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The Best Episodes of Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1

Every episode of Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1!

Binge this in 12h 30m•Peaking at 7.4/10

Presented by Eastman Kodak, this show was a series of original scripts directed by acclaimed directors and featuring well-known performers. The stories ranged from musicals to comedies and dramas.

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 25 - A Ticket For Thaddeus
    7.4/10(67 votes)

    S1:E25

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 12 - The Silent Partner
    7.2/10(192 votes)

    S1:E12

    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.

    Director:George Marshall
    Writer:Barbara Avedon

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  3. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 23 - Markheim
    7.2/10(121 votes)

    S1:E23

    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.

    Director:Fred Zinnemann
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 35 - High Air
    7.2/10(65 votes)

    S1:E35

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

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 30 - White Corridors
    7.1/10(54 votes)

    S1:E30

    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.

    Director:Ted Post
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 16 - Number Five Checked Out
    6.9/10(227 votes)

    S1:E16

    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.

    Director:Ida Lupino
    Writer:Unknown

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  7. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 7 - The Final Tribute
    6.8/10(79 votes)

    S1:E7

    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.

    Director:Andrew L. Stone
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 11 - Lincoln's Doctor's Dog
    6.8/10(110 votes)

    S1:E11

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

    Director:H. C. Potter
    Writer:William R. Cox

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  9. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 10 - Rookie of the Year
    6.7/10(274 votes)

    S1:E10

    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.

    Director:John Ford
    Writer:Frank S. Nugent

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  10. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 14 - Hot Cargo
    6.7/10(70 votes)

    S1:E14

    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.

    Director:Tay Garnett
    Writer:David Dortort

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  11. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 24 - Claire
    6.6/10(94 votes)

    S1:E24

    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.

    Director:Frank Tuttle
    Writer:Philip MacDonald

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  12. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 34 - The Day I met Caruso
    6.6/10(75 votes)

    S1:E34

    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.""

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Zoë Akins

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  13. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 8 - The Brush Roper
    6.5/10(77 votes)

    S1:E8

    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.

    Director:Stuart Heisler
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 20 - One Against Many
    6.5/10(69 votes)

    S1:E20

    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.

    Director:William Dieterle
    Writer:Malvin Wald

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  15. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 28 - Every Man Had Two Wives
    6.5/10(34 votes)

    S1:E28

    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.

    Director:Lewis Allen
    Writers:Frank Gill Jr., DeWitt Bodeen

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  16. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 15 - It's Always Sunday
    6.4/10(91 votes)

    S1:E15

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

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 2 - Day is Done
    6.3/10(108 votes)

    S1:E2

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 4 - Arroyo
    6.3/10(70 votes)

    S1:E4

    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.

    Director:George Waggner
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 13 - Titanic Incident
    6.3/10(84 votes)

    S1:E13

    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.

    Director:Ted Tetzlaff
    Writer:William R. Cox

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  20. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 17 - Prima Donna
    6.3/10(106 votes)

    S1:E17

    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.

    Director:David Butler
    Writers:Gene Raymond, Peter Milne

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  21. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 18 - Cry Justice
    6.3/10(74 votes)

    S1:E18

    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.

    Director:George Sherman
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 3 - Midsummer Daydream
    6.2/10(76 votes)

    S1:E3

    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.

    Director:John Brahm
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 22 - The Sword Of Villon
    6.2/10(92 votes)

    S1:E22

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 31 - The Carroll Formula
    6.2/10(30 votes)

    S1:E31

    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.

    Director:Tay Garnett
    Writer:John L. Greene

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  25. Screen Director's Playhouse Season 1 Episode 32 - Apples on the Lilac Tree
    6.1/10(43 votes)

    S1:E32

    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.

    Director:John Rich
    Writer:Lee Loeb

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Season 1 Ratings Summary

"A Ticket For Thaddeus" is the best rated episode of "Screen Director's Playhouse" season 1. It scored 7.4/10 based on 67 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 5/9/1956. This episode is rated 0.2 points higher than the second-best, "The Silent Partner".