Kraft Theatre

- Season 8

(1954)

Joe is accused by a powerful local figure of drunk driving. He brings a defamation of character lawsuit against the man but runs into problems with the lawyer he's hired. The attorney is less interested in defending Joe than he is in destroying the man who made the accusation.

A secretary can't afford a new outfit for the office dance, thanks to a self-centered mother who squanders her weekly paycheck. In desperation, she resorts to stealing in order to attend the party.

A father who always spent more money on himself than his family gets his payback. When his children grow up, they decide to run his life.

The members of an 1870s mining camp care for a helpless baby. When the child is lost during a flood, the luck of the camp seems to go with it.

A young architect who's finding it tough to make his mark in the big city is faced with a great temptation.

A young man teaches drama at college rather than take to the stage and compete with his actor father's legendary talents. He takes out his frustrations on his students with disastrous results until he's forced on stage by circumstances and some trickery.

A man has become bored and restless after 25 years doing the same job every day. His son shares with him what he's learned about the meaning of life from the writings of Arthur Schopenhaur. This leads the man to quit his job and do things he's always wanted to do. This causes great disruption to his sedate middle-class family life.

Two former correspondents, who are also ex-lovers, continue their rivalry when both are elected as state representatives.

Emma's a beautiful, intelligent heiress who cares for her elderly father. In desperate need of diversion, she involves herself in the romances and dalliances of her friends.

A Parisian courtesan must choose between the young man who loves her and the callous baron who wants her, even as her own health begins to fail.

A British spy works in the Soviet sector of East Berlin. Her fiancé is arrested by Communists who wrongly suspect him of being a secret agent. The woman is faced with the dilemma of either exposing her own cover or allowing him to suffer needlessly.

A man is accused of embezzling but, in the process of being acquitted, he destroys the reputation of the key witness. His wife then discovers evidence that proves her spouse actually did commit the crime.

A lonely publisher loses his fiancée because he's determined to be fair, whatever the cost.

A young couple, in the United States on expiring work permits, are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their first child. They do not want to leave the country, hoping their child will be born in the US. Facing the possibility of deportation, the two hide out in small towns around the country until their baby is born.

Following the American Civil War, a Southern soldier returns home with the Union soldier who saved his life. When the Yankee falls for a Southern Belle, the resentments of the soldier's southern family quickly bubble to the surface.

Fred Staples is the newest executive in a large firm. He strikes up a friendship with Andy Sloane, the Vice President to whom he nominally reports. Staples is good at his job and the company's hard-nosed president, Walter Ramsey, is pleased with his choice. Staples has a crisis of conscience when Ramsey tells him that he's been recruited to replace Sloane, someone who has devoted his entire life to the company at the expense of his family. Sloane knows what Ramsey is up to but digs in his heels and refuses to quit. Tragedy ensues forcing Staples to make a choice.

A mentally handicapped 20-year-old is convicted of murdering a policeman and sentenced to hang. While awaiting his fate on the gallows, a caring guard teaches him how to read and write. Suddenly, a whole new world has opened up to him, even though his remaining time on Earth is brief.

A small town eccentric inherits a fortune and promptly enjoys his second childhood. He liberally spends cash on sodas, gum, and tickets to baseball games. His nephew, a lawyer, is horrified by his behavior, especially since he wants to get his hands on the money before it's all gone.

Two forces battle over the future of an English village. On one side, a factory owner wants to move out the locals and turn it into a factory town. On the other, a member of the community wants to preserve the village as it is.

Fred Staples is the newest executive in a large firm. He strikes up a friendship with Andy Sloane, the Vice President to whom he nominally reports. Staples is good at his job and the company's hard-nosed president, Walter Ramsey, is pleased with his choice. Staples has a crisis of conscience when Ramsey tells him that he's been recruited to replace Sloane, someone who has devoted his entire life to the company at the expense of his family. Sloane knows what Ramsey is up to but digs in his heels and refuses to quit. Tragedy ensues forcing Staples to make a choice.

Exhausted by the constant fighting of their parents, a couple of sisters gaze from their window upon the Hudson River and dream of boarding a ship to Europe.

Unscrupulously ambitious Brutus Jones escapes from jail after killing a guard and through bluff and bravado finds himself the emperor of a Caribbean island.

The widowed mother of two children in their twenties ended up being unhappy because her husband was an idealistic dreamer. She tries to convince her daughter to marry a practical man, but the girl is in love with a man as unrealistic as her father was.

A woman's husband is being guarded in a remote mountain cabin because he's a material witness in a murder trial. Tired of his domineering ways, the wife wants to collect on her husband's insurance money. She hires a couple of killers and leads them to his secret location.

