Movie review - "Smithy" (1946) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 Have reviewed it a few times so only random thoughts.

- Ron Randell is good. Never this good in Hollywood movies. He lacked something to act maybe? Moodiness suits him? Anger? Better than Peter Finch, I think, would have been.

- Hollywood very much influenced this. The meet cutes.  Scenes in a train carriage. Maids at home. Plush sets.

- They invent Joy to be a woman. Fine. Why give her a big secret "does he know"... then it's revealed she's married off screen. Why not kill her in a plane crash then? Or with a disease?

- A bit of racism.  Alec Kellaway talking about Japanese as apes. Smithy meets a black porter (player by ???) and makes a joke about Australians being cannibals.

- Assumes a lot of audience knowledge. A lot of key incidents are referred to without being seen - Smithy crashing in desert, death of Ulm, etc. Also jokes need knowledge eg Bluey Truscott, that explorer. 

- Surprisingly down beat. Smithy feels like he's waiting to die. But it's effective. Moving.

- Muriel Steinbeck isn't in it til half way.

Movie review - "Appointment with a Shadow" (1957) **

A film noir from Universal which gave a meaty lead role to George Nader, stepping in for Jeffrey Hunter who was going to star but fell ill.

Nader is an alcoholic journo whose wife wants him to give up drinking. She gives him a tip from her brother (Brian Keith) that a major crim is in town, with plastic surgery, and will be arrested. He turns up, sees the gangster shot dead by the cops (after drawing his gun, this isn't a corruption story), but then spots the real gangster. Problem is, because he's a boozer, no one believes him.

That's not a bad idea for a film. Alec Coppel worked on the script. It's quite gloomy. As if Ray Milland from The Lost Weekend was thrown into a thriller. But not bad. 

George Nader rises to the occasion even though Brian Keith who plays the cop would probably have been better in the lead. Joanna More does her best in the Jane Wyman part as the "c'mon you can do it" girlfriend. Virginia Field has more fun as a stripper who knows the gangster.

The alcohol stuff is interesting but this is a programmer. It lacks an extra twist or two - like say making the baddie or his stripper gal an alcoholic, or having someone force booze into Nader.

Still it was interesting. Richard Carlson, better known as an actor, directed.

Book review - "Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison" by Christina Lane

It's tricky to write biographies of movie producers because it's so hard (at times) to ascertain what their contribution was (not that it's not considerable... it's just hard to tell) . but the author here does a great job.

Joan Harrison is  a name quite well known to serious students of Hitchcock though her reputation is very much in his shadow. She joined his team in the mid 30s, and along with Alma was a crucial part of his development - Hitch only really became Hitch after he met Harrison. She helped make his great late 30s masterpieces which led to his American career; she worked on his early American masterpieces then went her own way, becoming a producer. She started off strong with some quasi classics - Phantom Lady, Nocturne, Dark Water  - before tailing off a little with some Robert Montgomery films. She reunited with Hitch for his TV series.

This book does an excellent job sketching Harrison's personality and artistic style - intelligence, taste, love of independence, sexually liberated (affairs with Clark Gable, John Huston and probably Billy Wilder, marriage to Eric Ambler, possible flings with women), sympathetic to progressive causes, stylish. She was friends with Alec Coppel and his wife. She had ill health toward the end which is sad reading but had a pretty good life.

A worthy tribute to a genuine pioneer.

Movie review - "Obsession" (1949) *** (warning: re-watching)

Always worth another look in part due to the enjoyable ham of Robert Newton's performance but also the crisp handling from Edward Dymytryk, who I think at heart was an excellent B picture director who lost something when he "graduated" to As.

This starts like the clappers with Newton scheming, getting a gun, confronting wife Sally Grey about an affair. I love the little comments in the Newton club scenes about England being broke - this felt like Aussie writer Alec Coppel having fun.

The action gets bogged down. Sally Grey plays it as trampy but is allowed to live. The American is geeky. The film probably could have used another character to be killed. I loved Nauton Wayne.

Movie review - "Smithy" (1946) ***1/2 (re-watching)

Ken G Hall isn't known as a personal filmmaker but watching this it struck me how personal this movie must have been for him - the story of a man who achieves a lot of success and acclaim but can't establish a workable business, who is constantly scrounging for money, going around with a cap in hand although hating it because he knows that's what he has to do in an expensive industry.

Could the boomer critics who so disdained Hall's work in the 80s not see it? Did they have to have their auterist meanings shoved down their throat like Chauvel did? I don't want to bad Chauvel, I just wanted Hall treated with more respect.

