Season 5

1953–1954

Aug 31, 1953 · 60m

A hard-driving, domineering business executive is determined to become the company's next president. He invites the retiring chairman and his wife to his Long Island home to wine and dine his way into the position. The man's family members, who are fed up with his tyrannical control over them, finally stage a mutiny at the dinner party.

E2. Private Purkey's Private Place

Sep 7, 1953 · 60m

A soldier and his buddies find themselves in Europe at the end of the war. Believing their opinions are as important as those of Army brass and politicians, they formulate their own peace plan and are determined to share it. They work their way into the Paris peace talks and Private Purkey makes sure the world hears his ideas.

E3. Lost and Found

Sep 14, 1953 · 60m

Dr. Robert Collis works to rehabilitate children, both physically and spiritually, who were held at Belsen, the notorious Nazi prison camp. He invests special efforts to win over Eva, who guards her younger brother so tightly that they can't treat his tuberculosis. This is based on actual events.

E4. September Time

Sep 21, 1953 · 60m

Marion Shaw, a premiere concert vocalist, takes a forced summer rest in Cape Cod to give her strained voice a chance to recover. The truth slowly becomes obvious to both Marion and her voice coach that her singing days are over. The burden of losing her career is lightened by a handsome man she meets in the resort town.

E5. The Big Money

Sep 28, 1953 · 60m

A World War I hero operates on the belief that money, and lots of it, buys happiness. He jumps into the airplane business, believing it will offer big bucks, but soon fails. He plunges into the stock market and meets a woman, but she soon leaves him because of his iffy finances. His single minded goal of money continues to negatively influence his career choices and his relationships.

E6. Breakdown

Oct 5, 1953 · 60m

Scientist Philip Armstrong returns to England to conduct tests on a top secret government weapon. Dr. Allen, whom he doesn't know, is assigned to work with him. The doctor confides that he's in love with a woman he's just recently met. It turns out that the woman is Armstrong's wife. With the stress of his work and his marriage in shambles, the scientist is on the verge of a crack-up.

E7. A Criminal Assignment

Oct 12, 1953 · 60m

Wanting to catch other criminals, the British secret service gains the release of a counterfeiter who's dropped into France. He is to produce bills that contain a tiny flaw to be used to pay off the suspected double-dealers. With the plan a success, the ex-con is free to go. Following the war, the counterfeiter disappears and authorities find two perfect plates. Clearly, he couldn't resist the temptation to print a little for himself.

E8. The Sunday Punch

Oct 19, 1953 · 60m

A one-time big name fighter, Tony Marino, is on his way down the boxing ladder, but he still can throw his powerful "Sunday punch." Tony's manager tries to bribe him to take a dive in a fight with up-and-comer Kid Walker. Tony is infuriated and almost wins the fight, though he suffers a dangerous head injury that could have lasting repercussions.

E9. Cakes and Ale

Oct 26, 1953 · 60m

Upon the death of a famed writer, two colleagues competing to write his biography visit his country estate. While there, they meet a charming local barmaid, Rosie, with quite a story to tell: she had married an unsuccessful middle-aged writer and was a major influence that guided him to being a better man and noted author.

E10. No Picnic at Mount Kenya

Nov 2, 1953 · 60m

Based on a true story from World War II, Felice Benuzzi was one of 10,000 prisoners of war held at the Kenya camp. Benuzzi and two others manage to escape by successfully scaling down the 17,000-foot high Mt. Kenya.

E11. Weekend Pass

Nov 9, 1953 · 60m

A soldier on a three-day weekend pass is determined to paint the town. With $200 and his fiancé, he hits the nightspots in New York City. His girlfriend, though, soon tires of the party life and becomes irritated by his refusal to name a wedding date. After she storms off, he decides to connect with another girl, unaware of what adventures she has in store for him.

E12. The Deep Six

Nov 16, 1953 · 60m

After far too many months at sea, tensions build among the men and officers of the cruiser U.S.S. Atlantis during World War II. Lt. Alec Austen is already irritated by the constant meddling of his executive and gunnery officers. After months of tedium and threatened danger, the ship encounters a Japanese force in the Aleutians and is thrust into a furious battle for survival.

E13. Harvest

Nov 23, 1953 · 60m

A young man in love with a sophisticated woman from the city is torn between his desires and those of his family. His parents wish him and his brother to stay and work on their small Minnesota wheat farm while both want to escape the tough life and move to the city. It's up to the mother to keep the family together in spirit during their Thanksgiving holiday reunion.

