGITIVE (1935)
Dir: William K. Howard Cast: Sylvia Sidney, Melvyn Douglas, Alan Baxter.
BW- 84 mins
1:30 PM
YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE (1937)
When he’s framed for murder, an escaped convict returns to crime to protect his wife and child.
Dir: Fritz Lang Cast: Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda, Barton MacLane.
BW- 85 mins, CC
3:15 PM
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
10:15 PM
SABOTAGE (1936)
An unhappily married woman discovers her husband is an enemy agent.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Sylvia Sidney, Oscar Homolka, Desmond Tester.
BW- 77 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Saturday – August 8
11:45 AM
MONSIEUR VERDOUX (1947)
A man woos and murders rich widows to support his invalid wife.
Dir: Charles Chaplin Cast: Charles Chaplin, Mady Correll, Allison Roddan.
BW- 124 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Sunday – August 9
7:00 PM
FOUL PLAY (1978)
An innocent woman stumbles onto a plot to murder the pope.
Dir: Colin Higgins Cast: Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Burgess Meredith.
C- 116 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Monday – August 10
1:00 AM
$ (DOLLARS) (1971)
A bank security expert plots with a call girl to rob a high-tech security bank.
Dir: Richard Brooks Cast: Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Gert FrObe.
C- 121 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Tuesday – August 11
8:00 AM
JOHNNY COOL (1963)
A deported gangster trains an Italian convict to take over his operations in the U.S.
Dir: William Asher Cast: Henry Silva, Elizabeth Montgomery, Richard Anderson.
BW- 102 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
4:45 PM
OCEAN’S 11 (1960)
A group of friends plot to rob a Las Vegas casino.
Dir: Lewis Milestone Cast: Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra.
C- 127 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
***** ***** ***** *****
Wednesday – August 12
10:00 PM
MADAME X (1966)
A fallen woman on trial for murder is defended by the son she abandoned years earlier.
Dir: David Lowell Rich Cast: Lana Turner, John Forsythe, Ricardo Montalban.
C- 100 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
12:00 AM
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946)
Illicit lovers plot to kill the woman’s older husband.
Dir: Tay Garnett Cast: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway.
BW- 113 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Thursday – August 13
3:30 PM
BULLDOG DRUMMOND COMES BACK (1937)
An old enemy kidnaps Bulldog Drummond’s fiancée.
Dir: Louis King Cast: John Barrymore, John Howard, Louise Campbell.
BW- 59 mins, CC
9:00 PM
DINNER AT EIGHT (1933)
A high-society dinner party masks a hotbed of scandal and intrigue.
Dir: George Cukor Cast: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery.
BW- 111 mins, CC
*****Not a mystery – but very funny.*****
***** ***** ***** *****
Friday – August 14
12:30 AM
ARSENE LUPIN (1932)
A gentleman thief risks his life in an attempt to steal the Mona Lisa.
Dir: Jack Conway Cast: John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Karen Morley.
BW- 84 mins, CC
3:15 PM
BULLITT (1968)
When mobsters kill the witness he was assigned to protect, a dedicated policeman investigates the case on his own.
Dir: Peter Yates Cast: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset.
C- 114 mins, CC
7:00 PM
THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1968)
A bored tycoon turns to bank robbery and courts the insurance investigator assigned to bring him in.
Dir: Norman Jewison Cast: Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, Paul Burke.
C- 102 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
***** ***** ***** *****
Saturday – August 15
6:15 AM
ESCAPE IN THE FOG (1945)
A nurse recovering from a breakdown keeps dreaming about murder.
Dir: Oscar Boetticher Jr. Cast: Otto Kruger, Nina Foch, William Wright.
BW- 63 mins, CC
9:15 PM
MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS (1945)
A young girl finds herself entrenched in a murder cover-up when she goes to work for a wealthy widow.
Dir: Joseph H. Lewis Cast: Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, George Macready.
BW- 65 mins, CC
10:30 PM
ILLEGAL (1955)
A DA falls apart when his machinations send an innocent man to the chair.
Dir: Lewis Allen Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Nina Foch, Hugh Marlowe.
BW- 88 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Sunday – August 16
2:00 AM
I LOVE A MYSTERY (1945)
A detective tries to protect a man who has predicted his murder will take place in three days.
Dir: Henry Levin Cast: Jim Bannon, Nina Foch, George Macready.
BW- 69 mins, CC
2:45 PM
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1944)
A young man about to be married discovers the two aunts who raised him have been poisoning lonely old men.
Dir: Frank Capra Cast: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey.
BW- 118 mins, CC
7:00 PM
TO CATCH A THIEF (1955)
A retired cat burglar fights to clear himself of a series of Riviera robberies committed in his style.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis.
C- 106 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
9:00 PM
CHARADE (1963)
A beautiful widow tries to find her husband’s lost fortune while eluding the killers who want it themselves.
Dir: Stanley Donen Cast: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau.
C- 113 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
***** ***** ***** *****
Monday – August 17
3:00 AM
ONCE UPON A HONEYMOON (1942)
A radio correspondent tries to rescue a burlesque queen from her marriage to a Nazi official.
