Stephen McNally
This half-hour anthology series had various names. When it started in December 1954 it was “Your Favorite Playhouse.” All the episodes were repeats from other series. In 1955 it was called “Stage 7.” In syndication it had three titles, “Golden Playhouse”, “On Stage” and “Star Performance.”
February 27, 1955 episode: “Tiger At Noon” w/Stephen McNally, John Doucette.Anthony Caruso, Edith Evans and Paul Maxey. It’s based on a story and screenplay by Sidney Sheldon.
Police Lt.Chris Kellogg takes his son Spike (Steven McNally, Jr.) to a carnival and runs into a gangster. He has a little boy with him. The cops didn’t even know he had a wife and son. They leave and the carnival owner (Paul Maxey) says hello to Chris.
They’re in front of a tent run by Stara the Gypsy fortune teller. That’s illegal and Chris tells him to shut it down. Chris goes inside and the Stara tells him he’ll bring misfortune to a blonde, be in danger from a tiger at noon and meet death at the full moon.
Back at the office he tells Sgt.Toomey (John Doucette) about his discovery and they try and track down the gangsters’ wife Helen Whitfield. They visit her mother (Edith Evans) and get the address from an envelope of a letter Helen wrote to her.
They go to the hotel and the elevator operator lets them in her room. She’s dead. She’s a blonde. Back at headquarters there’s a present waiting for Chris. It’s a toy tiger. He remembers Stara and puts it in water. Good thing since it was wired to explode. The time:noon.
Chris braces a number of hoods and finally tracks the gangster down. He’s in the back room of a bar at the docks. It’s called The Full Moon. This is a pretty good episode with a fun ending.
Edith Evans made a few movies but was famous as a stage actress in England where she worked for fifty years.
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