Screen Directors Playhouse

Styled in the manner of an episode from a filmed sitcom, replete with a laugh track.

KOREA        Early 1951 [on-screen caption]

Announcer: "Next week, Gower Champion will make his first appearance as a director when he brings us a sparkling dance comedy entitled, 'What Day Is It?' Teamed with Gower will be his lovely wife and partner, Marge Champion. One of the show's highlights will be their famous clown dance. A happy half hour will be yours to enjoy next week when Screen Directors Playhouse brings you 'What Day Is It?' Be sure to join us."

Introduction: "I'm William Saroyan. This play happens on a day made for daydreaming so, of course, it's about marriage. Everyone knows such a day. There are one or two every year. Everything on such a day seems both wide awake and fast asleep. The light on such a day is exceptionally good, too, so that all of a sudden it's easy to see faraway things, like islands, church spires, the towers of tall buildings, snow on mountain tops and so on. The air on such a day is good to breathe, too. Even mistakes of a whole lifetime suddenly seem insignificant and unworthy of regret. In a world in which perfection must always remain only a word, perfection itself seems possible at last, with a little luck. Such days are almost too good to be true for human beings. Perhaps it's just as well that they don't happen too often. When they do happen, though, they seem to change everybody, for the better."

Robert Ryan

and Charles Bickford

Introduction by H. C. Potter: "For a long time, it had been an axiom, among book publishers, that stories with a medical background, stories about pets, and incidents in the life of Abraham Lincoln were invariably popular. And the publishers nodded wistfully to each other that a title like 'Lincoln's Doctor's Dog', the triple threat, would be practically irresistible. But nobody ever did anything about it. Until, one day, recently, my friend Christopher Morley, one of the most prolific and best loved American authors, began to dream. Did Lincoln, perhaps, have a doctor, who had a dog, who had a story?"

February 11, 1863 [on-screen caption]

Announcer: "Next week, Screen Directors Playhouse proudly presents Miss Ida Lupino, Hollywood's most famous woman director. Miss Lupino will bring us a suspenseful story involving a deaf girl and a gangster, entitled 'No. 5 Checked Out'. Our stars will be Teresa Wright, Peter Lorre and William Talman. Be sure to join us."

Note: Gene Raymond, who wrote the story and co-wrote the teleplay, was married to Jeanette MacDonald from 1937 until her death in 1965.

Opening narration [voice of George Sherman]: "This is Westfield, Missouri". The year is 1871. Some men are planning the future, others are trying to steal it. Justice is swift, the punishment grim and sometimes mistakes are made."
Announcer: "Next week, Screen Directors Playhouse welcomes Mr. Byron Haskin, noted for his direction of such exciting films as The Naked Jungle and His Majesty O'Keefe. Mr. Haskin will bring us an intriguing story of romance set against the tropical background, entitled 'Affair in Sumatra', with Ralph Bellamy, Rita Gam and Basil Rathbone. Be sure to join us."

Announcer: "Each week at this time, the Eastman Kodak company invites you to see an outstanding screenplay, produced on Eastman Kodak film with all the scope and realism that only modern motion picture techniques make possible, and brought to you on Screen Directors Playhouse."

Dr. Stanley Wayne…..George Montgomery
Vera Wayne…..Angela Lansbury
Kate…..Armanda Randolph
Roberta…..Jean Willes
Carl…..William Erwin

Hugo Haas: "Good evening. All of us live in two worlds — the world of dreams and the world of reality — but who of us can say when one begins and the other ends… or if life itself is not just "The Dream?"
Announcer: "Our stars are George Sanders, Sal Mineo and Patricia Morison."

Note: Ivan Turgenev's short story "The Dream" [original title "Сон" ("Sohn")], was initially published in 1877.[5]

Announcer: "Next week, one of Hollywood's most talented young directors, John Rich, takes over our directors' chair. Mr. Rich will bring us the delightful and humorous story of a young businesswoman who tries to become a housewife after ten years of marriage to her housekeeping husband. Be sure to join us when Screen Directors Playhouse presents Joan Caulfield and MacDonald Carey in 'Apples on the Lilac Tree'."

Note: Henry James' "Louisa Pallant", variously described as a short story or a novella, was initially published in the February 1888 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine.[6]

Female narrator: "I had been visiting my father's cousin Hannah in Boston. It was years ago, soon after my tenth birthday. There was a dreadful thing called war... and a wonderful thing called the opera... and the greatest singer in the world was a man named Enrico Caruso whom we listed to on the fine Victrola my father had bought, though anything not necessary was regarded as an extravagance in our Quaker household and a sin for which one might be read out of the Society of Friends. Now, Cousin Hannah was putting me on the train for the trip home — my first trip alone — back to New York."
Announcer: "Next week, Screen Directors Playhouse presents Mr. Allan Dwan, director of such famous hits as Brewster's Millions and Sands of Iwo Jima. Mr. Dwan has chosen an exciting drama of the men who tunnel through treacherous mud and rock in the high pressure atmosphere under our nation's great rivers. Be sure to join us next week when William Bendix stars in 'High Air'."

Narrator: "New York is an island city. Every year it becomes more crowded… and the torrents of people that come and go require more bridges… more subways… more tunnels. Here, below the Hudson River, sandhogs are building a tube of steel, pushing it through a mile and a half of muck and sand and rock… and what holds the muck and water back?… air. Nothing but air. High air that is rammed into the tunnel by powerful compressors that pump it up to thirty, forty, fifty pounds per square inch. Under such terrific pressure, men can work only a short stretch at a time — an hour below, five hours above. The sandhogs pass the hours between shifts in the sweat shack — sweating it out with all windows closed and heat dancing in waves from the steam pipes to keep them warm."
Announcer: "Next week, Screen Directors Playhouse welcomes Academy Award winner Frank Borzage, whose hits include 7th Heaven and A Farewell to Arms. Mr. Borzage has chosen a heartwarming story of a new citizen's awakening to American freedom... entitled 'A Ticket for Thaddeus'. Edmond O'Brien will star in the title role. Be sure to join us."