The retired history teacher in me enjoyed this episode of "Four Star Playhouse" because I learned something about world history by watching the show. While I have no idea how close to the truth the show was, Robert Louis Stevenson WAS called 'Tusitala' and he did mediate between warring factions in order to prevent a bloody civil war in Samoa near the very end of his life!
When the show begins, you see Stevenson 'giving his birthday' to a little girl. This actually did occur and the child was the daughter of some foreign official. Soon after, Tusitala (literally 'Story Teller') learns that his beloved Samoan people are preparing for war, as two chiefs both claim title of King. He is not about to let that happen if he can help it, so even though he was quite ill and soon died after, he comes up with a plan and approaches both chiefs in order to have a meeting and, hopefully, avoid war.
The acting, as usual, is excellent and David Niven did a nice job. Some might blanch at the paternalistic language and way Stevenson describes the Samoans as children--very politically incorrect but very accurate for the day. Well worth seeing and rather sweet.