Play review – “Seven Keys to Baldpate” by George M Cohan (warning: spoilers)

A play I always wanted to read simply because RKO made so many versions of it (and it was available for one two dollars). What was the appeal? Well, it’s got a decent central idea, one location, a bunch of decent roles, and a twist ending. A novelist makes a bet he can write an entirely novel in twenty four hours at Baldplate Inn, for which he is given what is meant to be the only key. The Inn is a summer resort at winter time – was Steven King inspired by this for The Shining? As the title indicates there are six other keys, each one owned by a different person – a hermit, female reporter, gangster, corrupt mayor, etc. The macguffin is a safe full of cash relating to a corrupt railway transaction.

The writer character is a little irritating and he gets the drop on the others a bit too easily, but it’s very fast paced and the sheer number of characters alone mean that something is always happening. The twist ending surely must have inspired the Michael Douglas starrer, The Game – it’s very similar, from the reveal that everyone is an actor to the main guy still falling in love with the girl.