Acting
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.
During World War II, an innkeeper vows to abstain from alcohol for the sake of his family. Years later, as they thrive in Normandy, his resolve is tested by a charming advertising professional who loves to drink.
A group of pensioners, exasperated by the Social Security strike, meet Chalupot, a former paratrooper and ex-priest who has just been released from prison. He encouraged them to form the M.L.V. (Mouvement de Libération des Vieillards) and organize demonstrations. But as Chalupot is arrested and locked up, the pensioners plan to hold up the Social Security.
Dedee is a prostitute, working in Monsieur Rene's night club on Antwerp's harbour. The porter is Marco, her pimp. Dedee is not happy, until she meets Francesco, an italian sailorman. They fall in love and Dedee begins to dream about an escape of her daily dullness.
Paul Braconnier and his wife Blandine only have one thing in mind: to find a way to kill each other without risk. After listening to a radio show, Paul decides to go to Paris to meet a famous lawyer in the acquittal of the murderers. He tells the lawyer that he killed his wife. The lawyer asks Paul to reconstruct the circumstances of the drama. Without knowing it, he explains, in spite of himself, the way for Paul to murder his wife by putting the odds on his side to avoid death penalty or even be released...
1939 : what a beautiful year for Claudia and JerĂ´me. No sooner do they meet that they are under each other's spell. 1939 : what a horrible year for the two lovers : war breaks out before they can get married. They meet again after the war but the enchantment has vanished. They decide to marry but it will be for reason, not for love. Miracles only happen once.
The mind of Pierre Bérard, a successful middle-aged architect, is torn between his unstable present with Hélène, his younger lover, and his happy memories of the past with Catherine, his ex-wife; but his true destiny awaits him at a crossroads on his way to Rennes…
Seven directors each dramatize one of the seven deadly sins in a short film. In "Anger," a domestic argument over a fly in the Sunday soup escalates into nuclear war. In "Sloth," a movie star would rather pay someone to tie his shoe than bend over to do it himself, and he can't be bothered to accept a starlet's sexual favors. In "Gluttony," a peasant family on its way to the funeral of a relative who died from indigestion stops regularly to eat and drink en route, arriving in time to eat some more. In "Greed," a high-class prostitute refunds the price of a cadet's lottery ticket. In "Pride," an unfaithful wife finds reason to reform. And so on through lust and envy.
A woman in Paris hires a taxi driver to locate her ex-lover, father to her newborn child, who left her without leaving an address.
The short stories of Guy de Maupassant enjoyed a renaissance in the early 1950s, thanks in great part to the Max Ophuls production Le Plaisir. In Trois Femmes, three De Maupassant stories are dramatized, each conveying the central theme of women falling in love. In the first, a black female carnival entertainer causes an uproar when she falls in love with a white soldier. In the second, a young bride is pressured into having a baby to collect a huge inheritance. And in the final episode, a pregnant girl is "adopted" and protected by a small circle of friends. In standard De Maupassant fashion, each of the three stories in Trois Femmes is capped by a surprise twist.
During a stay at a roadside inn, long-distance lorry driver Jean Viard meets a young woman Clothilde who works there. Their friendship soon develops into a passionate love affair, even though Jean is already married and is old enough to be Clothilde’s father. Things take a turn for the worse when Jean loses his job and his wife finds out about his affair. But Clothilde’s predicament is even more distressing...
Catherine is scouted by magazine editor Judith and her co-worker/boyfriend Michel. Promoted under the stage name 'Chouchou', Catherine becomes a big asset but things become complicated when she and Michel start developing mutual romantic feelings. These are exacerbated when Judith gets the idea of doing a wedding-themed shoot, wherein Catherine plays the part of the blushing bride and Michel finds himself as the groom.
In a small provincial town, the boarding-house is run by Mathilde Belin, the overindulging and over-demanding mother of Paul. When she is told by her envious sister Charlotte that her son is having a secret affair with Catherine, a salesgirl, she becomes furious and starts doing everything in her power to separate the lovebirds.
A gangster is back in business after a while and tries to take it back the hard way, but things don't go as well as planned. At the same time, we watch the fate of a young nurse in a hospital. Soon, the two stories meet when the gangster faces his problems.
Returning from a two-year stay in Terre Adélie, explorer Bernard Villiers meets up with his best friend, Thomas Desjardins, whose diplomatic duties call him to London. While Thomas is away, Bernard learns that Catherine, his wife, has run off with his collaborator Michel. Out of friendship for Thomas, and always resourceful, he follows the couple and tries to separate them. He does so much, in fact, that he falls in love with Catherine.
Jules Pinson, photographer in a small provincial village is in love with Annette, the daughter of the grocer. She 's dreaming only heros of adventure movies, so Jules invents a twin brother, Caesar, hunter of lions in Senegal ...
The most secret agent Stanislas Dubois, tired of saving the world alone decides to retire and to start writing his memoirs. The enemies of humanity, progress and peace in the world found out about it and created an international network of espionage "13 columns". Unfortunately they platted a slot in the good old France. They should think better...
LĂ©on, a humble civil servant, has the unusual ability to walk through walls, however thick they are. One day, he falls madly in love with a charming hotel thief by the name of Suzan.
Comedy in five acts by Beaumarchais, filmed by Marcel Bluwal in studio and on location. The cast, in accordance with Marcel Bluwal's wishes, is in keeping with the age and character of the characters, to give it rhythm. At once "a comic baroque play, a bourgeois drama, a chansonnier's number, a social satire, a farce and a very pretty love story" according to Marcel Bluwal, it can also be summed up, according to Beaumarchais, as "the most bantering of intrigues".
Valentin travels to the burial of his father who died of indigestion, but stopping to eat on the way causes him to be late for the meal which follows the funeral.
