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.

Newlyweds Bob and Suzi have landlord troubles when Suzi's mother arrives on a visit and brings her dog and dogs are forbidden in their apartment house and they face eviction. Mother leaves and all is well. Bob's boss (Donald MacBride) tells Bob he will promote him to sales manager if Bob takes care of his unruly police dog while he is out of town. Nothing ventured, nothing gained thinks Bob until the irate landlord shows up again. But Bob's boss takes care of that problem by buying the property and saying Bob and Suzi can keep all the dogs they want.

When her newlywed husband, Bob, mistakenly follows the diet prescribed for their dog and starts eating grass, Betty calls for a psychiatrist. To complicate their martial-bliss even more, Betty's parents comes for a visit and her father, a retired insurance salesman, forces an unneeded policy on Bob.

Comedy film short

When two US cavalrymen transporting a gold shipment get killed, US Army Intelligence investigator John Haven goes undercover to a mining and logging town to find the killers.

There's a dispute over water rights, and every lawman that arrives to settle the score is killed. It's up to Lash to settle the score and find out who is behind all the killings.

A gang of criminals, which includes a piano player and an imposing former convict known as 'Gruesome', has found out about a scientist's secret formula for a gas that temporarily paralyzes anyone who breathes it. When Gruesome accidentally inhales some of the gas and passes out, the police think he is dead and take him to the morgue, where he later revives and escapes. This puzzling incident attracts the interest of Dick Tracy, and when the criminals later use the gas to rob a bank, Tracy realizes that he must devote his entire attention to stopping them.

After marrying her long lost love, a pianist finds the relationship threatened by a wealthy composer who is besotted with her.