Willa Pearl Curtis

A continuation of the anthology series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, hosted by the master of suspense and featuring thrillers and mysteries.

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.

A girl is engaged to the local richman, but meanwhile she has dreams about the legendary pirate Macoco. A traveling singer falls in love with her and to impress her he poses as the pirate.

Longtime alcoholic Don Birnam has been sober for ten days and appears to be over the worst... but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother and girlfriend, he begins a four-day bender that just might be his last – one way or another.

A wicked Southern woman ruthlessly manipulates her family.

Army Captain Edward Hall returns to the U.S. after two years in a prison camp in the Korean War. In the camp, he was brainwashed and helped the Chinese convince the other prisoners that they were fighting an unjust war. When he comes back he is charged for collaboration with the enemy. Where does loyalty end in a prison camp, when the camp is a living hell?

A wealthy young Hebrew traveling in Damascus renounces his faith after he is seduced by an alluring pagan priestess and cheated of his fortune by the High Priest as well.

Teachers at an all-black school fight to save a problem child.

A teenage girl from a traditional family goes on a date with a pilot and ends up having sex with him. After the pilot dies in a plane crash, the girl discovers she is pregnant with his child.

A newlywed couple on their honeymoon visit friends who are having marital problems of their own.

Ellen McNulty leaves her New Jersey hamburger stand and heads west to pay a surprise visit to her son and his new bride. When Ellen arrives, her daughter-in-law mistakes her for the maid she has hired for a big party they are throwing. Rather than cause any embarrassment, Ellen goes along with the charade, which leads to many complications.

A circus performer who falls in love with a rich car dealer's son, against her family's wishes. Features some spirited dance numbers with Ray Bolger.

Danny O'Neill and Hank Taylor are rival trumpeters with the Perennials, a college band, and both men are still attending college by failing their exams seven years in a row. In the midst of a performance, Danny spies Ellen Miller who ends up being made band manager. Both men compete for her affections while trying to get the other one fired.

In 1940s Chicago, a young black man takes a job as a chauffeur to a white family, which takes a turn for the worse when he accidentally kills the teenage daughter of the couple and then tries to cover it up.

After backing over a police motorcycle, Axel and Elmer are fined $100 and given 48 hours to come up with the money or go to jail. Knowing nothing about plumbing, they answer Mr. Skunkem's ad for plumber's assistants, and are sent to the Dinwitty estate to recover a diamond ring from a drain pipe. In due course they destroy the bathroom, and switch the gas and water lines, disrupting Mrs. Dinwitty's bridge party, Vanillia's dinner preparation, and the gardener's lawn watering.

This All-Star Comedy (production number 7437, and a remake of 1940's "The Heckler" with Charley Chase) has Shemp Howard, noise-maker and heckler deluxe, hired by two gamblers to rattle a ball team while the gamblers bet on the opponents. The gamblers are more than a little bit vexed when Shemp loses his voice.

When Bigshot Jones gives his unnamed dog to the All-For-One Club, Buckwheat quickly names the canine "Smallpox", inadvertently causing a city-wide panic.

A ruthless Texas oil baron and his non-believing daughter find God in this early witnessing film produced by and featuring Billy Graham.

Most of the footage is devoted to the annual Passion Play at Lawton, Oklahoma, enacted by volunteers from several nearby communities. This portion of The Lawton Story was directed by Harold Daniels and narrated by radio announcer Knox Manning. To bring the film up to feature length, a fictional plotline concerning the preparations for the pageant was hastily assembled, featuring such familiar Hollywood character players as Forrest Taylor, Willa Pearl Curtis and Maude Eburne.

Weighing themselves on a penny machine, the Our Gang kids receive a fortune card predicting that they will receive "unexpected riches." Acting upon this, the kids decide to dig for buried treasure, using a fraudulent map provided by one of their wise-guy acquaintances.