Four Star Playhouse
Four Star Playhouse is an American anthology drama series that aired from 1952 to 1956 on CBS. Each week the show presented a standalone dramatic story, with a rotating roster of stars from the Four Star Productions stable, including Dick Powell, Ida Lupino, David Niven, and Charles Boyer. The series was one of the first major productions from Four Star Productions, a company founded by Powell, Lupino, Niven, and Boyer to produce quality television programming. The show ran for 102 episodes across four seasons and earned multiple Emmy nominations. All 48 surviving episodes are in the public domain.
This series is:Anthology
Production
Distributor
Season 1
My Wife Geraldine
A man reflects on his marriage to the charming but unpredictable Geraldine, navigating the comic and dramatic moments of their life
Dante's Inferno
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.
The Lost Silk Hat
A man's desperate search for his lost silk hat leads him through a series of encounters that reveal the social fabric of the city and
Backstage
A dramatic story set in the world of the theater, exploring the lives and tensions of performers waiting in the wings for their moment on
Welcome Home
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.
The Island
A tense drama about survival and human nature on a remote island, where a group of stranded people must confront their differences to
The Officer and the Lady
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.
Knockout
A boxing drama that explores the brutal world of the fight game, following a boxer's struggle with ambition, loyalty, and the price of
Man On a Train
A mysterious passenger on a train becomes the center of a dramatic story that unfolds over the course of a single journey, revealing
Trail's End
A famous marshal of Dodge City sets out in search of the murderous Sonoma Kid and runs into a tragedy of the desert.
Sound Off, My Love
A romantic drama about a couple navigating the challenges of communication and commitment, exploring how silence and speech shape
The Man in the Box
A suspenseful drama about a man trapped in a confined space, exploring fear, claustrophobia, and the desperate measures one takes to escape
No Identity
Young boy fights to win his foster mother's love.
The Man Who Walked Out On Himself
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.
The Last Voyage
Sea captain discovers a time bomb is planted on his ship.
Night Ride
Five people, one a murderer, are trapped on subway.
The Ladies on His Mind
A charming drama about a man whose romantic entanglements with multiple women create a web of comic and poignant complications.
To Whom It May Concern
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.
Shadowed
Past haunts politician running for Senator.
The Lady's Game
The Lady's Game — season 1, episode 20 of Four Star Playhouse (1952).
The Whizzer Four
The Whizzer Four — season 1, episode 21 of Four Star Playhouse (1952).
Season 2
Finale
A dramatic story about a musician facing the final performance of his career, exploring the themes of ambition, legacy, and the bittersweet
The Squeeze
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.
A Place Of His Own
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.
Love At Sea
A journalist's wife who, while alone on a sea voyage, becomes the center of male attention.
The Witness
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.
A Matter Of Advice
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.
Search in the Night
A newspaper reporter is intrigued as to why a woman hired a dive team to retrieve her purse from the Chicago River.
Moorings
A sickly aging shipping magnate falls in love with a blind mother.
The Hard Way
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.
For Art`s Sake
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.
The Girl On The Park Bench
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.
The Room
A doctor encounters suspicion and a dark secret when he rents a house in Cuba.
A Man Of The World
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.
The Gift
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.
House For Sale
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.
The Test
A test pilot learns that it's possible that his sick daughter could have polio, just before he tests a new military plane.
The Bad Streak
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.
A String of Beads
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.
Second Dawn
A blind man has a chance for surgery to restore his sight, but it may last for just a few minutes.
The Gun
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.
The Bomb
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.
Meet McGraw: Long Count
McGraw, a private eye, is hired by Lila Lamont to protect her from her threatening husband Louis.
Detective`s Holiday
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.
Operation In Money
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.
Lady of the Orchids
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.
The Book
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.
A Study In Panic
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.
Masquerade
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.
Village In The City
An artist turns detective to find out who murdered his favorite model and left the body in his studio.
The Doctor and the Countess
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.
Season 3
Man in the Cellar
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.
Never Explain
A novice social worker is dispatched to the home of a widower who refuses to send his children to school.
Interlude
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.
The Wallet
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.
The Adolescent
A school teacher on the disciplinery board, finds herself investigating her nephew's misconduct.
The Contest
The head of detectives runs into problems when he suspect his fiancé has committed murder.
Vote Of Confidence
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.
My Own Dear Dragon
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.
Marked Down
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.
Meet A Lonely Man
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.
Bourbon Street
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.
A Championship Affair
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.
The Answer
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.
Go Ahead And Jump
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.
Stuffed Shirt
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.
Breakfast in Bed
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.
The Good Sister
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.
A Kiss for Mr. Lincoln
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.
Fair Trial
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".
The Wild Bunch
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.
Tusitala
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.
The Returning
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.
Eddie`s Place
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.
Henry And The Psychopathic Horse
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.
Night At Lark Cottage
A woman with no companion other than her young daughter knows that an escaped convict is on his way to kill her.
The Girl On The Bridge
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.
The Collar
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.
Madeira, Madeira
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.
With All My Heart
An overweight woman watches her doctor boyfriend marry someone else.
The House Always Wins
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.
Uncle Fred Flits By
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.
Alias Mr. Hepp
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.
Trudy
A young woman is planning her wedding to a groom whom no one believes exists outside her own wishful dreams.
Broken Journey
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.
The Executioner
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.
The Frightened Woman
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?
Award
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.
Season 4
The Firing Squad
A WWII captain must oversee an execution he doesn't want to happen.
The Face of Danger
A 100-year-old woman who recalls her romance with a desperado during the days of the old West.
Let the Chips Fall
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.
Full Circle
A particularly bad review causes a Broadway actress to scheme to humiliate the drama critic.
A Spray of Bullets
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.
The Devil to Pay
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.
Here Comes the Suit
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.
Looking Glass House
A woman is surprised when her fiancé turns out to have been married before.
Something Very Special
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.
A Place Full of Strangers
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.
One Way Out
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.
Dark Meeting
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?
Magic Night
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.
Tunnel of Fear
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.
High Stakes
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.
The Listener
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.
Safe Keeping
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.
Once to Every Woman
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.
Red Wine
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.
To Die at Midnight
The conflict of a prison warden who discovers exculpatory evidence on the eve of an execution.
Desert Encounter
A famous author gets embroiled in an unusual situation when he offers to drive a young Mexican girl to her ranch.
The Case of Emily Cameron
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.
Autumn Carousel
A TV writer finds inspiration from a little girl travelling to Los Angeles.
Touch and Go
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.
A Long Way From Texas
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.
The Other Room
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.
One Forty-Two
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.
Watch the Sunset
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.
Second Chance
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.
Woman Afraid
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.
The Stacked Deck
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.
Distinguished Service
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.
Yellowbelly
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.
The Stand-In
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.
Details
- Years
- 1952–1956
- Seasons
- 4
- Episodes
- 122
- Genres
- Drama
- TMDB Rating
- 6.8/10 (11 votes)
- Maturity Rating
- TV-G
- Quality
- SD
- Audio
- English
- Status
- Public Domain Mark 1.0
- Studio
- Four Star Productions