After a life filled with drudgery, a young Scottish woman inherits £200 from her tightwad father and spends it all on a whirlwind tour of Paris. At first bowled over by a smooth-talking count, her natural good sense takes over and she falls for a kind washing machine salesman.

In planning the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Mary Surratt's boarding house was the meeting place for John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators. Cooler heads fail to prevail during her highly irregular trial, leading some to believe she was unjustly convicted.

An elderly widow decides she needs some company in her Vermont country home. As payment, the hired companion will inherit the property upon the old woman's death. After hiring a middle-aged woman for the job, the widow finds herself compromised in a way she hadn't anticipated.

In Constantinople in 530, a passionate young man joins revolutionaries wanting to murder the Empress, but he changes his mind after falling in love with a seamstress.

A divorced former lawyer, now a composer, sees that his second marriage is beginning to fail. He conveniently is struck with amnesia and loses track of both women and careers.

When her elderly landlady dies, a young woman inherits her house and the resident ghost: a soldier of the American Revolution who cannot go to Heaven because he failed to deliver a message to George Washington.

This psychological drama centers on the problems of a college student who's a gifted, though unhappy, writer. He life reaches a turning point when he has an argument with a malevolent professor.

A kind-hearted woman has sacrificed her personal life to care her invalid mother. When a romance develops and a marriage proposal follows, she's torn between family obligation and her personal well-being.

The hotel is the reform school where a rigid judge is accustomed to sending the wayward boys who appear before him. Life has an ironic twist in store when he's forced to pass judgement on his own son.

Since his recent retirement, Christy Fellon has taken to visiting with a night watchman friend. One night, a new element is added: a robber appears and is captured by Christy Fellon himself.

A rookie pitcher's father was once a pitcher himself and his career was ruined when he beaned a player. Now, he is afraid his son will do the same thing, and his fear leads to a serious conflict among father, mother, and son.

A widow dreads the thought of losing her son to his prospective bride.

A stranger in town becomes the target of a lynch mob that mistakenly believes he's the man they want. Even with his life in danger, he is more interested in protecting the rights of the man that the crowd is after.

Unhappy and single Daisy visits her sister, whom she hasn't seen in a while. Daisy's sister decides that she needs a husband and goes about finding her one.

In the drought-stricken Old West, a man protects his water supply with a hired gunman. A minister and his son intervene and try to make the water available to everyone in the area.

An idealistic and outspoken member of Parliament believes his country is wrong in taking a certain military action. He makes a stand, publicly criticizing the government's behaviour.

A war correspondent, fatigued from working the front in Indochina, returns home to find his life in disarray. His arch-enemy has been named his editor and is now engaged to his ex-girlfriend.

Confined to a tuberculosis sanitarium, a man and woman meet and fall in love. The man is cured and leaves for a while but the woman proceeds to worsen. He returns to find her at death's door and uses his love to help her fight for life.

A young man trains his ten-year-old brother to be a boxer. The older brother's motivation is his own vanity and quest for success.

A vacuum cleaner salesman enters a home and overhears a plot to murder a wealthy businessman. The businessman's secretary asks the salesman to help protect her boss by investigating the plan further. Meanwhile, the intended victim thinks that they are making much ado about nothing.

A medical lab specialist dreams of becoming a successful surgeon. One day when no doctor is available, he intervenes in an emergency to perform an operation. When the patient dies, he tries to clear himself of responsibility by implicating a nurse.

A rural Southern woman is a mathematical whiz, but she's rather stay in the backwoods than be considered a genius in the big city.

An unassuming bank manager is not especially good at his work but possesses qualities that truly matter in life. His wife believes in him and she instills a newfound sense of ambition in her husband.

An attractive female Communist falls in love and finds her heart is in conflict with her party allegiance.

John Green, a young delinquent fearing he is suspected of murder, takes refuge in the home of John Graham, a cynical, atheistic drunk. Graham, with the help of the theological student Glen Polk, his wife, and mother-in-law, create a new identity for John Green as Johnny Graham. In the mental chess game of trying to evade the law, Johnny is helped by John Graham, who confesses to the crime in order to save the young man's life. Graham's good deed is rewarded when Lt. Finney reveals that the murderer has been found.

A lonely divorcée who refuses to compromise is torn between her two friends. One is an alcoholic and the other has gone through a string of unsuccessful relationships.

A bank teller who comes to believe the rules aren't fair to people. Implementing his new policy at the band, he juggles the books and gives money to people the bank normally wouldn't.

Lady Essex convinces King James I of England to grant her a divorce so she can marry the King's favourite Robert Carr. Being a schemer, she's involved in the murder of one of Carr's close friends. Eventually, the crime comes to light with Lady Essex and Carr being sentenced to death. The king commutes their sentence to something even more unpleasant.