E14. The Soprano and the Piccolo Player

Nov 30, 1953 · 60m

An overweight piccolo player's accompaniment to a soprano's aria is so well-received that the two are suddenly in demand as a duo. As their fame and popularity grow, so does the piccolo player's love for his beautiful partner. As he's trying to muster up the courage to ask her to marry him, he learns that she has become engaged to another. Heartbroken, he disappears, never to be seen or heard from again.

E15. Really the Blues

Dec 7, 1953 · 60m

Jackie Cooper stars in this biography of jazz great Milton "Mezz" Mezzrow. An unruly youth, his parents put him in a reform school where he first encountered jazz. He eventually became a talented clarinetist and fronted his own combo during the 1920s, but when music trends moved towards big bands, he suffered a rapid decline in fortunes. Mezz endured much mental suffering during this period before being reintroduced to the public by friends like musician Gene Krupa.

E16. No Visible Means

Dec 14, 1953 · 60m

Tom, a smooth talking gigolo, makes the rounds through the speakeasies of 1920s New York. He's loved by Veronia, a woman with a lot of money, but he loses interest when he meets Iris. She presents herself as a person of society on the verge of big film career. Wedding plans quickly follow, until their lies catch up with both of them.

E17. What About Christmas?

Dec 21, 1953 · 60m

Individuals throughout an American city end up touching one another in unexpected ways during the holiday season. Among the unrelated people are a lonely old man and his cat, a movie actor hoping to make it home for Christmas, a businessman, and a scientist who chooses to work in his lab on Christmas Eve.

E18. The Greatest Man in the World

Dec 28, 1953 · 60m

A publicity-loving mechanic causes a sensation when he flies solo around the world. A newspaper reporter is assigned the job of uncovering this unknown person's secretive past.

E19. The Steady Man

Jan 4, 1954 · 60m

A couple whose child died at birth face a problem adopting a child. The husband, proud of the fact that he can account for every penny they spend, is horrified by the expense and the long wait involved. It's up to the patient wife to talk her husband into dealing with the adoption process.

E20. A Case of Identity

Jan 11, 1954 · 60m

While taking the subway home from the Stork Club, a musician is detained by police for a robbing a loan office. One of the clerks identifies him as the criminal and he's eventually sentenced to jail. It is only through the determination of his lawyer that he is finally freed.

E21. Machinal

Jan 18, 1954 · 60m

Giving in to the advice of her calculating mother, Helen marries her highly successful and thoroughly revolting boss. Since his very touch repulses her, she ends up in an affair with a young man who eventually betrays her. The climax to her sad life is being sentenced to the electric chair.

E22. Richard Said No

Jan 25, 1954 · 60m

A ad-man for a perfume company meets his female counterpart at a party when his jealous wife is away.

E23. The 17th of June

Feb 1, 1954 · 60m

Based on a true story, a man performs heroic acts against Communists in East Berlin during an uprising on June 17th of the previous summer.

E24. Mr. Whittle and the Morning Star

Feb 8, 1954 · 60m

After much study, a history professor has decided that the end of the world is upon us.

E25. Our Hearts Were Young and Gay

Feb 15, 1954 · 60m

The adventures of the young Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough are dramatized from the bestseller of the same title. The girls board a luxury ship bound for Europe and are flirted with by a couple of Yankees, but much prefer the company of two sophisticated society men.

E26. Land of Happiness

Feb 22, 1954 · 60m

In 1895, a sophisticated woman of Copenhagen accompanies her husband, a pastor to his new parish. It's located on the rustic and isolated Faero Islands of the North Atlantic.

E27. Such a Busy Day Tomorrow

Mar 1, 1954 · 60m

A senior citizen who's successfully raised a family feels he has nothing remaining to contribute to their lives. He meets a group of people at an senior center and fears he'll never be as happy again as they seem to be.

E28. The Paradise Cafe

Mar 8, 1954 · 60m

A honky-tonk piano player with big plans is surrounded by a diverse group of dreamers in this character study set in a bistro.

E29. The Quality of Mercy

Mar 15, 1954 · 60m

A couple innocently leave their baby home alone for a night out in the Big Apple. Authorities learn of this, take the child and place it in a children's home. Confused and frightened, the parents become violent, however the nun who heads the facility bestows mercy upon the couple.

E30. Pink Hippopotamus

Mar 22, 1954 · 60m

A blockade runner, himself an escapee from behind the Iron Curtain, deals in the transport of human cargo in and out of that region. His current mission is to reunite a young boy and his parents.