Four Star Playhouse

- Season 2

(1953)

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.

Willie Dante begrudgingly lets the son of the district attorney play dice in his illegal gambling hall, under threat of exposure. Willie kicks him out anyway when he finds out that his checks are bad, but a gangster under indictment robs Dante of the boy's checks, in order to blackmail the DA.

A brain-damaged PT boat commander is exploited by his prominent family, but loved by his community. The World War II hero longs for his own small house, but his miserly sister-in-law refuses to provide the Commander with a $500 down payment, claiming that she needs every sou to marry off his troublesome younger brother to a wealthy woman.

A woman on a cruise without her husband feels abandoned and alone, but her spirits are revived by a series of anonymous romantic gifts. Several men on the ship attempt to romance her, but which of them is sending her the gifts?

A defense attorney idles in a swank restaurant while his client's on trial for murder. The attorney's PIs search for a female witness who can get the defendant off, so the attorney avoids court to keep delaying the trial. But as the judge's temper boils, the attorney wonders if the woman really exists.

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.

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

An overworked man is ordered by his doctor to take a vacation. While at the resort, he falls in love with a blind woman.

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.

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.

Trudy is incensed when her rent goes up after the city relaxes rent control. She marches down to the mayor's office and threatens to make his name mud if he doesn't reinstate the controls. He doesn't, so she calls some reporters and sets up housekeeping in the city park.

A doctor opens an office in a small Cuban village, but he finds out that doctors are not allowed, according to the decree of a vengeful 200-year-old unseen tyrant.

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.

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.

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.

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

The owner of a financially distressed casino faces a dilemma when his estranged son gambles against him. Either his casino will go bankrupt, or he'll bring about the financial ruin of his son.

A gem expert declares a worthless string of beads worn by a poor governess to be a valuable pearl necklace.

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

Dick Powell plays a cop who returns home after a tough night only to be confronted with noisy kids, his wife, neighbors, delivery men and a vacuum cleaner salesman. When he discovers his gun is missing, he must track everyone down to see who has it.

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.

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

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.

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.

Neglected by her husband, Stacy goes out with wealthy bachelor Paul. The evening ends in a fatal car accident from which Stacy escapes unnoticed. She is the only one who can save Paul from manslaughter charges, but at risk of her own marriage.

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.

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.

Kit and her fiancé are hosting a Mardi Gras costume party at her huge mansion when frightening news arrives. Her ex-husband, a crazed murderer, has just escaped from prison and is believed to be costumed as the corpse-like character from Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death."

An artist discovers that one of his favorite model's has been murdered and an investigation begins to discover the murderer.

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.