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Four Star Playhouse

6.8(11)
First Aired:September 25, 1952
Seasons:4 seasons
Episodes:129
Status:Ended

Four Star Playhouse is an American television anthology series that ran from 1952 to 1956, sponsored in its first bi-weekly season by The Singer Company; Bristol-Myers became an alternate sponsor when it became a weekly series in the fall of 1953. The original premise was that Charles Boyer, Ida Lupino, David Niven, and Dick Powell would take turns starring in episodes. However, several other performers took the lead from time to time, including Ronald Colman and Joan Fontaine. Blake Edwards was among the writers and directors who contributed to the series. Edwards created the recurring character of illegal gambling house operator Willie Dante for Dick Powell to play on this series. The character was later revamped and spun off in his own series starring Howard Duff, then-husband of Lupino. The pilot for Meet McGraw, starring Frank Lovejoy, aired here, as did another episode in which Lovejoy recreated his role of Chicago newspaper reporter Randy Stone, from the radio drama Nightbeat.

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Seasons & Episodes

E1My Wife Geraldine

30m

Sep 25, 1952

Man invents a wife, then accused of murdering her.

E2Dante's Inferno

30m

Oct 2, 1952

Willie Dante owns a bar and gambling house called Dante's Inferno. One night, the wife of an acquaintance tells Willie that her husband has threatened her. Willie comforts her and sends her home, but she turns up dead the next day.

E3The Lost Silk Hat

30m

Oct 23, 1952

Englishman must retrieve his hat after visiting his love.

E4Backstage

30m

Nov 6, 1952

An actor named Paul is out on an evening stroll when he sees a young woman attempting to jump off a bridge. After a struggle, he discovers her name is Amy and she is homeless. Paul believes $5 could mean the difference between decency & despair so he pays for Amy to stay in a hotel for the night, agreeing to meet her the next day. Amy is nowhere to be found when Paul returns. He worries and begins the search for this mysterious woman.

E5Welcome Home

30m

Nov 20, 1952

A notorious criminal returns to his home town after 15 years away, and a young man wants to join him in notoriety and, probably, death at the hands of police.

E6The Island

30m

Dec 4, 1952

Rebellious physician on an island in the South Pacific.

E7The Officer and the Lady

30m

Dec 18, 1952

A reformed pickpocket in Paris obtains the purse of an attractive woman. He reads a letter telling about her dying son, and he decides to grant the boy's wish to meet his father.

E8Knockout

30m

Jan 1, 1953

Middleweight boxer finds his big bout has been fixed.

E9Man on a Train

30m

Jan 15, 1953

William encounters an old acquaintance, John Dwerrihouse, on a train with 75,000 pounds. Only later did William learn that Dwerrihouse had disappeared four months earlier after embezzling 75,000 pounds from the train company.

E10Trail's End

30m

Jan 29, 1953

A famous marshal of Dodge City sets out in search of the murderous Sonoma Kid and runs into a tragedy of the desert.

E11Sound Off, My Love

30m

Feb 12, 1953

Woman buys hearing aid and hears husband plot her murder.

E12The Man in the Box

30m

Feb 26, 1953

Boyer plays four roles in story of a director and his woes.

E13No Identity

30m

Mar 12, 1953

Young boy fights to win his foster mother's love.

E14The Man Who Walked Out On Himself

30m

Mar 26, 1953

After separating from his wife, a wealthy clubman is about to marry a much young woman -- whereupon his mirror image walks out on him in disgust.

E15The Last Voyage

30m

Apr 23, 1953

Sea captain discovers a time bomb is planted on his ship.

E16Night Ride

30m

May 7, 1953

Five people, one a murderer, are trapped on subway.

E17The Ladies On His Mind

30m

May 21, 1953

A psychiatrist listens to his female patients go on about their troubles. As they talk, he imagines himself within each of their stories.

E18To Whom It May Concern

30m

Jun 4, 1953

A bank employee mails a letter to his boss confessing to stealing $7000 and includes the stocks he bought with the money. As he puts a gun to his head, he sees in the paper that the stocks' worth have gone through the roof. Now he wants to live and goes on a frantic chase to get the letter back from the post office before it gets delivered.