Dir: Leo McCarey Cast: Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Walter Slezak.
BW- 115 mins, CC
5:00 AM
JAMAICA INN (1939)
A young woman on the British coast stumbles onto a ring of bloodthirsty scavengers.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Charles Laughton, Horace Hodges, Hay Petrie.
BW- 99 mins, CC
11:00 PM
THIS LAND IS MINE (1943)
A soft-spoken school teacher tries to prove he’s not a Nazi collaborator.
Dir: Jean Renoir Cast: Charles Laughton, Maureen O’Hara, George Sanders.
BW- 103 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Thursday – August 20
6:30 AM
THE KENNEL MURDER CASE (1933)
Society sleuth Philo Vance investigates a murder tied to a Long Island dog show.
Dir: Michael Curtiz Cast: William Powell, Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette.
BW- 73 mins, CC
11:00 AM
THE THIN MAN (1934)
A husband-and-wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O’Sullivan.
BW- 91 mins, CC
1:00 PM
ANOTHER THIN MAN (1939)
Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from investigating a murder on a Long Island estate.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Virginia Grey.
BW- 103 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Sunday – August 23
5:00 AM
MARKED WOMAN (1937)
A crusading DA fights to get a nightclub hostess to testify against her gangster boss.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon Cast: Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Lola Lane.
BW- 97 mins, CC
12:45 PM
A STOLEN LIFE (1946)
A twin takes her deceased sister’s place as wife of the man they both love.
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt Cast: Bette Davis, Glenn Ford, Dane Clark.
BW- 107 mins, CC
11:30 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.
BW- 134 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Monday – August 24
3:45 AM
SATAN MET A LADY (1936)
In the second screen version of The Maltese Falcon, a detective is caught between a lying seductress and a lady jewel thief.
Dir: William Dieterle Cast: Bette Davis, Warren William, Alison Skipworth.
BW- 74 mins, CC
8:30 AM
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
10:00 AM
RACE STREET (1948)
A night-club owner takes on the crooks who killed his best friend.
Dir: Edwin L. Marin Cast: George Raft, William Bendix, Marilyn Maxwell.
BW- 79 mins, CC
1:30 PM
RED LIGHT (1949)
An embezzler’s revenge on the businessman who turned him in leads to a bloody vendetta.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth Cast: George Raft, Virginia Mayo, Gene Lockhart.
BW- 83 mins, CC
7:00 PM
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.
BW- 95 mins, CC
10:45 PM
NOCTURNE (1946)
A police detective refuses to believe a composer’s death was suicide.
Dir: Edwin L. Marin Cast: George Raft, Lynn Bari, Virginia Huston.
BW- 87 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Tuesday – August 25
12:00 AM
MURDER, MY SWEET (1944)
Detective Philip Marlowe’s search for a two-timing woman leads him to blackmail and murder.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk Cast: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley.
BW- 95 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Wednesday – August 26
8:00 AM
21 DAYS (1940)
After accidentally killing his mistress’ husband, a man must decide whether to let another man hang for his crime.
Dir: Basil Dean Cast: Vivien Leigh, Leslie Banks, Laurence Olivier.
BW- 75 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Friday – August 28
7:00 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.
BW- 112 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Saturday – August 29
7:00 PM
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
An advertising man is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason.
C- 136 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Sunday – August 30
7:00 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.
BW- 111 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Monday – August 31
7:05 AM
SCORPIO (1973)
A CIA hit man is stalked by a former partner when the agency turns on him.
Dir: Michael Winner Cast: Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Frederick Jaeger.
C- 114 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
If you’re really looking forward to these or other mystery-themed tv specials 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 2020 television mystery movies schedule:
Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for July 2020 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.
(The above movie descriptions were taken off the TCM website.)
Yvonne says
Absolutely love these old movies, and I agree completely, Barbara Stanwyck was a great actress. I do enjoy rewatching a movie. Looking forward to Eddie Mullers return in September. Happy movie watching.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Yvonne, happy movie watching to you too!
M K Graff says
Cary Grant + Hitchcock- two faves!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
M K, that’s definitely a classic combination!
Michael says
This list is excellent… so many non A list great movies … Like Arsenic and Old Lace … Would love to know your favs and why.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Michael, I have to admit, Arsenic and Old Lace would definitely make my “A list”! And, well, I’ve never made any secret of my love for classic actresses like Barbara Stanwyck or Bette Davis!
Donna McLean says
Wow, so many great films to watch! The Two Mrs. Carrolls is one of my top Stanwyck films and Bogey films. That scene at the window when she’s in the room and all that happens, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet but that was scary! I jump out of my seat every time even though I know what’s about to happen!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Donna, that’s definitely a classic! I’m looking forward to re-watching it – as always!
Johanna B. says
Haven’t seen Foul Play in years. Looking forward to it.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Johanna, it’s always nice to go back to old favorites like that!
Teri W says
I was really looking forward to A Stolen Life and to Nocturn but it looks like TCM has changed their schedule for the latter part of the month.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Teri, I’m sorry to hear that – I’ll have to check the programs I’ve been looking forward to.