Too bad we can't watch these instead of reality TV shows.Have watched House For Sale,A String Of Beads,The Island,among others,these three include George Macready,the man you love to hate back in the day.He was downright terrifying in House For Sale with Ida Lupino s his victim(he later said his was one of his favorite TV performances),a total SOB in The Island,who is redeemed after taught a lesson in humility by Niven and the threat of losing his wife to Niven,and String Of Beads with Ronald Colman/Angela Lansbury,Macready/and one of Nigel Bruce's last performances.String Of Beads Macready is a Count who commits a practical joke which leads to all kinds of fun,something I can imagine the actor capable of being a great deal of fun in real life.Love the ending for String Of Beads.These all need to be released to the public,not just a set here and there.Can't wait to watch more episodes.

I remember several episodes of Four Star Playhouse from 1953-54. Ida Lupino was in one of them called "The green Dress" or something like that. It scared the blazes out of me. In it, Ida Lupino starred as a housewife murdered by her husband. She was pushed down a flight of stairs and broke her neck. Later, she returned to haunt him as an apparition at the top of the stairs, wearing the same green dress that she died in. I was five or six years old at the time of viewing this. Guess you could say it stuck in my mind! The other episode was the story of a woman who was being exploited by relatives for money. They were attempting to drive her mad or cause her suicide. The story unfolds as this young woman is looking for a new place to live. Her calculating uncle and aunt show her a renovated apartment that they know of. She is shown in, and while she is distracted, the sinister couple slips out and locks the door. Eventually this young woman becomes quite desperate as all the doors and windows are locked,the phone is disconnected, and nobody can hear her banging on the door. One scene shows her opening a closet door only to be greeted by the site of a hanging rope noose. She gets revenge by tricking her adversaries inside and locking the door on them.I was too young at the time to be a movie critic. In retrospect however, I think these were classics that shouldn't be missed by those who love unique,unsettling dramas.

This first television series produced by the company that became Four Star Productions was a surprisingly good, well written and directed show to have been produced on the west coast in the early fifties (the "quality" shows made in those days mostly emanated from New York, while the filmed shows made in Hollywood were mostly children and family fare such as Superman and The Lone Ranger, or else situation comedies). Four Star Theater was an attempt to make a first-class anthology series in Hollywood, and as such it succeeded. There were many outstanding episodes, and some highly gifted people worked on it from time to time, from writers of the caliber of Blake Edwards to such gifted directors as Robert Florey, Robert Aldrich and Tay Garnett. The shows ranged from mysteries to dramas to comedies; one never knew quite what to expect, which was part of the show's charm. I wish that some cable network would-rerun them,--they probably won't, since they're all filmed in black and white--or that they'll be reissued on tape or DVD. It's a show well worth looking for.

Although Ida Lupino was not that interesting to look at, her themes of loneliness and singleness made a valuable contribution to later projects such as 'The Twilight Zone' and 'Thriller'. I can't say that I enjoyed this particular project, or any of her projects leading up to 1959. She was probably a better writer than actress.