E19Shadowed

30m

Jun 18, 1953

Past haunts politician running for Senator.

E1Finale

30m

Sep 24, 1953

Steve Carlyle is an actor who can't find work because his famous nearly identical cousin Roger takes measures to keep him from getting any parts that would gain Steve any public exposure, because Roger knows that Steve is a better actor.

E2The Squeeze

30m

Oct 1, 1953

Another of the great Willie Dante stories. Stan, the son of the DA, is a secret gambler. He loses big in Willie's joint and pays by check. Stan's pretty sister shows up to ask Willie's help. Deras, a gangster up before the Grand Jury, wants to get hold of Stan's check to blackmail the DA. He shows up at Dante's and Willie turns over the check at gunpoint. Never to be out-witted, Willie has Lt. Waldo waiting in the wings to get the checks back, have Deras arrested, and win Stan's sister.

E3A Place Of His Own

30m

Oct 8, 1953

The Commander, a mildly brain injured war hero, lives with his greedy family. All he wants is his own house, while all they want is to preserve their failing wealth, at all costs. When Frank, his younger brother, kills a man over a gambling debt, the family convinces Claude that he is the one that did it. He takes the blame, but instead of being arrested, he is given a $10,000 reward because the dead man was a most wanted criminal.

E4Love At Sea

30m

Oct 15, 1953

A journalist's wife who, while alone on a sea voyage, becomes the center of male attention.

E5The Witness

30m

Oct 22, 1953

A suave attorney is hired to defend a man on trial for robbery and murder. The attorney finds the real culprit and solves the mystery in the courtroom.

E6A Matter Of Advice

30m

Oct 29, 1953

Weary Dr. Gentry gets no rest from his irritating patients. The pediatrician deals with ill-mannered kids and parents who can't make a move without checking with him first. An evening out with his wife to watch their oldest daughter star in "Romeo and Juliet" becomes a disaster when a panicked new mother interrupts the balcony scene with a silly phone call.

E7Search in the Night

24m

Nov 5, 1953

A newspaper reporter is intrigued as to why a woman hired a dive team to retrieve her purse from the Chicago River.

E8Moorings

30m

Nov 12, 1953

A sickly aging shipping magnate falls in love with a blind mother.

E9The Hard Way

30m

Nov 19, 1953

Vic breaks the bank at Willie's gambling hall, and Willie unknowingly pays him off with counterfeit money. When Vic threatens him, Willie convinces him that they've both been duped, and they cooperate to track down the real culprit.

E10For Art`s Sake

30m

Nov 26, 1953

Ted Parker enlists his friend Addy, a famous art expert, into an elaborate ruse to portray his budding love interest as a break-out artist, despite her lack of talent.

E11The Girl On The Park Bench

30m

Dec 3, 1953

A beautiful, intelligent, and politically savvy young woman takes up residency in the city park to protest the Mayor's decision to end rent control on apartments. The comically ornery mayor seems to have met his match! Sparks fly as the Mayor dispatches the city's handsome attorney in an attempt to oust the young woman, who gives her a friendly warning that she will get evicted and lose in court. The tables get turned as the woman proves she is also good at law, but after some very interesting negotiations, all's well that ends well.

E12The Room

30m

Dec 10, 1953

A doctor encounters suspicion and a dark secret when he rents a house in Cuba.

E13A Man Of The World

30m

Dec 17, 1953

Predictable Andy Bush is taking a train to his annual three week vacation without his wife. A young woman in trouble approaches him and asks him to help her by pretending to be her husband.

E14The Gift

30m

Dec 24, 1953

Businessman Carl Baxter is a good boss for 364 days a year, but his memories of his estrangement with his son causes his mood to change at Christmas.

E15House For Sale

30m

Dec 31, 1953

A woman visits an isolated house expecting to meet with the realtor. Instead, she encounters a murderer who's escaped from a mental hospital. When a couple drops in to tour the home, she tries to escape with them, but they refuse to believe her story of a killer with a body in the fireplace.

E16The Test

30m

Jan 7, 1954

A test pilot learns that it's possible that his sick daughter could have polio, just before he tests a new military plane.

