Four Star Playhouse
Four Star Playhouse

Four Star Playhouse

1952 4 Seasons 129 Episodes ⭐ 6.8 Drama Comedy

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.

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 & Episodes

EP 1

My Wife Geraldine

Man invents a wife, then accused of murdering her.

EP 2

Dante's Inferno

Willie Dante owns a bar and gambling house called Dante's Inferno. One night, the wife of an acquaintance tells Willie t

EP 3

The Lost Silk Hat

Englishman must retrieve his hat after visiting his love.

EP 4

Backstage

An actor named Paul is out on an evening stroll when he sees a young woman attempting to jump off a bridge. After a stru

EP 5

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, p

EP 6

The Island

Rebellious physician on an island in the South Pacific.

EP 7

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,

EP 8

Knockout

Middleweight boxer finds his big bout has been fixed.

EP 9

Man on a Train

William encounters an old acquaintance, John Dwerrihouse, on a train with 75,000 pounds. Only later did William learn th

EP 10

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.

EP 11

Sound Off, My Love

Woman buys hearing aid and hears husband plot her murder.

EP 12

The Man in the Box

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

EP 13

No Identity

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

EP 14

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 wal

EP 15

The Last Voyage

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

EP 16

Night Ride

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

EP 17

The Ladies On His Mind

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

EP 18

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

EP 19

Shadowed

Past haunts politician running for Senator.

EP 1

Finale

Steve Carlyle is an actor who can't find work because his famous nearly identical cousin Roger takes measures to keep hi

EP 2

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

EP 3

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 t

EP 4

Love At Sea

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

EP 5

The Witness

A suave attorney is hired to defend a man on trial for robbery and murder. The attorney finds the real culprit and solv

EP 6

A Matter Of Advice

Weary Dr. Gentry gets no rest from his irritating patients. The pediatrician deals with ill-mannered kids and parents wh

EP 7

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.

EP 8

Moorings

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

EP 9

The Hard Way

Vic breaks the bank at Willie's gambling hall, and Willie unknowingly pays him off with counterfeit money. When Vic thre

EP 10

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

EP 11

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 d

EP 12

The Room

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

EP 13

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 app

EP 14

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

EP 15

House For Sale

A woman visits an isolated house expecting to meet with the realtor. Instead, she encounters a murderer who's escaped fr

EP 16

The Test

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

EP 17

The Bad Streak

An honest professional casino owner runs into bad luck with impending insolvency or sale of his property. He also runs i

EP 18

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

EP 19

Indian Taker

A comedy of errors about an insurance executive’s wife. At a party, the impulse suddenly comes over her and she procee

EP 20

Second Dawn

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

EP 21

The Gun

A police detective returns home to his family one morning only to have his meal interrupted by a constant stream of peop

EP 22

The Bomb

An engaged couple and the woman's former suitor take shelter in an abandoned house, too late to notice an unexploded bom

EP 23

Meet McGraw: Long Count

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

EP 24

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 kid

EP 25

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 director

EP 26

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 ac

EP 27

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

EP 28

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

EP 29

Masquerade

A costume ball during the New Orleans Mardi Gras turns sour when the family hosting the festivities discovers that the

EP 30

Village In The City

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

EP 31

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

EP 1

Man in the Cellar

A little girl who regularly talks to imaginary friends grows frustrated when her parents refuse to believe that there is

EP 2

Never Explain

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

EP 3

Interlude

A young woman from a wealthy family is graduating from an exclusive school with neither her parents nor close friends at

EP 4

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.

EP 5

The Adolescent

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

EP 6

The Contest

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

EP 7

Vote Of Confidence

A con man, recently released from prison, attempts to recoup his fortunes by convincing an heiress' secretary that he ne

EP 8

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 wh

EP 9

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

EP 10

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 atten

EP 11

Bourbon Street

A musician returns to New Orleans after breaking into the bigtime. Though his ex-wife deserted him, he is bent on reven

EP 12

A Championship Affair

A renowned professional bridge champion (Boyer) returns to (openly) woo his long lost, but married, love (Miles). In cir

EP 13

The Answer

A cynical Hollywood writer returns to his hometown. At a bar he meets a drunken, disillusioned playwright. The writer

EP 14

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 b

EP 15

A Bag Of Oranges

Believing her husband innocent of the crime he is to be executed for, his wife takes up a vigil the night of the schedul

EP 16

Stuffed Shirt

A seemingly cuckolded working-class husband (Boyer), in tropical setting, must resort to a life-risking ruse (in court)

EP 17

Breakfast in Bed

An artist is enticed away from his lucrative commercial advertising contracts by a young model who shows obvious disappo

EP 18

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

EP 19

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 Ab

EP 20

Fair Trial

Chicago television newsman Dave Sheridan (Dick Powell) arrives in a small Ohio town, Hadenville, where Richard Fulton ha

EP 21

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

EP 22

Tusitala

The true story of Robert Louis Stevenson's stay on the island of Tahiti. The islanders have come to revere him as Tusita

EP 23

The Returning

An American professor in Japan falls in love with a half-breed former student in 1941. He is fired for violating school

EP 24

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

EP 25

Henry And The Psychopathic Horse

After falling for a medical student, a New York City psychiatrist travels to her family ranch to announce their engageme

EP 26

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.

