Playhouse 90

Playhouse 90 Season 3

TV Show

Season 3 Episodes

1. The Plot to Kill Stalin

September 25th, 19581 hr 30 min

In late 1952, an aging and increasingly paranoid Stalin puts in motion a purge against his doctors, with anti-Semitic overtones. His lackeys, including Khrushchev, Molotov and Beria, fear it will spread to the Politburo, and plan to strike first.

2. Days of Wine and Roses

October 2nd, 19581 hr 30 min

An alcoholic falls in love with and gets married to a young woman, whom he systematically addicts to booze so they can share his "passion" together.

3. The Time of Your Life

October 9th, 19581 hr 30 min

William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning play revolves around the denizens of a San Francisco bar in 1939. Lonely, lovelorn, weary or cynical, the characters drift in and out of the bar and each other's lives, giving voice to Saroyan's philosophies as they randomly comment about the impending world war, the beauty of art, and traditional notions of good and evil.

4. The Long March

October 16th, 19581 hr 30 min

5. Shadows Tremble

October 23rd, 19581 hr 30 min

An elderly immigrant tries to buy an old house in New England and is opposed by snobbish locals.

6. Word from a Sealed-Off Box

October 30th, 19581 hr 30 min

A courier for the Dutch Resistance is captured by the Nazis.

7. Heart of Darkness

November 6th, 19581 hr 30 min

A trading company manager travels up an African river to find a missing outpost head and discovers the depth of evil in humanity's soul.

8. Old Man

November 20th, 19581 hr 30 min

To fight a Mississippi flood in 1927, a prison farm releases some convicts.

9. The Return of Ansel Gibbs

November 27th, 19581 hr 30 min

After years in retirement, Ansel Gibbs is asked to return to government service.

10. Free Weekend

December 4th, 19581 hr 30 min

11. Seven Against the Wall

December 11th, 19581 hr 30 min

The story of the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929.

12. The Nutcracker

December 25th, 19581 hr 30 min

This telecast of George Balanchine's famous production was broadcast only four years after it was premiered by the New York City Ballet. This was the only episode of the series televised in color.

13. Face of a Hero

January 1st, 19591 hr 30 min

14. The Wings of the Dove

January 8th, 19591 hr 30 min

An impoverished woman who has been forced to choose between a privileged life with her wealthy aunt and her journalist lover, befriends an American heiress. When she discovers the heiress is attracted to her own lover and is dying, she sees a chance to have both the privileged life she cannot give up and the lover she cannot live without.

15. The Blue Men

January 15th, 19591 hr 30 min

16. The Velvet Alley

January 22nd, 19591 hr 30 min

Ernie Pandish has tried to be a writer for years and has never made much money out of it. But now he seems likely to hit the big-time.

17. A Quiet Game of Cards

January 29th, 19591 hr 30 min

A few friends meet each weekend for a quiet game of cards. But they're bored with poker and, in trying to find another diversion, gradually find themselves plotting a hypothetical murder. It is hypothetical, isn't it?

18. Child of Our Time

February 5th, 19591 hr 30 min

War deprives Tanguy of his childhood. When his mother returns to Spain to oppose the Franco regime, he is left in Nazi-occupied Marseilles, France.

19. The Second Man

February 12th, 19591 hr 30 min

20. The Raider

February 19th, 19591 hr 30 min

A corporate raider plans a hostile takeover. To stall him, pressure is put on a scientist to rush through a new type of engine before all necessary tests have been completed.

21. The Ding-A-Ling Girl

February 26th, 19591 hr 30 min

A housewife is offered a Hollywood contract. She'd rather stay home, but her husband has ambitions for her.

22. Made in Japan

March 5th, 19591 hr 30 min

A young soldier in occupied Japan after World War II falls in love with a lovely Japanese girl, but is horrified about what his prejudiced family in Philadelphia will think if he takes her home with him.

23. For Whom the Bell Tolls: Part 1

March 12th, 19591 hr 30 min

During the Spanish Civil War, an American allied with the Republicans finds romance during a desperate mission to blow up a strategically important bridge.

24. For Whom the Bell Tolls: Part 2

March 19th, 19591 hr 30 min

The completion of the mission has tragic consequences.

25. A Trip to Paradise

March 26th, 19591 hr 30 min

26. In Lonely Expectation

April 2nd, 19591 hr 30 min

27. The Day Before Atlanta

April 9th, 19591 hr 30 min

28. Judgment at Nuremberg

April 16th, 19591 hr 30 min

In the later stages of the Nuremberg Trials, four German judges are accused of perverting the course of justice.

29. A Corner of the Garden

April 23rd, 19591 hr 30 min

30. Dark December

April 30th, 19591 hr 30 min

During World War II, an army doctor struggles to convert a Franciscan monastery into a field hospital.

31. Diary of a Nurse

May 7th, 19591 hr 30 min

The daily emergencies and stresses of a major city's hospital ward as seen through the eyes of nurse Gail Lucas.

32. A Marriage of Strangers

May 14th, 19591 hr 30 min

Marry in haste, repent at leisure? Well, maybe.

33. Out of Dust

May 21st, 19591 hr 30 min

On a cattle drive across the prairie, the sons of a wealthy cattle baron plot his death.

34. The Rank and File

May 28th, 19591 hr 30 min

A powerful union leader is interrogated by a Senate committee.

35. The Killers of Mussolini

June 4th, 19591 hr 30 min

As the Salo Republic crumbles around him, Mussolini, along with his mistress and several of his ministers flee with retreating Nazi soldiers, but are caught at the town of Dongo by red partisans. All are brutally executed without trial.

36. Project Immortality

June 11th, 19591 hr 30 min

Key defense scientist Doner has cancer. Schramm is assigned to code Doner's thinking into a computer. He gets to know him as a friend, a husband and father. The project is successful, but he now knows identity is not programmable.

37. Dark as the Night

June 18th, 19591 hr 30 min

A British politician finds himself open to blackmail because of the indiscretion of his American wife.

38. The Second Happiest Day

June 25th, 19591 hr 30 min

A man about to be married recalls the day his life changed permanently.

All Seasons

Season 4

Season 4

Oct 1, 1959
Season 3

Season 3

Sep 25, 1958
Season 2

Season 2

Sep 12, 1957
Season 1

Season 1

Oct 4, 1956