This week:
* Monday night and Tuesday morning—We visit Michael Moore’s favorite island in four movies;
* Tuesday—Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan conflict in two films;
* Wednesday—Ryan menaces Van Heflin and Spencer Tracy in two movies (a bad idea in both cases);
* Thursday and Friday—Grace Kelly scintillates in three Hitchcock classics;
* Saturday—James Cagney blows up real good;
* Sunday—Stewart Granger swashes his buckle all over the place.
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Monday—November 9th
5:30 PM—Politics (1931)
Two women take on small-town racketeers.
Cast: Marie Dressler, Polly Moran, Roscoe Ates. Dir: Charles F. Reisner. BW-73 mins, TV-G
8:00 PM—Topaz (1969)
A French agent is sent to Cuba to spy for the CIA.
Cast: Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin, John Vernon. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. C-142 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format
10:30 PM—Our Man in Havana (1960)
A salesman in Cuba takes up spying to support his spendthrift daughter.
Cast: Alec Guinness, Maureen O’Hara, Noel Coward. Dir: Carol Reed. BW-107 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format
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Tuesday—November 10th
2:45 AM—Pier 5, Havana (1959)
An American in Cuba tries to thwart a bombing plot aimed at Castro.
Cast: Cameron Mitchell, Allison Hayes, Eduardo Noriega. Dir: Edward L. Cahn. BW-68 mins, TV-PG
4:00 AM—We Were Strangers (1949)
A Cuban American returns to his homeland during the Revolution and becomes involved in an assassination attempt.
Cast: Jennifer Jones, John Garfield, Pedro Armendariz. Dir: John Huston. BW-106 mins, TV-PG, CC
1:30 PM—The Racket (1951)
A tough cop has to fight his superiors in order to battle the mob.
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Lizabeth Scott, Robert Ryan. Dir: John Cromwell. BW-89 mins, TV-PG, CC
3:00 PM—On Dangerous Ground (1951)
A tough cop sent to help in a mountain manhunt falls for the quarry’s blind sister.
Cast: Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Ward Bond. Dir: Nicholas Ray. BW-82 mins, TV-PG, CC
4:30 PM—Beware, My Lovely (1952)
A widow discovers her handyman is an escaped mental patient.
Cast: Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Taylor Holmes. Dir: Harry Horner. BW-77 mins, TV-PG, CC
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Wednesday—November 11th
3:15 PM—Berlin Express (1948)
Allied agents fight an underground Nazi group in post-war Europe.
Cast: Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, Paul Lukas. Dir: Jacques Tourneur. BW-87 mins, TV-PG, CC
4:45 PM—Act of Violence (1949)
An embittered veteran tracks down a POW camp informer.
Cast: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh. Dir: Fred Zinnemann. BW-82 mins, TV-PG, CC
6:30 PM—Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero’s family.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis. Dir: John Sturges. C-82 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format, DVS
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Thursday—November 12th
8:00 PM—Dial M For Murder (1954)
A straying husband frames his wife for the murder of the man he’d hired to kill her.
Cast: Grace Kelly, Ray Milland, Robert Cummings. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. C-106 mins, TV-PG, CC
10:00 PM—Rear Window (1954)
A photographer with a broken leg uncovers a murder while spying on the neighbors in a nearby apartment building.
Cast: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. C-114 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format
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Friday—November 13th
8:00 AM—To Catch a Thief (1955)
A retired cat burglar fights to clear himself of a series of Riviera robberies committed in his style.
Cast: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. C-106 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format
10:00 AM—Candleshoe (1977)
A street urchin infiltrates a noblewoman’s impoverished household in search of hidden treasure.
Cast: David Niven, Helen Hayes, Jodie Foster. Dir: Norman Tokar. C-101 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format
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Saturday—November 14th
3:30 AM—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
10:00 AM—White Heat (1949)
A government agent infiltrates a gang run by a mother-fixated psychotic.
Cast: James Cagney, Edmond O’Brien, Virginia Mayo. Dir: Raoul Walsh. BW-114 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
12:00 PM—Thunder Road (1958)
A fast-driving moonshiner locks horns with a Chicago gangster.
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Gene Barry, Keely
Smith. Dir: Arthur Ripley. BW-93 mins, TV-PG, CC
8:00 PM—Saboteur (1942)
A young man accused of sabotage goes on the lam to prove his innocence.
Cast: Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane, Norman Lloyd. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. BW-109 mins, TV-PG, CC
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Sunday—November 15th
4:15 PM—The Prisoner of Zenda (1952)
An Englishman who resembles the king of a small European nation gets mixed up in palace intrigue when his look-alike is kidnapped.
Cast: Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, James Mason. Dir: Richard Thorpe. C-100 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
10:00 PM—Tall, Dark, and Handsome (1941)
A softhearted gangster tries to go straight.
Cast: Cesar Romero, Virginia Gilmore, Charlotte Greenwood. Dir: H. Bruce Humberstone. BW-78 mins.
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—Mike Gray