This week:
* Richard Burton is feeling a draft (see Monday);
* the Falcon flies high (Wednesday and Friday);
* William Castle shoots for chills (Saturday);
* and Dick Tracy overcomes his arachnophobia (also Saturday).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Monday—August 31st
6:15 PM—The Man Between (1953)
An East Berliner helps a British woman trapped behind the Iron Curtain.
Cast: James Mason, Claire Bloom, Hildegard Knef.
Dir: Carol Reed.
BW-102 mins, TV-G
8:00 PM—The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
A British agent infiltrates the enemy by allowing himself to be disgraced at home.
Cast: Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner.
Dir: Martin Ritt.
BW-112 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format
———-
Tuesday—September 1st
6:00 AM—Flaxy Martin (1949)
Messing with a mobster’s girlfriend gets a lawyer framed for murder.
Cast: Zachary Scott, Virginia Mayo, Dorothy Malone.
Dir: Richard Bare.
BW-86 mins, TV-PG
7:30 AM—The Window (1949)
A boy who always lies witnesses a murder but can’t get anyone but the killer to believe him.
Cast: Bobby Driscoll, Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy.
Dir: Ted Tetzlaff.
BW-74 mins, TV-G, CC
8:45 AM—The Whip Hand (1951)
A small-town reporter investigates a mysterious group holed up in a country lodge.
Cast: Elliott Reid, Raymond Burr, Carla Balenda.
Dir: William C. Menzies.
BW-82 mins, TV-PG
10:15 AM—The Hour of 13 (1952)
A gentleman thief in Victorian England tries to reform and do one good deed.
Cast: Peter Lawford, Dawn Addams, Roland Culver.
Dir: Harold French.
BW-80 mins, TV-PG
2:00 PM—Mildred Pierce (1945)
A woman turns herself into a business tycoon to win her selfish daughter a place in society.
Cast: Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Jack Carson.
Dir: Michael Curtiz. BW-111 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
4:00 PM—Escape from East Berlin (1962)
An East German helps dig a tunnel beneath the Berlin Wall.
Cast: Don Murray, Christine Kaufmann, Werner Klemperer.
Dir: Robert Siodmak.
BW-89 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format
8:00 PM—Hangover Square (1945)
A composer who can’t control his creative temperament turns to murder.
Cast: Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell, George Sanders.
Dir: John Brahm.
BW-78 mins.
———-
Wednesday—September 2nd
3:30 AM—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
5:00 AM—The Set-Up (1949)
An aging boxer defies the gangsters who’ve ordered him to throw his last fight.
Cast: Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, George Tobias.
Dir: Robert Wise.
BW-73 mins, TV-PG, CC
7:45 AM—The Gay Falcon (1942)
A society sleuth tries to break up an insurance scam.
Cast: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Gladys Cooper.
Dir: Irving Reis.
BW-67 mins, TV-G, CC
———-
Thursday—September 3rd
2:45 AM—Notorious (1946)
A U.S. agent recruits a German expatriate to infiltrate a Nazi spy ring in Brazil.
Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. BW-101 mins, TV-PG, CC
12:00 PM—The Man in the Net (1959)
An artist falsely accused of ransacking his own house is proved innocent by the children of the neighborhood.
Cast: Alan Ladd, Carolyn Jones, Diane Brewster.
Dir: Michael Curtiz.
BW-97 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format
2:00 PM—The Blue Dahlia (1946)
A veteran fights to prove he didn’t kill his cheating wife.
Cast: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix.
Dir: George Marshall.
BW-99 mins, TV-PG, CC
———-
Friday—September 4th
10:00 AM—Seven Miles from Alcatraz (1942)
Escaped convicts land at a lighthouse being used by Nazi spies.
Cast: James Craig, Bonita Granville, Frank Jenks.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk.
BW-62 mins, TV-PG
1:00 PM—The Falcon Strikes Back (1943)
A society sleuth is framed for murder by criminals running a war-bond racket.
Cast: Tom Conway, Harriet Hilliard, Edgar Kennedy.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk. BW-66 mins, TV-G
2:15 PM—Cornered (1946)
A World War II veteran hunts down the Nazi collaborators who killed his wife.
Cast: Dick Powell, Walter Pidgeon, Morris Carnovsky.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk. BW-103 mins, TV-PG, CC
———-
Saturday—September 5th
2:30 AM—I Saw What You Did (1965)
A prank call turns deadly when two teenagers dial a murderer’s number.
Cast: Joan Crawford, John Ireland, Sara Lane.
Dir: William Castle.
BW-82 mins.
4:00 AM—Homicidal (1961)
A nurse and her husband conspire to collect a rich inheritance.
Cast: Glenn Corbett, Patricia Breslin, Eugenie Leontovich.
Dir: William Castle.
BW-87 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format
"The more adventurous among you may remember our previous excursions into the macabre — our visits to haunted hills — to tinglers and to ghosts. This time we have even a stranger tale to unfold … The story of a lovable group of people who just happen to be homicidal."
15-p
art Dick Tracy serial starts today; here are the chapter titles:
‘The Spider Strikes’ (29 min 31s)
‘The Bridge of Terror’ (19 min 11s)
‘The Fur Pirates’ (20 min 25s)
‘Death Rides the Sky’ (20 min 49s)
‘Brother Against Brother’ (19 min 14s)
‘Dangerous Waters’ (16 min 52s)
‘The Ghost Town Mystery’ (20 min 11s)
‘Battle in the Clouds’ (18 min 40s)
‘The Stratosphere Adventure’ (18 min 00s)
‘The Gold Ship’ (18 min 28s)
‘Harbor Pursuit’ (16 min 35s)
‘The Trail of the Spider’ (17 min 39s)
‘The Fire Trap’ (16 min 45s)
‘The Devil in White’ (20 min 35s)
‘Brothers United’ (16 min 59s)
Note: The TCM website lists The Bridge of Terror before The Spider Strikes.
9:00 AM—The Spider Strikes (1937)
In the first chapter of Dick Tracy, the famed detective takes on the diabolical head of a criminal ring.
Cast: Ralph Byrd, Kay Hughes, Smiley Burnette.
Dir: Alan James, Ray Taylor.
BW-29 mins.
9:30 AM—The Bridge of Terror (1937)
In the second chapter of Dick Tracy, the famed detective is trapped beneath a collapsing bridge.
Cast: Ralph Byrd, Kay Hughes, Smiley Burnette.
Dir: Alan James, Ray Taylor.
BW-19 mins.
———-
Sunday—September 6th
8:00 AM—Gilda (1946)
A gambler discovers an old flame in South America, but she’s married to his new boss.
Cast: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready.
Dir: Charles Vidor.
BW-110 mins, TV-PG, CC
~~~~~~~~~~~
—Mike Gray