E17The Bad Streak

30m

Jan 14, 1954

An honest professional casino owner runs into bad luck with impending insolvency or sale of his property. He also runs into his ""long-lost"" never forgotten misdirected son who is obsessed to better his hated father at gambling for having abandoned (rejected) him in infancy when it was all the doing of his guardian, one-time socialite, protective maternal grandmother who has fallen from her lofty position as well. Honor, love and pride play their roles.

E18A String of Beads

30m

Jan 21, 1954

Joan Robinson works as a governess for a wealthy family. She attends a party thrown by her employer and, although she is an attractive young woman, she is completely ignored until one of the guests, Count Borselli, appraises the beads she is wearing as a valuable string of pearls. She proteststo no avail, knowing they are imitations. Her whole life changes. She is invited to parties, and wooed by a fortune hunter. When it's finally learned that the beads are worthless, she is fired and her suitor loses interest. The count admits that, provoked by the snobbish socialites, he deliberatly lied about the beads. In the end, he and the governess fall in love.

E19Indian Taker

30m

Jan 28, 1954

A comedy of errors about an insurance executive’s wife. At a party, the impulse suddenly comes over her and she proceeds to steal the jewels of all wealthy guests, who happen to be insured by her husband’s firm.

E20Second Dawn

30m

Feb 4, 1954

A blind man has a chance for surgery to restore his sight, but it may last for just a few minutes.

E21The Gun

30m

Feb 11, 1954

A police detective returns home to his family one morning only to have his meal interrupted by a constant stream of people: the milkman, his neighbor, the postman, the grocery boy, and a salesman. Afterwards, he finds that his gun is missing. In a panic that slowly turns to paranoia, he realizes that each of the visitors had said something that makes them a suspect.

E22The Bomb

30m

Feb 18, 1954

An engaged couple and the woman's former suitor take shelter in an abandoned house, too late to notice an unexploded bomb. Their retreat is cut off by a cave-in, and they must defuse the bomb with instructions delivered over a phone line.

E23Meet McGraw: Long Count

30m

Feb 25, 1954

McGraw, a private eye, is hired by Lila Lamont to protect her from her threatening husband Louis.

E24Detective`s Holiday

30m

Mar 4, 1954

A detective (Dick Powell) takes a trip to a cabin in the woods to get away from it all. A man, his wife, and his two kids entertain him. When one of the kids let's it slip that their step-mother just got her blond hair, the detective predicts she is running from the law and decides to check it out.

E25Operation In Money

30m

Mar 11, 1954

The chief teller of a bank openly embezzles a large sum of money to extort a pay raise from the bank's board of directors.

E26Lady of the Orchids

30m

Mar 18, 1954

An architect's wife endangers his career when she is involved in a car accident. While on a ride to a roadhouse, she accidentally spills brandy on the driver, with whom she has been flirting. The driver is assumed to be responsible for the fatal crash, and only the wife's testimony can save him.

E27The Book

30m

Apr 1, 1954

A stranger tussles with John over a library book and is struck and killed by a passing car. John discovers a message in the book and follows it to a blind meeting, only to be mistaken for a hit man with an assassination team.

E28A Study In Panic

30m

Apr 8, 1954

Wise-guy newspaperman Fred Jordan writes a column making fun of "normal" men who panic during a fire. Soon afterward he gets a letter from a deranged man who promises Jordan that he will soon know the "real" meaning of the word "panic"--because within 24 hours, the man is going to kill Jordan.

E29Masquerade

30m

Apr 15, 1954

A costume ball during the New Orleans Mardi Gras turns sour when the family hosting the festivities discovers that their cousin has escaped from jail.

E30Village In The City

30m

Apr 22, 1954

An artist turns detective to find out who murdered his favorite model and left the body in his studio.

E31The Doctor and the Countess

30m

Apr 29, 1954

A famous plastic surgeon is recruited to severely disfigure the face of a beautiful countess, in order to relate to her husband, who was burned and disfigured in a serious accident and has become a recluse.

