For this week only, Playhouse 90 suspends its usual dramatic format to telecast a remote from Madison Square Garden. There producer Michael Todd is throwing a big party for some 18,000 guests to celebrate the first anniversary of the Broadway opening of his film Around the world in 80 days. Elizabeth Taylor (Mrs. Todd) is hostess. Many celebrities are invited, and some entertainers will perform.
The story of William Palmer, one of the most notorious poisoners in Victorian England - or was he?
A lawyer's new brother-in-law disapproves of his specialty of defending murderers. But when he finds himself accused of murder, he asks for his help.
Based on a case history in psychologist Dr. Robert Linder's book ""The 50-Minute Hour."" Unbeknownst to his friends and colleagues, the outwardly sane and secure atomic physicist Dr. Kirk Allen has for many years been embarking upon imaginary visits to another planet. At first this mental abnormality harms no one, but when Allen begins acting strangely on the job, the Pentagon begins to suspect that he is a security risk. Under psychological counseling, Allen reveals his ""secret life""—and provides surprisingly accurate extraterrestrial charts as ""proof"" that he is truly out of this world.
A Civil Aeronautics Board investigation determines that the reason a plane crashed, killing all aboard except one of the pilots, is that either the dead pilot or the survivor became panic-stricken and pushed the wrong button, but the investigators aren't sure which one was at fault.
In a Northern prisoner-of-war camp during the Civil War, a crippled Yankee commander has a rebellious Rebel executed. The dead man's brother, also a prisoner, vows vengeance. He volunteers to accompany the commander on a mission, planning to murder him along the way but changes his mind and escapes instead, deciding the commander is ""already dead."" The commander, a changed man, covers up for the escapees and himself faces court martial.
Long ago, Christian made a run of 80 yards to make the winning touchdown in a football game. It was the greatest moment of his life. Or was it the beginning of his decline?
An innocent man, doomed to die for the murder of a cop that he didn't commit, is rushed from prison to the county hospital for an emergency operation. The surgeon becomes convinced of the man's innocence when he mumbles a girl's name under anesthesia. The surgeon seeks the help of a psychiatrist to penetrate his patient's subconscious.
Mr. Golden talks with Nathan in the Turkish bath, lamenting that perhaps life has passed him by. He then returns home to his wife and finds out that he is to become a grandfather.
On a night flight from Miami, Fla. to New York, an airliner develops electrical trouble. In cameo portrayals we see the reactions of friends and families to the possible fate of the plane passengers.
Waiting to find out if he's obtained a valuable promotion, a banker returns to the small town he grew up in.
The story of a struggle for control of a Hollywood talent agency.
The James boys, being framed for a bank heist, are saved by the banker's daughter.
A murder trial is followed through different jurors and their reactions.
A hard-hearted Colonel loses many men in his group's bombing missions over World War II Germany, but keeps on going and won't tolerate a young lieutenant losing his nerve under the strain, who refuses to continue.
An American bomber wing stationed in England in 1943 has flown many dangerous missions. The fliers regard their commander, Col. Culver, as a man devoid of any human emotion or understanding. After a mission in which one of Culver's best pilots was shot down, the overwrought colonel singles out a young flier and publicly accuses him of cowardice. This accusation brings the conflict between the two men into the open.
A Civil War POW returns to the South to find his father is considered a traitor for refusing to burn his crops along with the other scorched-earth adherents. He goes to work for and falls in love with the wife of a riverboat entrepreneur. He finds something to live for when his father is killed standing up to the entrepreneur and he gets the wife.
A weakling sheriff is unable to prevent a lynching. Can he redeem himself by preventing a second one?