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The Best Episodes of Four Star Playhouse

Every episode of Four Star Playhouse ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Four Star Playhouse!

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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

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Four Star Playhouse Season 4 Episode 38 - Distinguished Service
    8.3/10(21 votes)

    #1 - Distinguished Service

    S4:E38

    More interested in his career than in his duty as a physician, a noted doctor intentionally misdiagnoses a patient in an Asian city so he could get back to the U.S. and accept a major award. When his wife realizes that he abandoned a town needing his help to fight a Plague outbreak, she demands a divorce.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Four Star Playhouse Season 3 Episode 11 - Bourbon Street
    8.1/10(16 votes)

    #2 - Bourbon Street

    S3:E11

    A musician returns to New Orleans after breaking into the bigtime. Though his ex-wife deserted him, he is bent on revenge after receiving an anonymous letter telling him she committed suicide after being mistreated by her lover.

    Director:Roy Kellino
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Four Star Playhouse Season 1 Episode 18 - To Whom It May Concern
    8.0/10(50 votes)

    #3 - To Whom It May Concern

    S1:E18

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Four Star Playhouse Season 2 Episode 8 - Moorings
    8.0/10(45 votes)

    #4 - Moorings

    S2:E8

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

    Director:Robert Florey
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Four Star Playhouse Season 4 Episode 14 - Tunnel of Fear
    8.0/10(68 votes)

    #5 - Tunnel of Fear

    S4:E14

    While traveling alone in a train compartment, an elderly, wealthy, wheelchair-bound man (Cedric Hardwicke) is confronted by a younger man (David Niven), whom he had double-crossed over twenty years ago. The younger man, now bent on revenge, tells the elderly man that he intends to kill him when the train passes through an upcoming tunnel. A battle of wits ensues.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Four Star Playhouse Season 4 Episode 27 - Wall of Bamboo
    8.0/10(11 votes)

    #6 - Wall of Bamboo

    S4:E27

    An undercover agent is dispatched to the anti-communist underground to search for an important contact. But when he's caught by the red Chinese, he's tortured in various ways for important information by a mysterious renegade white man who leads them known by the nom de guerre "Sampan Joe".

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Four Star Playhouse

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  7. Four Star Playhouse Season 2 Episode 22 - The Bomb
    7.9/10(55 votes)

    #7 - The Bomb

    S2:E22

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Four Star Playhouse Season 3 Episode 33 - Alias Mr. Hepp
    7.9/10(23 votes)

    #8 - Alias Mr. Hepp

    S3:E33

    Frank Hepp has made his career charming rich, unhappy women out of their fortunes. His parole officer orders him avoid all women, but he can't help himself when a single wealthy woman moves in next door. Mr. Hepp's plan to fleece his new victim runs afoul when he actually falls for her.

    Director:Roy Kellino
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Four Star Playhouse Season 1 Episode 4 - Backstage
    7.8/10(53 votes)

    #9 - Backstage

    S1:E4

    An actor named Paul is out on an evening stroll when he sees a young woman attempting to jump off a bridge. After a struggle, he discovers her name is Amy and she is homeless. Paul believes $5 could mean the difference between decency & despair so he pays for Amy to stay in a hotel for the night, agreeing to meet her the next day. Amy is nowhere to be found when Paul returns. He worries and begins the search for this mysterious woman.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Four Star Playhouse Season 3 Episode 3 - Interlude
    7.8/10(39 votes)

    #10 - Interlude

    S3:E3

    A young woman from a wealthy family is graduating from an exclusive school with neither her parents nor close friends attending. In her lonliness, she becomes infatuated with an older man, a divorced newspaper reporter.

    Director:Roy Kellino
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Four Star Playhouse Season 3 Episode 14 - Go Ahead And Jump
    7.8/10(39 votes)

    #11 - Go Ahead And Jump

    S3:E14

    Eddie, a cab driver, picks up a sad looking fare and brings him to a hotel where he witnesses the man being humiliated by his ex-wife. When the man asks to be taken to the middle of the biggest bridge, Eddie uses some every day, hard-nosed psychology, and a little lie, to make the man see that life is worth living.

    Director:Roy Kellino
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Four Star Playhouse Season 4 Episode 22 - To Die at Midnight
    7.8/10(21 votes)

    #12 - To Die at Midnight

    S4:E22

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

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Four Star Playhouse Season 4 Episode 40 - The Stand-In
    7.8/10(28 votes)

    #13 - The Stand-In

    S4:E40

    An aspiring actress has spent 20 years in Hollywood, not gaining fame as she had hoped, but as a stand-in for a well-known actress. Her ambition turns to despair, and her affection to bitterness.