E1Man in the Cellar

30m

Sep 30, 1954

A little girl who regularly talks to imaginary friends grows frustrated when her parents refuse to believe that there is a real man in the cellar.

E2Never Explain

30m

Oct 7, 1954

A novice social worker is dispatched to the home of a widower who refuses to send his children to school.

E3Interlude

30m

Oct 14, 1954

A young woman from a wealthy family is graduating from an exclusive school with neither her parents nor close friends attending. In her lonliness, she becomes infatuated with an older man, a divorced newspaper reporter.

E4The Wallet

30m

Oct 21, 1954

A French waiter with more pride than money will not stand for his sickly wife to be admitted to a free public hospital. When a wealthy customer leaves behind a wallet containing thousands of dollars, the server takes it to upgrade his wife's medical care. Their son also becomes a thief to pay the bills.

E5The Adolescent

30m

Oct 28, 1954

A school teacher on the disciplinery board, finds herself investigating her nephew's misconduct.

E6The Contest

30m

Nov 4, 1954

The head of detectives runs into problems when he suspect his fiancé has committed murder.

E7Vote Of Confidence

30m

Nov 11, 1954

A con man, recently released from prison, attempts to recoup his fortunes by convincing an heiress' secretary that he needs funds to run an orphanage.

E8My Own Dear Dragon

30m

Nov 18, 1954

A successful playwright does his best to avoid reading the script written by his young new wife. She can't understand why he refuses to encourage her. At a party celebrating his 25th year in the theatre, he reveals the incident from his past that causes him to discourage her writing.

E9Marked Down

30m

Nov 25, 1954

A woman who works at a fancy dress shop is determined to meet and marry the millionaire whose office is next door. Once she is asked out, she realizes that money doesn't make a person. Meanwhile, a young boy is buying a dress on layaway for his mother's birthday, but there's more to his story.

E10Meet A Lonely Man

30m

Dec 2, 1954

An attractive young lady mistakes a lonely hotel desk clerk for a Texas oil millionaire she'd once met. Loving the attention she's lavishing on him, he plays along...until his big spending catches up with him.

E11Bourbon Street

30m

Dec 9, 1954

A musician returns to New Orleans after breaking into the bigtime. Though his ex-wife deserted him, he is bent on revenge after receiving an anonymous letter telling him she committed suicide after being mistreated by her lover.

E12A Championship Affair

30m

Dec 16, 1954

A renowned professional bridge champion (Boyer) returns to (openly) woo his long lost, but married, love (Miles). In circuitous fashion, his unselfish love leads him to (secretly) help her bridge-addicted husband (Ross Elliott) choose to finally gain success in life.

E13The Answer

30m

Dec 23, 1954

A cynical Hollywood writer returns to his hometown. At a bar he meets a drunken, disillusioned playwright. The writer challenges the playwright to relate his play, which he does, holding the audience rapt in his gripping recital.

E14Go Ahead And Jump

30m

Dec 30, 1954

Eddie, a cab driver, picks up a sad looking fare and brings him to a hotel where he witnesses the man being humiliated by his ex-wife. When the man asks to be taken to the middle of the biggest bridge, Eddie uses some every day, hard-nosed psychology, and a little lie, to make the man see that life is worth living.

E15A Bag Of Oranges

30m

Jan 6, 1955

Believing her husband innocent of the crime he is to be executed for, his wife takes up a vigil the night of the scheduled execution at a nearby café. A curious reporter wonders about the bag of oranges she carries with her.

E16Stuffed Shirt

30m

Jan 11, 1955

A seemingly cuckolded working-class husband (Boyer), in tropical setting, must resort to a life-risking ruse (in court) to rid himself of his bigamous, greedy and potentially blackmailing wife who would not otherwise reveal her own lack of virtuosity.

E17Breakfast in Bed

30m

Jan 20, 1955

An artist is enticed away from his lucrative commercial advertising contracts by a young model who shows obvious disappointment that he is not striving to achieve his potential as a creative artist.

E18The Good Sister

30m

Jan 27, 1955

A nun in German orphanage during World War II will is determined to marry her oldest orphan to an American serviceman in order to secure a future for her.

