Four Star Playhouse credited star Ronald Colman only made four appearances on the series, and the first of the four is a very strange light-hearted episode that is more feather brained. In white tie and tails Coleman is leaving a fancy home and realizes that he has left his hat inside. Several strangers comes by and he tries to cajole them into going inside to retrieve the hat, and even has a conversation with a terrier dog. Everybody he encounters has a realistic reluctance to go inside, and you begin to wonder if he is actually his old movie character Raffles, a jewel thief. But that would be too easy an explanation, and as dashing as Colman is, this episode is not flattering to his reputation as the suave leading man who began his career in the silent era.
In fact, Colman's acting is quite hammy as if he was attempting to emulate John Barrymore doing Shakespeare. But this isn't Shakespeare. It's a TV anthology series episode set in modern times, and the situation is too bizarre and frivolous to really even be considered a plotline. Jay Novello is equally over the top as one of the men he stops, quite prissy and overly flamboyant, and giving a laughable performance for playing a simple passerby. I'm glad to have seen it though because Colman's voice is still soothing even though his character is an absolute ninny.
In fact, Colman's acting is quite hammy as if he was attempting to emulate John Barrymore doing Shakespeare. But this isn't Shakespeare. It's a TV anthology series episode set in modern times, and the situation is too bizarre and frivolous to really even be considered a plotline. Jay Novello is equally over the top as one of the men he stops, quite prissy and overly flamboyant, and giving a laughable performance for playing a simple passerby. I'm glad to have seen it though because Colman's voice is still soothing even though his character is an absolute ninny.