Four Star Playhouse
This show featured four rotating stars, Charles Boyer, David Niven, Ida Lupino, and Dick Powell in individual episodes consisting of everything from comedy to drama.
- 1952-1956
- 4 seasons
- CBS
- Comedy, Suspense, Drama
This show featured four rotating stars, Charles Boyer, David Niven, Ida Lupino, and Dick Powell in individual episodes consisting of everything from comedy to drama.
Season 1 Episode Guide
19 Episodes 1952 - 1953
Episode 1
My Wife Geraldine
Thu, Sep 25, 1952 30 mins
A middle aged man finally catches a break when he's offered a great job, but he must be married because the boss demands stability. He goes about the job of fabricating "Geraldine" and does such a great job that people actually start to think they've met her. It all unravels when he suffers an accident and his wife is nowhere to be found. Now, people think he's murdered the woman who never existed.
Episode 2
Dante's Inferno
Thu, Oct 9, 1952 30 mins
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.
Episode 3
The Lost Silk Hat
Thu, Oct 23, 1952 30 mins
A refined man stands outside of a home trying to convince strangers who pass by to retrieve his silk hat from inside the house.
Episode 4
Backstage
Thu, Nov 6, 1952 30 mins
A well known actor encounters a woman attempting suicide by jumping off a bridge. He persuades her to let him put her up at a hotel for the night, but he accidentally provided fake stage money for her room.
Episode 5
Welcome Home
Thu, Nov 20, 1952 30 mins
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.
Episode 6
The Island
Thu, Dec 4, 1952 30 mins
A doctor caring for natives on a tropical island is dismissed by the bully owner of the island who discovered a discrepancy in his medical past. Suddenly, the owner is struck with acute appendicitis and the just-fired doctor is called to perform emergency surgery.
Episode 7
The Officer and the Lady
Thu, Dec 18, 1952 30 mins
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.
Episode 8
Knockout
Thu, Jan 1, 1953 30 mins
A young man follows a quick trajectory from beginning boxer to the middleweight championship match. The night before the championship fight, he learns that the match is fixed, with him as the chosen winner.
Episode 9
The Man on the Train
Thu, Jan 15, 1953 30 mins
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.
Episode 10
Trail's End
Thu, Jan 29, 1953 30 mins
A famous marshal of Dodge City sets out in search of the murderous Sonoma Kid and runs into a tragedy of the desert.
Episode 11
Sound Off, My Love
Thu, Feb 12, 1953 30 mins
A woman with a reputation of being hard of hearing secretly gets a hearing aid, and starts overhearing people making fun of her. Everyone knows her husband is having an affair, but she also discovers that he is trying to kill her.
Episode 12
Man in the Box
Thu, Feb 26, 1953 30 mins
Theater-goers are surprised to see actor Victor Sherman at the play, considering what happened a year earlier. As the play proceeds, the man in the box imagines himself playing each of the characters in the drama being performed onstage.
Episode 13
No Identity
Thu, Mar 12, 1953 30 mins
Mitch Carver befriends and eventually adopts an orphan boy. Mitch's wife is pregnant with their first child, and she treats the boy as a threat to the natural family that she wants to have.
Episode 14
The Man Who Walked Out on Himself
Thu, Mar 26, 1953 30 mins
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.
Episode 15
The Last Voyage
Thu, Apr 23, 1953 30 mins
A sea captain on his final voyage learns that there is a bomb on his ship, timed to go off soon after reaching port.
Episode 16
Night Ride
Thu, May 7, 1953 30 mins
On a late night subway car, five passengers try to determine which of them is a homicidal maniac, the subject of a city-wide manhunt.
Episode 17
Ladies on His Mind
Thu, May 21, 1953 30 mins
A psychiatrist listens to his female patients go on about their troubles. As they talk, he imagines himself within each of their stories.
Episode 18
To Whom It May Concern
Thu, Jun 4, 1953 30 mins
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.
Episode 19
Shadowed
Thu, Jun 18, 1953 30 mins
Burt Stroude is about to be chosen as the party's senatorial candidate. At the same time, he hears from the married woman he'd had an affair with in his youth. She's dying and wants him at her bedside, but going to her would destroy his political career and possibly his marriage.