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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 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.

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Follows the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from the police term "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.

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Tom Sawyer and his pal Huckleberry Finn have great adventures on the Mississippi River, pretending to be pirates, attending their own funeral and witnessing a murder.

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The story of the life and career of the baseball hall of famer, Lou Gehrig.

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When three brothers join the Foreign Legion to escape a troubled past, they find themselves trapped under the command of a sadistic sergeant deep in the scorching Sahara. Now the brothers must fight for their lives as they plot mutiny against tyranny and defend a desert fortress against a brutal enemy.

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Bill's separated from his litter, making friends with the wild creatures until he's found and adopted by young Kathie. An accident separates him from her, and he's drafted into K-9 duty in the trenches until battle fatigue takes its toll and he turns vicious. And even though he finds his way back home, he may be condemned as a killer.

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Flagwaving story of a new American destroyer, the JOHN PAUL JONES, from the day her keel is laid, to what was very nearly her last voyage. Among the crew, is Steve Boleslavski, a shipyard welder that helped build her, who reenlists, with his old rank of Chief bosuns mate. After failing her sea trials, she is assigned to the mail run, until caught up in a disparate battle with a Japanese sub. After getting torpedoed, and on the verge of sinking, the Captain, and crew hatch a plan to try and save the ship, and destroy the sub.

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In this action-filled spectacle set in ancient Pompeii, a blacksmith becomes a Roman gladiator, though his rise to wealth and power is jeopardized by his son's Christianity and the eruption of Vesuvius.

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In this WW II musical, a young man suddenly finds himself in charge of his family when his father is called to war. To help the flagging spirits of local factory workers, the plucky lad, his siblings and his schoolmates put on a lively little show. With a little work, he even convinces Count Basie to come with his band.

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Teenager Homer Macauley stays at home in the small town of Ithaca, California to support his family while his older brother Marcus prepares to go to war.

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A G-man woos a newswoman and corners bank robbers with a hostage in a factory.

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Joe and Ethel Turp are up in arms when their faithful old mailman is fired. Unable to get satisfaction on a municipal level, Joe and Ethel plead their mailman's case to the President himself.

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President Franklin Roosevelt appoints a theatrical producer as the new Secretary of Amusement in order to cheer up an American public still suffering through the Depression. The new secretary soon runs afoul of political lobbyists out to destroy his department.

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Elderly schoolteacher Nora Trinell, waiting to meet presidential nominee Dewey Roberts, recalls him as her student back in 1916 and his relation to Dan Hopkins, the man she married and lost.

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Linda Wadsworth rebels against her millionaire grandfather, J. H. Wadsworth, and runs away from home. Unknown to Mr. Wadsworth, she gets a job at one of his many five-and-ten-cents stores as a clerk.

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Two-bit radio station owner Spud Miller doubles as the station's sole announcer. On the verge of bankruptcy, Spud is receptive to the wacky notions of George and Gracie, who've just invented a television device that can pick up and transmit any signal, any time, anywhere.

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Captain Bob Hayworth, his brother Lieutenant Gilroy Hayworth and Captain Derek Marbury are in a World-War 1 trench on the front-lines in France. Bob Hayworth resents Marbury greatly as the latter had married the girl, Lucy Neville, Marbury was courting in pre-war London. Ordered to go on a night patrol, the cowardly Gilroy committed suicide rather than face his fear. Bob and Derek arrange it to appear that Bob had been killed by a shell-burst, and Derek, with his face camouflaged, takes the patrol posing as Gilroy. While on patrol, Derek is hit by a shell-burst and found by the German Red Cross, who turn him over to a family of French peasants.

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When a night watchman is mistaken for a wealthy college alumnus, his family and friends help him go along with the pretense.

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Travellers board a flight, unaware that other passengers might be spies and counterspies, complete with secret documents, poison and elaborate plans to engage in international espionage!

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The employees of a failing radio station must put on a huge ratings winner to have any chance of continued operation.

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While the rest of the gang goes fishing, Spanky gets stuck babysitting.

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A chorus girl's career is ruined and her brother is driven to suicide when she starts smoking marijuana.

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When vaudeville performer Florette Faxon is left penniless with her six-year-old son Jimmy, she relies on the friendship of fellow performer Bud Hannigan to help her get a job. Bud is reluctant to become her partner, as he has proven to himself to be unreliable in relationships, but he tells her to call him whenever she needs help. While working in a beer garden, Florette meets Hap Stanley, an avaricious performer who marries her to get the rights to perform her show routine. Hap dislikes Jimmy and eventually convinces Florette to send him away to school. Both Jimmy and Florette are broken-up over being apart, but Jimmy pretends it is what he wants so Florette can be happy with Hap.

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A book publisher finds his business floundering, which prompts his socially ambitious wife to desert him for a society millionaire, leaving him with their young son. The publisher's fortunes improve dramatically, however, when a best-selling romance novelist decides to publish her new book with his firm. In the meantime, his ex-wife has married the millionaire, and she and her new mother-in-law come up with a plan to sue her ex-husband for custody of the boy.

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A tough sergeant helps a raw recruit find courage under fire during the Korean War.

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Henry and his pal Dizzy become Boy Scout leaders, but a spoiled brat in their troop quickly proves to cause them no end of trouble.

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Tommy Lewis, the son of a big time racketeer, is enrolled in military school under an assumed name as protection from the notoriety of his father. Tommy is assigned to share a room with Dick Hill, an egotistical school athlete, and Sandy Blake, a pampered rich boy. Even though all three boys are potentially good lads, each has a handicap that he must overcome.

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A couple of gamblers pressure the local night club owner to rig things so the local college rowing crew will lose their upcoming race.

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Two discharged service men go to the redwood country in northern California to visit the family of a buddy killed in the war. There, they find the family's trucking business is being threatened by a rival who will stop at nothing to ruin their business. They take up the fight against the crooks.

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Part of Paramount Headliner: Hollywood Star Reporter series