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 & Episodes4 seasons · 129 episodes
0% complete
E1
E1The Firing Squad
Oct 6, 195530m
A WWII captain must oversee an execution he doesn't want to happen.
E2
E2The Face of Danger
Oct 13, 195530m
A 100-year-old woman who recalls her romance with a desperado during the days of the old West.
E3
E3Let the Chips Fall
Oct 20, 195530m
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.
E4
E4Full Circle
Oct 27, 195530m
A particularly bad review causes a Broadway actress to scheme to humiliate the drama critic.
E5
E5A Spray of Bullets
Nov 3, 195530m
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.
E6
E6The Devil to Pay
Nov 10, 195530m
In Hell, the administrating office is hopelessly out of date and incompetent, so Satan enlists the help of an exceptionally aggressive and heartless businessman to modernize the place.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.
E7
E7Here Comes the Suit
Nov 17, 195530m
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.
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.
E10
E10A Place Full of Strangers
Dec 8, 195530m
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.
E11
E11One Way Out
Dec 15, 195530m
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.
E12
E12Dark Meeting
Jan 5, 195630m
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?
E13
E13Magic Night
Jan 12, 195630m
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.
E14
E14Tunnel of Fear
Jan 19, 195630m
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.
E15
E15High Stakes
Jan 26, 195630m
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.
E16
E16The Listener
Feb 2, 195630m
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.
E17
E17Safe Keeping
Feb 9, 195630m
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.
E18
E18No Limit
Feb 16, 195630m
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.
E19
E19Command
Feb 23, 195630m
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.
E20
E20Once to Every Woman
Mar 1, 195630m
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.
E21
E21Red Wine
Mar 8, 195630m
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.
E22
E22To Die at Midnight
Mar 15, 195630m
The conflict of a prison warden who discovers exculpatory evidence on the eve of an execution.
E23
E23Desert Encounter
Mar 22, 195630m
A famous author gets embroiled in an unusual situation when he offers to drive a young Mexican girl to her ranch.
E24
E24The Case of Emily Cameron
Mar 29, 195630m
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.
E25
E25The Rites of Spring
Apr 5, 195630m
An older husband tests the marital fidelity of his amorous young wife by anonymously sending her flowers from "a secret admirer".
E26
E26Autumn Carousel
Apr 12, 195630m
A TV writer finds inspiration from a little girl travelling to Los Angeles.
E27
E27Wall of Bamboo
Apr 19, 195630m
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".
E28
E28Touch and Go
Apr 26, 195630m
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.
E29
E29A Long Way From Texas
May 3, 195630m
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.
E30
E30That Woman
May 10, 195630m
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.
E31
E31The Other Room
May 17, 195630m
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.
E32
E32One Forty-Two
May 24, 195630m
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.
E33
E33Beneath the Surface
May 31, 195630m
In an effort to escape her past, a woman takes a job in a plant.
E34
E34Watch the Sunset
Jun 7, 195630m
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.
E35
E35Second Chance
Jun 14, 195630m
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.
E36
E36Woman Afraid
Jun 21, 195630m
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.
E37
E37The Stacked Deck
Jun 28, 195630m
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.
E38
E38Distinguished Service
Jul 5, 195630m
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.
E39
E39Yellowbelly
Jul 12, 195630m
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.
E40
E40The Stand-In
Jul 19, 195630m
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.
E41
E41Success Story
Jul 26, 195630m
A man is assigned to force a small-town newspaper out of existence.
About Four Star Playhouse
Four Star Playhouse is a drama, comedy series on CBS. The show first aired on Sep 25, 1952 and currently has 4 seasons and 129 episodes. Four Star Playhouse has ended after 4 seasons. It has a rating of 6.7/10 based on 10 votes.
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