Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1, Episode 17: Prima Donna

1

Meet The Governor

A "bumpkin-type" lawyer runs for governor until the opposition digs into his past.

30 min

2

Day is Done

During the catastrophic 1951 retreat of American troops in Korea, a recruit finds a Chinese bugle. His sargeant then attempts to use it to instill the fighting spirit in his men.

30 min

3

Midsummer Daydream

A young man who wants desperately to get married finds "The Girl" in, of all places, a marriage license bureau. But the happy ending is threatened by the appearance of a suave, smooth, sophisticated gambling man.

30 min

4

Arroyo

A small New Mexican town enjoys a reasonably peaceful existence under the rule of self-appointed judge Lamar Kendall. This state of affairs is disrupted by the appearance of a wounded young woman, who reports that an Indian raid has wiped out her wagon train.

30 min

5

Want ad Wedding

A young naval officer, alone in a strange city, is planning to be married. Having no friends in town, he places an ad in the newspaper advertising for wedding guests.

30 min

6

The Life of Vernon Hathaway

A meek little watch repairman daydreams himself into exciting adventures. When his alter ego takes over, he begins living his dreams in real life.

30 min

7

The Final Tribute

A nurse in a small-town doctor's office protests the attitude of the new young physician. His cold, impersonal treatment of patients is exactly opposite that of the kindly and gentle elderly doctor he will someday replace.

30 min

8

The Brush Roper

Grandpa Atkins tries to live up to his tales of former glory as a cowpoke. He learns a dangerous bull is at large in the brush, saddles up, and goes after him with his rope.

30 min

9

Tom and Jerry

It's Christmas Eve at the Macy house. Tom Macy plays Santa for he and wife Jerry's little boy, Tommy. It is obvious that Jerry is not happy with her husband Tom. Jerry knows Tom has a woman on the side named Lola. Their dear friends, Father O'Dowd and attorney Mr. Garrity coax Tom and Jerry into seeing sense and save the couple's marriage.

30 min

10

Rookie of the Year

A small-town newspaper sports writer harbors an ambition to work for a big city daily. He sees his chance to achieve his goal while attending the World Series: one of the rookies shows a style reminiscent of a former all-time great banned from baseball for accepting a bribe.

30 min

11

Lincoln's Doctor's Dog

Discouraged and saddened by the War Between the States, President Lincoln is cheered by the gift of a puppy from his physician.

30 min

12

The Silent Partner

Watching the TV broadcast of the Academy Awards presentation, a faded actress realizes that the patron at another table in the restaurant was once a well-known comic. Her happy discovery is marred, however, by a man who calls both of them has-beens.

30 min

13

Titanic Incident

A cardsharp and his wife aboard the Titanic on its fateful last voyage pick a wealthy Britisher as their pigeon. The cardsharp sets up the Britisher for a climactic card session, but the tables seem to turn as the ship goes down.

30 min

14

Hot Cargo

A chorus girl, stranded in a waterfront town in the Orient, is befriended by the skipper of a freighter. She marries the skipper and then meets a good-looking young harbor policeman who falls in love with her.

30 min

15

It's Always Sunday

A kindly minister who believes in doing good for the unfortunate befriends a pair of itinerants who arrive in town.

30 min

16

Number Five Checked Out

A young deaf woman is left alone to look after the resort cabins owned by her father. Two dangerous bank robbers move in, using the secluded spot as a temporary hideout.

30 min

17

Prima Donna

A philanthropic concert artist takes an interest in a 13-year-old newsboy with an outstanding singing voice. She runs into difficulties when the boy also shows a marked preference for baseball.

30 min

18

Cry Justice

Bitter because his law partner married the woman he loved, a man plots his own disappearance, making it appear he has been murdered by his partner. Ten years later, the partner is released from prison and seeks revenge.

30 min

19

Affair in Sumatra

A beautiful half-caste girl is torn between love for her people and love for a man.

30 min

20

One Against Many

A scientist devoted to saving lives is faced with a difficult decision: he may be forced to kill in order to prevent a state-wide livestock epidemic.

30 min

21

It's a Most Unusual Day

A married couple take in a night club show starring Jimmy McHugh, and are prompted by his melodies to relive their past.

30 min

22

The Sword Of Villon

The swashbuckling poet Francois Villon fights for love and liberty while preventing the assassination of the King of France by a scheming count and countess.

30 min

23

Markheim

Late on Christmas Day, a man coaxes an antiques shopkeeper to let him in under the pretense of needing a gift for his fiancée, but it is soon clear he wants something else. To his surprise, what he gets is a battle with his own conscience.

30 min

24

Claire

A young doctor brings his second wife to his lakeside home to live. She is taunted by the presence of his pet cat, which serves to remind her that because she couldn't swim, she stood helplessly by while the first wife drowned.

30 min

25

A Ticket For Thaddeus

A humble refugee from war-torn Poland has never been able to shed his fear of anyone in uniform. When the immigrant is involved in a minor traffic altercation, he tries to prove to the police he was at fault even though he wasn't.

30 min

26

The Dream

In France in 1887 an impressionable youth gives his mother cause for alarm. The young man has a recurrent dream in which he searches for his dead father. The mother is further upset when the boy tells her of meeting a baron who offers to take him aboard ship for a journey to the West Indies.

30 min

27

What Day is it?

A husband and wife dance team bicker backstage when the husband can't remember what special date his wife is observing. Between song and dance numbers, the arguments escalate until a singing telegram arrives. Music by Leon Klatzkin. Songs: Yankee doodle boy, Mary's a grand old name by George M. Cohan; When you're a clown by Jeff Bailey, Jack Latimer; arrangements by Walter Sheets, Russell Garcia

30 min

28

Every Man Had Two Wives

In the spring, when one gentleman's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of a former love, his wife decides to take drastic action. She and hubby make a trip back to the old home town, determined to come face to face with his childhood sweetheart.

30 min

29

Partners

A rodeo star befriends an orphan boy who yearns to compete.

30 min

30

White Corridors

An American tourist in London accompanies a friend to the hospital for an emergency operation. At the hospital, she claims she has witnessed a murder, but the doctors think she is imagining things.

30 min

31

The Carroll Formula

A college professor stumbled across a fantastic formula for reducing the size of things in the unpublished mathematical works of C.L. Dodgson, who, as Lewis Carroll, wrote Alice in Wonderland.

30 min

32

Apples on the Lilac Tree

A couple's peculiar marital arrangement is the talk of the town. It seems that the husband loves to do the housework, while his wife spends the day at the office.

30 min

33

Bitter Waters

In a fashionable German resort at the turn of the century, a wealthy young American touring Europe with his uncle meets a woman and her widowed mother. A romance develops between the young couple, until the society matron mother brings her own past to bear on their relationship.

30 min

34

The Day I met Caruso

On a train between Boston and New York, a ten-year-old Quaker girl meets Enrico Caruso. She takes him to task for his worldliness and extravagances, but is eventually won over by his voice, as he sings arias from Aida, La Boheme, Tosca, and Pagliacci, as well as the World War I tune ""Over There.""

30 min

35

High Air

Long separated, a river-tunnel foreman and his son come face to face during an under-river disaster which almost takes their lives.

30 min