    Director:Ida Lupino
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Four Star Playhouse Season 2 Episode 27 - The Book
    7.7/10(36 votes)

    #14 - The Book

    S2:E27

    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.

    Director:Roy Kellino
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Four Star Playhouse Season 4 Episode 11 - One Way Out
    7.7/10(47 votes)

    #15 - One Way Out

    S4:E11

    A wealthy woman separates from her fortune-hunting husband. She rents a swanky New York penthouse in a building so new that she is the only one living there. When she awakens from a nap, she finds herself trapped in the apartment. Her estranged husband and his girlfriend are after her money and are hoping this will drive her crazy.

    Director:Roy Kellino
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Four Star Playhouse Season 4 Episode 13 - Magic Night
    7.7/10(21 votes)

    #16 - Magic Night

    S4:E13

    Upset that his 25 years of service for the company are unappreciated, Henri treats himself to an expensive night on the town, on the company's dime. He then comes to his senses, distraught that his embezzlement will be discovered.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Four Star Playhouse Season 1 Episode 1 - My Wife Geraldine
    7.6/10(77 votes)

    #17 - My Wife Geraldine

    S1:E1

    Man invents a wife, then accused of murdering her.

    Director:Robert Florey
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Four Star Playhouse Season 2 Episode 15 - House For Sale
    7.6/10(64 votes)

    #18 - House For Sale

    S2:E15

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Four Star Playhouse Season 2 Episode 2 - The Squeeze
    7.5/10(62 votes)

    #19 - The Squeeze

    S2:E2

    Another of the great Willie Dante stories. Stan, the son of the DA, is a secret gambler. He loses big in Willie's joint and pays by check. Stan's pretty sister shows up to ask Willie's help. Deras, a gangster up before the Grand Jury, wants to get hold of Stan's check to blackmail the DA. He shows up at Dante's and Willie turns over the check at gunpoint. Never to be out-witted, Willie has Lt. Waldo waiting in the wings to get the checks back, have Deras arrested, and win Stan's sister.

    Director:Robert Aldrich
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Four Star Playhouse Season 2 Episode 25 - Operation In Money
    7.5/10(34 votes)

    #20 - Operation In Money

    S2:E25

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Four Star Playhouse Season 3 Episode 10 - Meet A Lonely Man
    7.5/10(36 votes)

    #21 - Meet A Lonely Man

    S3:E10

    An attractive young lady mistakes a lonely hotel desk clerk for a Texas oil millionaire she'd once met. Loving the attention she's lavishing on him, he plays along...until his big spending catches up with him.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Four Star Playhouse Season 4 Episode 28 - Touch and Go
    7.5/10(21 votes)

    #22 - Touch and Go

    S4:E28

    Ted attacks old enemy Walter in a fit of rage. Stunned at the realization that Walter is dead, he hears a woman on the phone who overheard their conversation. Ted needs to find this woman and keep her from telling the police anything.

    Director:Robert Florey
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Four Star Playhouse Season 4 Episode 36 - Woman Afraid
    7.5/10(18 votes)

    #23 - Woman Afraid

    S4:E36

    While her husband is laid up in a farm house with a broken leg, Nina sees a prowling burglar. She calls for help, but the hired hand that she calls for is the burglar - and he's also a murderer.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Four Star Playhouse Season 1 Episode 9 - Man on a Train
    7.4/10(87 votes)

    #24 - Man on a Train

    S1:E9

    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.

    Director:Robert Florey
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. Four Star Playhouse Season 2 Episode 3 - A Place Of His Own
    7.4/10(48 votes)

    #25 - A Place Of His Own

    S2:E3

    The Commander, a mildly brain injured war hero, lives with his greedy family. All he wants is his own house, while all they want is to preserve their failing wealth, at all costs. When Frank, his younger brother, kills a man over a gambling debt, the family convinces Claude that he is the one that did it. He takes the blame, but instead of being arrested, he is given a $10,000 reward because the dead man was a most wanted criminal.

    Director:Robert Florey
    Writer:Unknown

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Best Episodes Summary

"Distinguished Service" is the best rated episode of "Four Star Playhouse". It scored 8.3/10 based on 21 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 7/5/1956. This episode scored 0.2 points higher than the second highest rated, "Bourbon Street".