Great news for those of us who enjoy Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley – he’s back with the noir mysteries he selects for us to watch. I know Turner Classic Movies likes to show Oscar-winning movies during every February, but (to me!) it seems a shame they can’t spare just four hours every week during February for those of us who are totally addicted to these mystery movies – as well as Mr. Muller’s terrific introductions and wrap-ups at the beginning/end of each film noir he presents. Oh well, at least February is the shortest month of the year…
Without further ado, here are the mystery movies Turner Classic
Movies channel will be showing during March 2020:
***** ***** ***** *****
Sunday – March 1st
5:15 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
7:00 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.
BW- 86 mins, CC
12:30 PM
12 ANGRY MEN (1957)
A jury holdout tries to convince his colleagues to vote not guilty.
Dir: Sidney Lumet Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley.
BW- 96 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Monday – March 2nd
1:30 PM
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.
BW- 73 mins, CC
*****Wow! It’s Della Street!*****
3:00 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.
BW- 101 mins, CC
7:00 PM
LAURA (1944)
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he’s investigating.
Dir: Otto Preminger Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb.
BW- 88 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Tuesday – March 3rd
10:15 AM
THE BEAST OF THE CITY (1932)
A police captain leads the fight against a vicious gangland chief.
Dir: Charles Brabin Cast: Walter Huston, Jean Harlow, Wallace Ford.
BW- 86 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Wednesday – March 4th
5:00 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
6:30 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
*****I have seen this movie a few times over the years and can’t quite remember if it truly qualifies as a mystery…*****
8:30 AM
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
10:30 AM
THE LETTER (1940)
A woman claims to have killed in self-defense, until a blackmailer turns up with incriminating evidence.
Dir: William Wyler Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson.
BW- 95 mins, CC
12:15 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
2:45 PM
THE NANNY (1965)
A disturbed young man tries to prove his nanny is out to kill him.
Dir: Seth Holt Cast: Bette Davis, Wendy Craig, Jill Bennett.
BW- 93 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
4:45 PM
DEAD RINGER (1964)
A woman murders her rich twin and tries to take her place.
Dir: Paul Henreid Cast: Bette Davis, Karl Malden, Peter Lawford.
BW- 116 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Thursday – March 5th
5:00 AM
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.
BW- 115 mins, CC
1:00 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
***** ***** ***** *****
Friday – March 6th
9:15 AM
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
11:45 AM
BORN YESTERDAY (1950)
A newspaper reporter takes on the task of educating a crooked businessman’s girlfriend.
Dir: George Cukor Cast: Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, William Holden.
BW- 102 mins, CC
*****Not a mystery, but Judy Holliday is at her best!*****
***** ***** ***** *****
Saturday – March 7th
1:15 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
TEN LITTLE INDIANS (1966)
Party guests at a remote mansion have been brought together to pay for past crimes.
Dir: George Pollock Cast: Hugh O’Brian, Shirley Eaton, Fabian.
C- 90 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
***An adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel.*****
11:00 PM
RIDE THE PINK HORSE (1947)
A con man tries to blackmail a Mexican gangster.
Dir: Robert Montgomery Cast: Robert Montgomery, Thomas Gomez, Rita Conde.
BW- 101 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
Sunday – March 8th
2:00 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 Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavlow.
BW- 86 mins, CC
*****A rather different type of adaptation of one of Agatha Christie’s novel.*****
2:45 AM
MURDER MOST FOUL (1964)
Elderly sleuth Miss Marple joins a small-town theatre to investigate a murder.
Dir: George Pollock Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Ron Moody, Charles Tingwell.
BW- 91 mins, CC
*****Another rather different type of adaptation of one of Agatha Christie’s novel.*****
9:00 AM
RIDE THE PINK HORSE (1947)
A con man tries to blackmail a Mexican gangster.
Dir: Robert Montgomery Cast: Robert Montgomery, Thomas Gomez, Rita Conde.
BW- 101 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
Wednesday – March 11th
7:00 AM
THIRTEEN WOMEN (1932)
A mysterious Eurasian tries to murder the 12 boarding school roommates who treated her like an outsider.
Dir: George Archainbaud Cast: Irene Dunne, Ricardo Cortez, Jill Esmond.
C- 60 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Friday – March 13th
3:45 AM
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
4:45 AM
STRANGE JUSTICE (1932)
A crooked banker and his assistant devise a scheme to frame an ex-con for their crime.
Dir: Victor Schertzinger Cast: Marian Marsh, Reginald Denny, Richard Bennett.
BW- 64 mins, CC
7:45 AM
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.
BW- 95 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Saturday – March 14th
7:30 AM
SECRETS OF THE FRENCH POLICE (1932)
Strange crimes committed by a hypnotized woman are solved by a French detective.
Dir: Edward Sutherland Cast: Gwili Andre, Gregory Ratoff, Frank Morgan.
BW- 58 mins, CC
7:00 PM
ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976)
Two Washington Post reporters investigate the Watergate break-in that ended Nixon’s presidency.
Dir: Alan J. Pakula Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jason Robards Jr..
C- 138 mins, CC
11:30 PM
I WAKE UP SCREAMING (1941)
A celebrity promoter is accused of murdering one of his clients.
Dir: Bruce Humberstone Cast: Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis.
BW- 82 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Sunday – March 15th
9:00 AM
I WAKE UP SCREAMING (1941)
A celebrity promoter is accused of murdering one of his clients.
Dir: Bruce Humberstone Cast: Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis.
BW- 82 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Friday – March 20th
5:15 AM
A CRIMINAL IS BORN (1938)
This short film tells the story of how a young man starts a crime spree which leads to murder.