E19A Kiss for Mr. Lincoln

30m

Feb 3, 1955

A young woman teaches her timid husband some things about love when he tries to show her the importance of supporting Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency.

E20Fair Trial

30m

Feb 10, 1955

Chicago television newsman Dave Sheridan (Dick Powell) arrives in a small Ohio town, Hadenville, where Richard Fulton has just been lynched. The chief of police (Edward R. Platt) tells Sheridan he confessed to killing sweet old Mrs. Winslow and the town went wild. Sheridan plans on doing a piece exposing how sick the town is. Hotel clerk Carol (Jean Howell) wants him to give the town a "fair trial".

E21The Wild Bunch

30m

Feb 17, 1955

After a charmer sweeps a pretty widow off her feet and marries her in haste, she confesses that she has money and three children. He has no problem with the money, but the thought of instant fatherhood gives him pause.

E22Tusitala

30m

Feb 24, 1955

The true story of Robert Louis Stevenson's stay on the island of Tahiti. The islanders have come to revere him as Tusitala-Teller of Tales. They believe he is magical and powerful. When the two opposing chiefs of the island plan war against one another out of petty jealousy, Tusitala uses his wits to convince both chiefs to make peace and save the tranquility of the island.

E23The Returning

30m

Mar 3, 1955

An American professor in Japan falls in love with a half-breed former student in 1941. He is fired for violating school policy, so he returns to America, resolved to bring his intended to America once settled. World War II intervenes.

E24Eddie`s Place

30m

Mar 10, 1955

Ellen is released from a punitive work farm without means, but Eddie befriends her and gives her a job at his restaurant. She wants to go straight, but Eddie pressures her to cover for some of his own shady activities.

E25Henry And The Psychopathic Horse

30m

Mar 17, 1955

After falling for a medical student, a New York City psychiatrist travels to her family ranch to announce their engagement. Her father hates city slickers and expect her to marry a rancher to run the estate. To win his woman's hand, Henry's challenged to ride an unbroken stallion known as a "killer." He puts his professional skills to work on the horse.

E26Night At Lark Cottage

Mar 24, 1955

A woman with no companion other than her young daughter knows that an escaped convict is on his way to kill her.

E27The Girl On The Bridge

30m

Mar 31, 1955

After drawing and painting an unknown young woman he met on a bridge near his vacation retreat, an artist (Dick Powell) is desperate to find her again when the painting begins calling to him.

E28The Collar

30m

Apr 7, 1955

The night before the military plans to massacre a warring tribe of Blackfoot Indians, an imprisoned and tortured priest comes out from the tribe to ask for mercy.

E29Madeira, Madeira

30m

Apr 14, 1955

The untimely death of his artist friend causes a failing writer to visit the widow to pay his condolences and pursue suspicions about her. When he arrives, the cheerful widow presents him with an offer he finds both puzzling and attractive. His acceptance leads him to the discovery of the fate of his friend.

E30With All My Heart

30m

Apr 21, 1955

An overweight woman watches her doctor boyfriend marry someone else.

E31The House Always Wins

30m

Apr 28, 1955

Willie Dante, the tough but suave owner of a nightclub and illegal back room casino. One evening, Willie sees an old flame with a man and another couple, The woman, still caring for Willie, tells him that the people she's with are planning to rob his casino. Willie outwits them and keeps his former love from being arrested.

E32Uncle Fred Flits By

30m

May 5, 1955

Uncle Fred descends upon a suburban home, completely disrupts the lives of the family by his eccentric behaviour, and brings two young lovers together. His unwilling accomplice, and a horrified spectator of this chaos, is his nephew, Pongo.

E33Alias Mr. Hepp

30m

May 12, 1955

Frank Hepp has made his career charming rich, unhappy women out of their fortunes. His parole officer orders him avoid all women, but he can't help himself when a single wealthy woman moves in next door. Mr. Hepp's plan to fleece his new victim runs afoul when he actually falls for her.

E34Trudy

30m

May 26, 1955

A young woman is planning her wedding to a groom whom no one believes exists outside her own wishful dreams.

