Philco Television Playhouse
Dark Hammock
TV Flash files “Dark Hammock” as hour 18 of 256 in the TV Flash guide — Philco Television Playhouse (1948–1955) on NBC, season 1, episode 18, aired 1949-01-30, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E18: listed hour 18 of 256 in the Philco Television Playhouse guide, hour 18 of 45 in season 1. It aired 1949-01-30 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Pride and Prejudice” (S01E17). Next is “The Late Christopher Bean” (S01E19).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
In a remote part of Florida, Coral Platt, a sinister woman has married a man considerably older than she. For reasons sufficient to her, she wants him out of the way and plans an ingenious though slow murder by poison. She has succeeded in making it seem that Marvin is dying through natural causes. However, she is forced unexpectedly to play hostess to two women who have come to Florida. The women stay longer than they planned because they have begun to suspect what Coral is up to. In a series of exciting scenes they discover just what is going on and prevent Marvin's death.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Dark Hammock sit in the Philco Television Playhouse guide?
S01E18 is listed hour 18 of 256 — hour 18 of 45 in season 1, season 1 episode 18.
When did Philco Television Playhouse S01E18 air?
Dark Hammock aired 1949-01-30 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with Marty (May 24, 1953, Rod Steiger) — the teleplay that became the anthology-to-Oscar dream — then sample other surviving Coe/Mann hours.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Philco Television Playhouse is Chayefsky's kitchen-sink live plays: ordinary lives, extraordinary telecasts, Marty with Rod Steiger before the Oscar film. Watch it now as the rise of intimate realist TV drama — Fred Coe's shop, Delbert Mann, and the anthology-to-Hollywood dream in one sponsor's title.
The close-up is a butcher's loneliness, not a gown — kitchen-sink light, live cameras, ordinary lives getting extraordinary writing. NBC's *Philco Television Playhouse* (1948–1955), 256 episodes across seven seasons, Fred Coe's shop, directors like Delbert Mann, Paddy Chayefsky's *Marty* telecast May 24, 1953 with Rod Steiger. A kitchen sink as an Oscar machine. The Philco/Goodyear tandem nights made anthology drama a dual-sponsor prestige ritual. The timeline can call domestic realism mid. The silhouette was a…