'Beyond a Reasonable Doubt' (1956)


This week TCM offers:
* several seldom-seen crime mellers from the ’30s (see Friday);
* the first and best The Manchurian Candidate (which, contrary to what some assert, is not about the current occupant of the White House — we hope) (see Monday);
* two Man from U.N.C.L.E. shows edited into feature-length films (see Thursday);
* and two films, one about the fallibility of man’s law, the other about the finality of God’s (see Sunday).

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

Monday—July 6th

6:00 AM—Psycho (1960)
A woman on the run gets mixed up with a repressed young man and his violent mother.
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock.
BW-109 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

8:00 AM—The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
A Korean War hero doesn’t realize he’s been programmed to kill by the enemy.
Cast: Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury.
Dir: John Frankenheimer.
BW-127 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

6:00 PM—Who Was That Lady? (1960)
A cheating husband convinces his wife his flirtations are actually spy missions.
Cast: Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Dean Martin.
Dir: George Sidney.
BW-114 mins, TV-G, Letterbox Format

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Tuesday—July 7th

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Wednesday—July 8th

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Thursday—July 9th

6:00 AM—To Trap a Spy (1964)
Secret agents try to stop the assassination of an African leader touring the U.S.
Cast: Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Luciana Paluzzi.
Dir: Don Medford.
C-93 mins, TV-PG

7:45 AM—The Spy with My Face (1966)
Enemy agents turn one of their own into a dead ringer for Man from U.N.C.L.E. Napoleon Solo.
Cast: Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Senta Berger.
Dir: John Newland.
C-86 mins, TV-PG

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Friday—July 10th

3:45 AM—Blind Alley (1939)
When a gangster takes him hostage, a psychiatrist psychoanalyzes the criminal.
Cast: Ralph Bellamy, Chester Morris, Ann Dvorak.
Dir: Charles Vidor.
BW-69 mins, TV-PG

5:00 AM—Each Dawn I Die (1939)
A crusading reporter becomes a hardened convict when he’s framed.
Cast: James Cagney, George Raft, Jane Bryan.
Dir: William Keighley.
BW-92 mins, TV-PG, CC

6:45 AM—The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Three WWI Army buddies get mixed up with the mob in peacetime.
Cast: James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart.
Dir: Raoul Walsh.
BW-107 mins, TV-G, CC

10:00 AM—The Good Bad Girl (1931)
A gangster’s moll tries to go straight to marry an honest man.
Cast: Mae Clarke, James Hall, Marie Prevost.
Dir: Roy William Neill.
BW-71 mins.

11:15 AM—Attorney for the Defense (1932)
A ruthless attorney tries to make amends for convicting an innocent man.
Cast: Edmund Lowe, Evelyn Brent, Constance Cummings.
Dir: Irving Cummings.
BW-72 mins, TV-PG

12:30 PM—Final Edition (1932)
A newswoman comes on to a mobster to solve the police commissioner’s murder.
Cast: Mae Clarke, Pat O’Brien, Mary Doran.
Dir: Howard Higgin.
BW-66 mins, TV-PG

6:00 PM—The Young in Heart (1938)
A family of con artists saves the life of a wealthy old woman and plots to fleece her.
Cast: Janet Gaynor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Paulette Goddard.
Dir: Richard Wallace.
BW-91 mins, TV-G

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Saturday—July 11th

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Sunday—July 12th

9:00 AM—Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
A novelist frames himself for murder to prove the fallibility of circumstantial evidence.
Cast: Dana Andrews, Joan Fontaine, Sidney Blackmer.
Dir: Fritz Lang.
BW-80 mins, TV-PG, CC

10:00 PM—The Night of the Hunter (1955)
A bogus preacher marries an outlaw’s widow in search of the man’s hidden loot.
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish.
Dir: Charles Laughton.
BW-93 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Mike Gray