E35Broken Journey

30m

Jun 2, 1955

Two cops transporting prisoner Cookie decide on a layover in the city of Westover, temporarily placing Cookie in the local jail while they freshen up elsewhere. Cookie devises a plot to snooker the locals into releasing him.

E36The Executioner

30m

Jun 9, 1955

A complex web of deception is revealed during the investigation of the assassination of a police official. In a foreign country during the Cold War, an American doctor is accused to being a spy and targeted for murder, but the wrong man is killed. But, perhaps, the right man died after all.

E37The Frightened Woman

30m

Jun 23, 1955

A woman's loneliness leads her to re-experience her long repressed (20-year old) pain-associated memories (albeit benign themselves). The mystery: is she (Oberon) insane (hallucinations or phantasms?), will her busy businessman husband (Stevens) rediscover his more nurturing side (in other words will he ever finally land the account), and will a therapist (Beaumont) help bring it all together for the better and for us to make good sense of it?

E38Award

30m

Jun 30, 1955

Valerie is a world famous movie actress who just bombed on her first attempt at live acting on Broadway. She goes to Ben, renowned acting instructor, to teach her how to be a live actress. He refuses unless she can succeed at a challenge.

E1The Firing Squad

30m

Oct 6, 1955

A WWII captain must oversee an execution he doesn't want to happen.

E2The Face of Danger

30m

Oct 13, 1955

A 100-year-old woman who recalls her romance with a desperado during the days of the old West.

E3Let the Chips Fall

30m

Oct 20, 1955

A reformed card sharp is recruited to unmask a suspected poker cheat among a group of wealthy gamblers. He finds it difficult to be impartial when the suspect enthusiastically befriends him.

E4Full Circle

30m

Oct 27, 1955

A particularly bad review causes a Broadway actress to scheme to humiliate the drama critic.

A Spray of Bullets

E5A Spray of Bullets

30m

Nov 3, 1955

A former sheriff, Will Sonnett, known for his fast draw shows up in Mesa to see an optometrist; he's become nearsighted and badly needs glasses. Also in town is a punk gunfighter who wants to make a name for himself. Knowing Sonnett has vision problems, he challenges the lawman to a duel.

E6The Devil to Pay

30m

Nov 10, 1955

In Hell, the administrating office is hopelessly out of date and incompetent, so Satan enlists the help of an exceptionally aggressive and heartless businessman to modernize the place. He installs an IBM system and soon it's the picture of efficiency, much, it turns out, to the businessman's regret.

E7Here Comes the Suit

30m

Nov 17, 1955

A milquetoast employee at a novelty company is overlooked by everyone from his boss to the woman he crushes on. But after being suckered by a shady tailor into getting a shockingly garish suit, he's whistled at by woman and mistaken for a gangster. His newly found self-confidence fits him well.

E8Looking Glass House

30m

Nov 24, 1955

A woman is surprised when her fiancé turns out to have been married before.

E9Something Very Special

30m

Dec 1, 1955

Alan moves to America when his wife dies, leaving his young daughter with her grandmother in Paris. When he returns after five years, his daughter has difficulty believing that he loves her.

E10A Place Full of Strangers

30m

Dec 8, 1955

Industrialist Fleet Mason, a workaholic who doesn't realize how many lives he effects with his stressed-out working habits. When he thinks his loving wife has hung up on him in disgust, he re-evaluates his life by taking an imaginary bus trip to Meadville"". The trip is to nowhere and is full of psychological imagery. In a smoke shrouded bus terminal he meets all the people in his life as total strangers. When he meets his wife and realizes she doesn't recognize him, he becomes despondent. Only when his father appears and guides him to the exit does he realize how he must alter his life.

E11One Way Out

30m

Dec 15, 1955

A wealthy woman separates from her fortune-hunting husband. She rents a swanky New York penthouse in a building so new that she is the only one living there. When she awakens from a nap, she finds herself trapped in the apartment. Her estranged husband and his girlfriend are after her money and are hoping this will drive her crazy.

