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1952 - 1956 6.3 (9 votes) 4 Seasons
Genres
Drama Comedy
Networks
CBS

Four Star Playhouse

Overview

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.

Seasons

Season 1 (1952)

No overview available.

19 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: My Wife Geraldine
1952-09-25

Man invents a wife, then accused of murdering her.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 2: Dante's Inferno
1952-10-02

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 3: The Lost Silk Hat
1952-10-23

Englishman must retrieve his hat after visiting his love.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 4: Backstage
1952-11-06

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 5: Welcome Home
1952-11-20

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 6: The Island
1952-12-04

Rebellious physician on an island in the South Pacific.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 7: The Officer and the Lady
1952-12-18

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 8: Knockout
1953-01-01

Middleweight boxer finds his big bout has been fixed.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 9: Man on a Train
1953-01-15

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 10: Trail's End
1953-01-29

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 11: Sound Off, My Love
1953-02-12

Woman buys hearing aid and hears husband plot her murder.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 12: The Man in the Box
1953-02-26

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 13: No Identity
1953-03-12

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 14: The Man Who Walked Out On Himself
1953-03-26

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 15: The Last Voyage
1953-04-23

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 16: Night Ride
1953-05-07

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 17: The Ladies On His Mind
1953-05-21

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 18: To Whom It May Concern
1953-06-04

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 19: Shadowed
1953-06-18

Past haunts politician running for Senator.

Runtime: 30 min
Season 2 (1953)

No overview available.

31 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: Finale
1953-09-24

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 2: The Squeeze
1953-10-01

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 3: A Place Of His Own
1953-10-08

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 4: Love At Sea
1953-10-15

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 5: The Witness
1953-10-22

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 6: A Matter Of Advice
1953-10-29

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 7: Out of the Night
1953-11-05

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 8: Moorings
1953-11-12

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 9: The Hard Way
1953-11-19

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 10: For Art`s Sake
1953-11-26

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 11: The Girl On The Park Bench
1953-12-03

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 12: The Room
1953-12-10

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 13: A Man Of The World
1953-12-17

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 14: The Gift
1953-12-24

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 15: House For Sale
1953-12-31

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 16: The Test
1954-01-07

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 17: The Bad Streak
1954-01-14

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 18: A String of Beads
1954-01-21

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 19: Indian Taker
1954-01-28

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 20: Second Dawn
1954-02-04

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 21: The Gun
1954-02-11

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 22: The Bomb
1954-02-18

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 23: Meet McGraw: Long Count
1954-02-25

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 24: Detective`s Holiday
1954-03-04

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 25: Operation In Money
1954-03-11

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 26: Lady of the Orchids
1954-03-18

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 27: The Book
1954-04-01

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 28: A Study In Panic
1954-04-08

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 29: Masquerade
1954-04-15

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 30: Village In The City
1954-04-22

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 31: The Doctor and the Countess
1954-04-29

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Season 3 (1954)

No overview available.

38 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: Man in the Cellar
1954-09-30

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 2: Never Explain
1954-10-07

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 3: Interlude
1954-10-14

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 4: The Wallet
1954-10-21

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 5: The Adolescent
1954-10-28

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 6: The Contest
1954-11-04

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 7: Vote Of Confidence
1954-11-11

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 8: My Own Dear Dragon
1954-11-18

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 9: Marked Down
1954-11-25

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 10: Meet A Lonely Man
1954-12-02

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 11: Bourbon Street
1954-12-09

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 12: A Championship Affair
1954-12-16

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 13: The Answer
1954-12-23

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 14: Go Ahead And Jump
1954-12-30

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 15: A Bag Of Oranges
1955-01-06

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 16: Stuffed Shirt
1955-01-11

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 17: Breakfast in Bed
1955-01-20

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 18: The Good Sister
1955-01-27

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 19: A Kiss for Mr. Lincoln
1955-02-03

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 20: Fair Trial
1955-02-10

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".

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 21: The Wild Bunch
1955-02-17

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 22: Tusitala
1955-02-24

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 23: The Returning
1955-03-03

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 24: Eddie`s Place
1955-03-10

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 25: Henry And The Psychopathic Horse
1955-03-17

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 26: Nightmare At Lark Cottage
1955-03-24

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 27: The Girl On The Bridge
1955-03-31

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 28: The Collar
1955-04-07

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 29: Madeira, Madeira
1955-04-14

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 30: With All My Heart
1955-04-21

An overweight woman watches her doctor boyfriend marry someone else.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 31: The House Always Wins
1955-04-28

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 32: Uncle Fred Flits By
1955-05-05

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 33: Alias Mr. Hepp
1955-05-12

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 34: Trudy
1955-05-26

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 35: Broken Journey
1955-06-02

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 36: The Executioner
1955-06-09

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 37: The Frightened Woman
1955-06-23

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?

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 38: Award
1955-06-30

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Season 4 (1955)

No overview available.

41 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: The Firing Squad
1955-10-06

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 2: The Face of Danger
1955-10-13

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 3: Let the Chips Fall
1955-10-20

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 4: Full Circle
1955-10-27

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 5: A Spray of Bullets
1955-11-03

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 6: The Devil to Pay
1955-11-10

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 7: Here Comes the Suit
1955-11-17

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 8: Looking Glass House
1955-11-24

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 9: Something Very Special
1955-12-01

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 10: A Place Full of Strangers
1955-12-08

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 11: One Way Out
1955-12-15

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 12: Dark Meeting
1956-01-05

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?

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 13: Magic Night
1956-01-12

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 14: Tunnel of Fear
1956-01-19

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 15: High Stakes
1956-01-26

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 16: The Listener
1956-02-02

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 17: Safe Keeping
1956-02-09

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 18: No Limit
1956-02-16

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 19: Command
1956-02-23

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 20: Once to Every Woman
1956-03-01

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 21: Red Wine
1956-03-08

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 22: To Die at Midnight
1956-03-15

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 23: Desert Encounter
1956-03-22

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 24: The Case of Emily Cameron
1956-03-29

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 25: The Rites of Spring
1956-04-05

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 26: Autumn Carousel
1956-04-12

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 27: Wall of Bamboo
1956-04-19

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".

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 28: Touch and Go
1956-04-26

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 29: A Long Way From Texas
1956-05-03

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 30: That Woman
1956-05-10

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 31: The Other Room
1956-05-17

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 32: One Forty-Two
1956-05-24

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 33: Beneath the Surface
1956-05-31

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

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 34: Watch the Sunset
1956-06-07

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 35: Second Chance
1956-06-14

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 36: Woman Afraid
1956-06-21

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 37: The Stacked Deck
1956-06-28

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 38: Distinguished Service
1956-07-05

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 39: Yellowbelly
1956-07-12

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 40: The Stand-In
1956-07-19

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.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 41: Success Story
1956-07-26

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

Runtime: 30 min

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