EP 27

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)

EP 28

The Collar

The night before the military plans to massacre a warring tribe of Blackfoot Indians, an imprisoned and tortured priest

EP 29

Madeira, Madeira

The untimely death of his artist friend causes a failing writer to visit the widow to pay his condolences and pursue sus

EP 30

With All My Heart

An overweight woman watches her doctor boyfriend marry someone else.

EP 31

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 fla

EP 32

Uncle Fred Flits By

Uncle Fred descends upon a suburban home, completely disrupts the lives of the family by his eccentric behaviour, and br

EP 33

Alias Mr. Hepp

Frank Hepp has made his career charming rich, unhappy women out of their fortunes. His parole officer orders him avoid a

EP 34

Trudy

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

EP 35

Broken Journey

Two cops transporting prisoner Cookie decide on a layover in the city of Westover, temporarily placing Cookie in the loc

EP 36

The Executioner

A complex web of deception is revealed during the investigation of the assassination of a police official. In a foreign

EP 37

The Frightened Woman

A woman's loneliness leads her to re-experience her long repressed (20-year old) pain-associated memories (albeit benign

EP 38

Award

Valerie is a world famous movie actress who just bombed on her first attempt at live acting on Broadway. She goes to Ben

EP 1

The Firing Squad

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

EP 2

The Face of Danger

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

EP 3

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 diff

EP 4

Full Circle

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

EP 5

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

EP 6

The Devil to Pay

In Hell, the administrating office is hopelessly out of date and incompetent, so Satan enlists the help of an exceptiona

EP 7

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 afte

EP 8

Looking Glass House

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

EP 9

Something Very Special

Alan moves to America when his wife dies, leaving his young daughter with her grandmother in Paris. When he returns afte

EP 10

A Place Full of Strangers

Industrialist Fleet Mason, a workaholic who doesn't realize how many lives he effects with his stressed-out working habi

EP 11

One Way Out

A wealthy woman separates from her fortune-hunting husband. She rents a swanky New York penthouse in a building so new

EP 12

Dark Meeting

When her long-time pin-boy retires, bowling proprietress hires the one guy who answers her want-ad right away. He turns

EP 13

Magic Night

Upset that his 25 years of service for the company are unappreciated, Henri treats himself to an expensive night on the

EP 14

Tunnel of Fear

While traveling alone in a train compartment, an elderly, wealthy, wheelchair-bound man (Cedric Hardwicke) is confronted

EP 15

High Stakes

An employee catches attractive Mrs. Raymond making a pass at Willie, then Mr. Raymond comes to the club with a gun to ge

EP 16

The Listener

Sheila and her brother engineer a gas leak to kill her husband so they can split the insurance money. Overhearing the pl

EP 17

Safe Keeping

The chancellor of a foreign university gives newspaperman Frank Carstairs a document to smuggle out of the country. He a

EP 18

No Limit

Suave restaurateur-gambler Willie Dante rebuffs the attempt of racketeers to cash in on his gambling activities. He appe

EP 19

Command

The first mate on a merchant ship has been waiting for years to take command of the ship. When the elderly captain makes

EP 20

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 learn

EP 21

Red Wine

A police detective travels to Borneo looking for an American who murdered his wife for a huge insurance payoff. There ar

EP 22

To Die at Midnight

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

EP 23

Desert Encounter

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

EP 24

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 lo

EP 25

The Rites of Spring

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

EP 26

Autumn Carousel

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

EP 27

Wall of Bamboo

An undercover agent is dispatched to the anti-communist underground to search for an important contact. But when he's ca

EP 28

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 p

EP 29

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.

EP 30

That Woman

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. H

EP 31

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 mak

EP 32

One Forty-Two

Ruthless dictator Mendoza summons a priest when 300,000 people in his country announce that they will pray for him to di

EP 33

Beneath the Surface

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

EP 34

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

EP 35

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 frie

EP 36

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 th

EP 37

The Stacked Deck

Fresh out of prison, blackmailer Gus Anderson intends to use Willie's casino to launder his victims' money. To insure hi

EP 38

Distinguished Service

More interested in his career than in his duty as a physician, a noted doctor intentionally misdiagnoses a patient in an

EP 39

Yellowbelly

A military hero becomes circumspect as his wife expects their first child. In battle, he jumps into a protective hole in

EP 40

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-kno

EP 41

Success Story

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

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