E12Dark Meeting

30m

Jan 5, 1956

When her long-time pin-boy retires, bowling proprietress hires the one guy who answers her want-ad right away. He turns out to be an escaped committed psychotic who, lonely and always lacking in the social skills, never received the nurturing of a friend [you think]. We know it but it takes some time before she becomes aware. While waiting for the police to come to apprehend him, she lets him walk her home through the park while lending him her sympathetic ear. Dealing with a psychotic might take some finesse. How will HE take it? And how will he take IT?

E13Magic Night

30m

Jan 12, 1956

Upset that his 25 years of service for the company are unappreciated, Henri treats himself to an expensive night on the town, on the company's dime. He then comes to his senses, distraught that his embezzlement will be discovered.

E14Tunnel of Fear

30m

Jan 19, 1956

While traveling alone in a train compartment, an elderly, wealthy, wheelchair-bound man (Cedric Hardwicke) is confronted by a younger man (David Niven), whom he had double-crossed over twenty years ago. The younger man, now bent on revenge, tells the elderly man that he intends to kill him when the train passes through an upcoming tunnel. A battle of wits ensues.

E15High Stakes

30m

Jan 26, 1956

An employee catches attractive Mrs. Raymond making a pass at Willie, then Mr. Raymond comes to the club with a gun to get even. Willie shoots him in self defense, but Willie is framed when Mr. Raymond's gun disappears.

E16The Listener

30m

Feb 2, 1956

Sheila and her brother engineer a gas leak to kill her husband so they can split the insurance money. Overhearing the plot is the husband's invalid father, but it's no concern because he can't speak or write. Sheila doesn't realize he is able to communicate with his nurse through his eyes.

E17Safe Keeping

30m

Feb 9, 1956

The chancellor of a foreign university gives newspaperman Frank Carstairs a document to smuggle out of the country. He anticipates being charged with treason by the totalitarian government and he wants the free world to know he did not willingly join their side. Meanwhile, Frank carries on an affair with a sexy foreign spy who seems to be playing both sides of the fence.

E18No Limit

30m

Feb 16, 1956

Suave restaurateur-gambler Willie Dante rebuffs the attempt of racketeers to cash in on his gambling activities. He appears to change his mind, however, due to the influence of a beautiful woman.

E19Command

30m

Feb 23, 1956

The first mate on a merchant ship has been waiting for years to take command of the ship. When the elderly captain makes a mistake at a time when the ship is in danger the first mate sees his chance.

E20Once to Every Woman

30m

Mar 1, 1956

At a particularly vulnerable time in her life, Carol is wooed by charming David. They fall in love, but Carol then learns that David is married. He says that he will get divorced for her, but Carol is visited by David's wife.

E21Red Wine

30m

Mar 8, 1956

A police detective travels to Borneo looking for an American who murdered his wife for a huge insurance payoff. There are only three Americans there, all on a rubber plantation, but none fits the physical description. Once his cover is blown, the detective comes clean and tells the men he thinks none of them are his man. But he knows the killer is a wine connoisseur and he uses that to set a trap.

E22To Die at Midnight

30m

Mar 15, 1956

The conflict of a prison warden who discovers exculpatory evidence on the eve of an execution.

E23Desert Encounter

30m

Mar 22, 1956

A famous author gets embroiled in an unusual situation when he offers to drive a young Mexican girl to her ranch.

E24The Case of Emily Cameron

30m

Mar 29, 1956

Emily is an invalid who needs a caretaker. Her husband leaves her home alone one day, and she begins to stew over the low regard that he has for her. He, on the other hand, resents the opportunities that he's missed because of Emily.

E25The Rites of Spring

30m

Apr 5, 1956

An older husband tests the marital fidelity of his amorous young wife by anonymously sending her flowers from "a secret admirer".

E26Autumn Carousel

30m

Apr 12, 1956

A TV writer finds inspiration from a little girl travelling to Los Angeles.

E27Wall of Bamboo

30m

Apr 19, 1956

An undercover agent is dispatched to the anti-communist underground to search for an important contact. But when he's caught by the red Chinese, he's tortured in various ways for important information by a mysterious renegade white man who leads them known by the nom de guerre "Sampan Joe".

