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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.
Episode 31 : The Doctor and the Countess
April. 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.
Episode 30 : Village In The City
April. 22,1954
An artist turns detective to find out who murdered his favorite model and left the body in his studio.
Episode 29 : Masquerade
April. 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.
Episode 28 : A Study In Panic
April. 08,1954
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.
Episode 27 : The Book
April. 01,1954
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.
Episode 26 : Lady of the Orchids
March. 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.
Episode 25 : Operation In Money
March. 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.
Episode 24 : Detective`s Holiday
March. 04,1954
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.
Episode 23 : Meet McGraw: Long Count
February. 25,1954
McGraw, a private eye, is hired by Lila Lamont to protect her from her threatening husband Louis.
Episode 22 : The Bomb
February. 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.
Episode 21 : The Gun
February. 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.
Episode 20 : Second Dawn
February. 04,1954
A blind man has a chance for surgery to restore his sight, but it may last for just a few minutes.
Episode 19 : Indian Taker
January. 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.
Episode 18 : A String of Beads
January. 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.
Episode 17 : The Bad Streak
January. 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.
Episode 16 : The Test
January. 07,1954
A test pilot learns that it's possible that his sick daughter could have polio, just before he tests a new military plane.
Episode 15 : House For Sale
December. 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.
Episode 14 : The Gift
December. 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.
Episode 13 : A Man Of The World
December. 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.
Episode 12 : The Room
December. 10,1953
A doctor encounters suspicion and a dark secret when he rents a house in Cuba.
Episode 11 : The Girl On The Park Bench
December. 03,1953
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.
Episode 10 : For Art`s Sake
November. 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.
Episode 9 : The Hard Way
November. 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.
Episode 8 : Moorings
November. 12,1953
A sickly aging shipping magnate falls in love with a blind mother.
Episode 7 : Out of the Night
November. 05,1953
A newspaper reporter is intrigued as to why a woman hired a dive team to retrieve her purse from the Chicago River.
Episode 6 : A Matter Of Advice
October. 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.
Episode 5 : The Witness
October. 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.
Episode 4 : Love At Sea
October. 15,1953
A journalist's wife who, while alone on a sea voyage, becomes the center of male attention.
Episode 3 : A Place Of His Own
October. 08,1953
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.
Episode 2 : The Squeeze
October. 01,1953
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.
Episode 1 : Finale
September. 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.
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