Dir: Leslie Fenton Cast: Dave Durand, Norman Phillips Jr., Dorothy Vaughan.
BW- 20 mins
1:00 PM
THE HONEYMOON KILLERS (1969)
A lonely nurse and her gigolo lover murder a string of widows.
Dir: Leonard Kastle Cast: Shirley Stoler, Tony LoBianco, Mary Jane Higby.
BW- 108 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
***** ***** ***** *****
Saturday – March 21st
7:29 AM
TORCHY BLANE IN PANAMA (1938)
An ambitious newspaper woman traces bank robbers to an ocean liner.
Dir: William Clemens Cast: Lola Lane, Paul Kelly, Tom Kennedy.
BW- 59 mins
5:00 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
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
9:00 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.
C- 108 mins, CC
11:00 PM
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1958)
A businessman kills his boss to cover up his affair with the man’s wife.
Dir: Louis Malle Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly.
BW- 92 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
Sunday – March 22nd
9:00 AM
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1958)
A businessman kills his boss to cover up his affair with the man’s wife.
Dir: Louis Malle Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly.
BW- 92 mins
***** ***** ***** *****
Wednesday – March 25th
6:45 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
8:45 AM
THE FALLEN SPARROW (1943)
Nazi spies pursue a Spanish Civil War veteran in search of a priceless keepsake.
Dir: Richard Wallace Cast: John Garfield, Maureen O’Hara, Walter Slezak.
BW- 94 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Thursday – March 26th
12:30 PM
CRIME WAVE (1954)
A reformed parolee is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter.
Dir: Andre DeToth Cast: Sterling Hayden, Gene Nelson, Phyllis Kirk.
BW- 74 mins, CC
1:45 PM
THE KILLING (1956)
A team of specialists plots a daring racetrack robbery, but they don’t reckon with human frailty.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick Cast: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards.
BW- 84 mins, CC
3:15 PM
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
***** ***** ***** *****
Friday – March 27th
6:15 AM
THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR (1937)
A phony psychic tries to solve a murder that took place during her seance.
Dir: George B. Seitz Cast: Dame May Whitty, Madge Evans, Lewis Stone.
BW- 67 mins, CC
7:30 AM
SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON (1964)
A medium kidnaps a child so she can help the police solve the crime.
Dir: Bryan Forbes Cast: Kim Stanley, Richard Attenborough, Mark Eden.
BW- 117 mins, CC
5:00 PM
THE HAUNTING (1963)
A team of psychic investigators moves into a haunted house that destroys all who live there.
Dir: Robert Wise Cast: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson.
BW- 112 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
***** ***** ***** *****
Saturday – March 28th
12:00 AM
AFTER OFFICE HOURS (1935)
A society newspaperwoman tries to prove to her editor that she can crack a murder case.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard Cast: Constance Bennett, Clark Gable, Stuart Erwin.
BW- 72 mins, CC
11:00 PM
CRIME WAVE (1954)
A reformed parolee is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter.
Dir: Andre DeToth Cast: Sterling Hayden, Gene Nelson, Phyllis Kirk.
BW- 74 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
Sunday – March 29th
5:00 AM
BIOGRAPHY OF A BACHELOR GIRL (1935)
A portrait painter is reunited with a lost love when her upcoming memoirs threaten his political career.
Dir: Edward H. Griffith Cast: Ann Harding, Robert Montgomery, Edward Everett Horton.
BW- 83 mins, CC
9:00 AM
CRIME WAVE (1954)
A reformed parolee is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter.
Dir: Andre DeToth Cast: Sterling Hayden, Gene Nelson, Phyllis Kirk.
BW- 74 mins, CC
***** ***** ***** *****
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 February 2020 television mystery movies schedule:
Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for February 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.)
Lee Ann says
Thank you so much for this list of mystery movies! I look forward to your posts every month and I’m looking forward to watching these classics!!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Lee Ann, you’re very welcome! I’m always glad to hear that the movies posts are helpful for people planning out their monthly viewing.
Deb Brod says
That’s my kind of month!!! Thank you for posting.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Deb, you’re very welcome!
Donna McLean says
I Wake Up Screaming is one of the creepiest films ever made, and it’s all done very subtly without noise and action and loud music and the usual stuff films use to scare us. It’s just very unsettling and always catches you off guard with something shocking. Really one of the best scary films ever made.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Donna, thanks for the recommendation (or reminder, for some of us) – I’ll definitely have to catch that one again!
Donna McLean says
It’s similar in sensibility to Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt. A completely different type of mystery, but that same kind of suspenseful storytelling that just gets more intense as the film goes on.
Trish says
Thank you for posting this. I was on the fence about scheduling my DVR for this movie. Now I’m looking forward to watching.
Tee Nelson says
Just like to share with fellow cozy fans my Whine.
Tried to set DVR for some of these (as Deb said “this is my kind of month”). Discovered at end of last year Comcast -at least in my area- has bundled TCM into NFL Red Zone extra package. Talk about marketing that makes little or no sense. Including dreaded ‘hold time’ was on phone with customer svc for over an hour to find out with their creative tier structures it would more expensive to reduce channels and add on Sports package. Looks like I’ll be renting the occasional favorite oldie. So keep that list coming, Danna! You’ll be my lifeline to what’s coming up! Thank you.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Tee, I’m sorry to hear that – I’ve certainly heard this about Comcast before. It’s certainly not a great combination – I’m sure there are some fans of both football and classic movies, but I’m sure that there are more people picking up the package that aren’t really getting much out of both sets of channels they have to pay for together.