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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 38 : Award
June. 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.
Episode 37 : The Frightened Woman
June. 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?
Episode 36 : The Executioner
June. 09,1955
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.
Episode 35 : Broken Journey
June. 02,1955
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.
Episode 34 : Trudy
May. 26,1955
A young woman is planning her wedding to a groom whom no one believes exists outside her own wishful dreams.
Episode 33 : Alias Mr. Hepp
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.
Episode 32 : Uncle Fred Flits By
May. 05,1955
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.
Episode 31 : The House Always Wins
April. 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.
Episode 30 : With All My Heart
April. 21,1955
An overweight woman watches her doctor boyfriend marry someone else.
Episode 29 : Madeira, Madeira
April. 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.
Episode 28 : The Collar
April. 07,1955
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.
Episode 27 : The Girl On The Bridge
March. 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.
Episode 26 : Nightmare At Lark Cottage
March. 24,1955
A woman with no companion other than her young daughter knows that an escaped convict is on his way to kill her.
Episode 25 : Henry And The Psychopathic Horse
March. 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.
Episode 24 : Eddie`s Place
March. 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.
Episode 23 : The Returning
March. 03,1955
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.
Episode 22 : Tusitala
February. 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.
Episode 21 : The Wild Bunch
February. 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.
Episode 20 : Fair Trial
February. 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".
Episode 19 : A Kiss for Mr. Lincoln
February. 03,1955
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.
Episode 18 : The Good Sister
January. 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.
Episode 17 : Breakfast in Bed
January. 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.
Episode 16 : Stuffed Shirt
January. 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.
Episode 15 : A Bag Of Oranges
January. 06,1955
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.
Episode 14 : Go Ahead And Jump
December. 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.
Episode 13 : The Answer
December. 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.
Episode 12 : A Championship Affair
December. 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.
Episode 11 : Bourbon Street
December. 09,1954
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.
Episode 10 : Meet A Lonely Man
December. 02,1954
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.
Episode 9 : Marked Down
November. 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.
Episode 8 : My Own Dear Dragon
November. 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.
Episode 7 : Vote Of Confidence
November. 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.
Episode 6 : The Contest
November. 04,1954
The head of detectives runs into problems when he suspect his fiancé has committed murder.
Episode 5 : The Adolescent
October. 28,1954
A school teacher on the disciplinery board, finds herself investigating her nephew's misconduct.
Episode 4 : The Wallet
October. 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.
Episode 3 : Interlude
October. 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.
Episode 2 : Never Explain
October. 07,1954
A novice social worker is dispatched to the home of a widower who refuses to send his children to school.
Episode 1 : Man in the Cellar
September. 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.
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