The Adventures of Dante

Willie Dante (Dick Powell) deals cards - and he deals in danger. The back room of his restaurant "Dante's Inferno" is a gambling den for select customers and a magnet for lawbreakers. Watch him take on villains with his fists and his wisecracking wits in these four episodes from the 1950s TV classic Four Star Playhouse:

High Stakes: An irate drunk tries to fill Dante with lead. Dante shoots him in self-defense and soon finds himself framed for attempted murder.

The Stacked Deck: An ex-con forces Dante to take part in a blackmail scheme. This episode includes some double entendre dialogue and even a funny dig at Powell's actress-wife June Allyson!

The Squeeze: The odds of Dante surviving the night aren't good when he's holding rubber checks desperately sought by a local crime boss.

The House Always Wins: An old flame of Dante's walks into his restaurant - as the accomplice to stick-up men planning to rob the place. Jack Benny appears in a cameo.

A word of explanation may be helpful, here: technically speaking, a series entitled THE ADVENTURES OF DANTE never actually ran on network television. Instead, actor Dick Powell portrayed the character of Willie Dante, a restaurant-owning card shark who lingers at the edge of the criminal underworld and battles unsavory characters, in eight episodes of the 1950s anthology series FOUR STAR PLAYHOUSE, that were scripted by none other than a young Blake Edwards. Four of those original episodes appear in this box set. These include: HIGH STAKES - where Dante shoots a drunk in self-defense and winds up framed for attempted homicide; THE STACKED DECK, where Dante gets lured into a blackmail scheme; THE SQUEEZE, where Dante ends up holding rubber checks demanded by a kingpin; and THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS, where Dante's ex-lover wanders into his restaurant, as an accomplice to several burglars who plan to rob the place.