E28Touch and Go

30m

Apr 26, 1956

Ted attacks old enemy Walter in a fit of rage. Stunned at the realization that Walter is dead, he hears a woman on the phone who overheard their conversation. Ted needs to find this woman and keep her from telling the police anything.

E29A Long Way From Texas

30m

May 3, 1956

Two con men target a naive young oilman from Texas. They visit Willie's gambling hall, and the con men threaten Willie. He decides to get revenge, and teach a lesson to the oilman.

E30That Woman

30m

May 10, 1956

A young widow, who is in denial that her husband has died, moves in with her brother-in-law's family down on the farm. Her city ways and manners clash with the simple, pious life of the farmers.

E31The Other Room

30m

May 17, 1956

A teacher wanting to leave his unfulfilling job needs money to write the book he's dreamed of. A stranger enters and makes an unusual offer: $10,000 to take a physical for a dying man so he can get life insurance to take care of his widow when he passes on.

E32One Forty-Two

30m

May 24, 1956

Ruthless dictator Mendoza summons a priest when 300,000 people in his country announce that they will pray for him to die at 1:42 that day.

E33Beneath the Surface

30m

May 31, 1956

In an effort to escape her past, a woman takes a job in a plant.

E34Watch the Sunset

30m

Jun 7, 1956

Philip Benton is entertaining thoughts of moving on from his wife, who has been in a sanitarium for five years. Just as he is starting a new relationship with his secretary, he receives news that his wife is better and will be released.

E35Second Chance

30m

Jun 14, 1956

An experienced writer is in the middle of a professional slump when he is inspired by the story of an old long lost friend. While his career is reviving, he seems to be hindering the acting prospects of his novice young girlfriend.

E36Woman Afraid

30m

Jun 21, 1956

While her husband is laid up in a farm house with a broken leg, Nina sees a prowling burglar. She calls for help, but the hired hand that she calls for is the burglar - and he's also a murderer.

E37The Stacked Deck

30m

Jun 28, 1956

Fresh out of prison, blackmailer Gus Anderson intends to use Willie's casino to launder his victims' money. To insure his cooperation, Gus' thugs are holding one of Willie's waiters hostage. Glamorous singer Betty Maxwell shows up at Dante's, as scheduled, to lose at blackjack and avoid having a risqué photo of her mailed to the tabloids. Knowing that Lt. Waldo will but his casino yet again, Willie invites to cop over to watch Gus violate his parole.

E38Distinguished Service

30m

Jul 5, 1956

More interested in his career than in his duty as a physician, a noted doctor intentionally misdiagnoses a patient in an Asian city so he could get back to the U.S. and accept a major award. When his wife realizes that he abandoned a town needing his help to fight a Plague outbreak, she demands a divorce.

E39Yellowbelly

30m

Jul 12, 1956

A military hero becomes circumspect as his wife expects their first child. In battle, he jumps into a protective hole instead of forging to the front of the line. His company nicknames him Yellowbelly, and he loses the respect of his men.

E40The Stand-In

30m

Jul 19, 1956

An aspiring actress has spent 20 years in Hollywood, not gaining fame as she had hoped, but as a stand-in for a well-known actress. Her ambition turns to despair, and her affection to bitterness.

E41Success Story

30m

Jul 26, 1956

A man is assigned to force a small-town newspaper out of existence.

Storyline

Four Star Playhouse is an American television anthology series that ran from 1952 to 1956, sponsored in its first bi-weekly season by The Singer Company; Bristol-Myers became an alternate sponsor when it became a weekly series in the fall of 1953. The original premise was that Charles Boyer, Ida Lupino, David Niven, and Dick Powell would take turns starring in episodes. However, several other performers took the lead from time to time, including Ronald Colman and Joan Fontaine. Blake Edwards was among the writers and directors who contributed to the series. Edwards created the recurring character of illegal gambling house operator Willie Dante for Dick Powell to play on this series. The character was later revamped and spun off in his own series starring Howard Duff, then-husband of Lupino. The pilot for Meet McGraw, starring Frank Lovejoy, aired here, as did another episode in which Lovejoy recreated his role of Chicago newspaper reporter Randy Stone, from the radio drama Nightbeat.

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Four Star Playhouse - FlixWorld