This is of course heavily influenced by Hollywood biopics but it's done very well. Some of it is charming such as Smithy's meet cute with Muriel Steinbeck. Ron Randell is a very solid Smithy and you can see why Hollywood snapped him up - though he seemed to lose his edge over there.

It does assume knowledge on the part of the viewer over certain events which aren't as well known now as they would have been at the time such as the pilots who died looking for Smithy.

A remarkably adult and down beat movie in many ways. There are Hollywood ish moment like Smithy's meet cute and his wife, the character of the helpful American Joy feels inserted to have a woman in the first half, technically very polished. 

Makes me weep that Hall could not do another feature after this - talk about a man at the top of his game.

Movie review - "Smart Alec" (1951) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Fun mystery from Alec Coppel, based on his play Mr Smart Guy.  It's only 55 minutes and races along - it's an early work for John Guillermin and he does an outstanding job, keeping it pacy and brisk. Actors are always moving around, the low budget is covered by keeping the action in a few rooms or doing it via close ups (eg  the trial sequence). He has a neat final shot with a camera on a car or something pulling away.

I really liked the cast. I'd never seen Peter Reynolds in anything, at least I couldn't remember him - he's smug, smart, quick, bright, an ideal casting. The other actors are good too.

The story isn't great. I mean it's okay. Quite clever. I knew the twist of the ice bullet but wasn't sure what Reynolds was up to. 

It did feel contrived that it goes to trial and no one notices the uncle isn't actually dead.. and that he would confess. These two things really were silly though Guillermin's pace pushes it through.

Movie review - "The Captain's Paradise" (1953) ***

Alec Guinness was a weird star of British films of the 1950s - a sort of other-wordly smugness/vagueness. This persona works well here, in this comedy about a ship's captain with two wives, one a stuffy British type in Gibraltar, the other a hot sexy thing in Spanish Morocco... because Guinness is so sexless it's not too full on. (I remember this worked for Dirk Bogarde in those doctor comedies - his lack of interest in women on screen made the films more charming, but when the cast obviously straight Michael Craig the film seemed sleazy).

The basic story is clever - it strikes at a universal theme - I think Australian Alec Coppel deserved his Oscar nomination.

It's been cast well - not just Guinness but Celia Johnson and Yvonne de Carlo are ideal. De Carlo was beginning to look her age here - or maybe it's more the gang at London Films didn't know how to give her the full beauty treatment.

It perhaps lacks a bit of development - a villain, say, or some through line. Gangsters or a missing set of jewels, or something to build. Maybe a bigger part for the love rival?

For a farce it's very spread out time-wise - the film covers a bunch of years (Johnson has children - we hardly see them - and the kids grow up and go to boarding school!) There is a second act - the wives start to want what the other one has (De Carlo wants to be domestic, Johnson wants to party), he which is fun... but it feels as though it lacks a third act.

Also I found the ending confusing - why Guinness was arrested and faced a firing squad. I had to look up what happened - he took the blame for a murder committed by de Carlo (why did she do it by the way? Hot blooded African-ness? why did he feel he had to take the blame? if he was so guilty about what he did he looked pretty smug paying off the firing squad? Personally I think Coppel just thought of that cool opening and didn't really work out how to justify it.)

Still it is fun - I loved Guinness' reactions to things, like dancing with de Carlo at a nightclub and being quiet and relaxed on Gibraltar with Johnson. De Carlo is having a good time as is Johnson and the support cast includes reliables like Peter Bull.

Some Australian touches (Coppel was Australian)  - a relative of Guinness' character says he spent a year in Australia "among the aboriginals" as a desire to find the meaning of life.

Movie review - "Smithy" (1946) ***1/2

Ken G Hall's sole dramatic feature after World War Two is a very polished, smooth piece of entertainment, typical of movies of the time, and make you (well, me, at any rate) really annoyed his talents went to waste after World War Two. He really knew how to make solid commercial films and he was at his peak in the 1940s.

Ron Randell was picked over Peter Finch to play the lead, and while Randell never became the star Finch did, I think it was the right decision - Randell had more dash, better looks, more obvious star charisma. He's very bright, and gives a good performance - I think he lost something without his Australian accent.

It's fun to see Billy Hughes playing himself and Charles Tingwell having a few lines at the beginning as an air traffic controller.

The script isn't perfect but then the story is tricky. It's propaganda and pro Smithy and many people were alive - and it's very biopic-y with lots of "I tell you it can't be done", and foreshadowing dialogue about how Smithy won't be appreciated in his life and about the threat of Japan (with Alec Kellaway talking about "those little yellow...").

A lot of this is clunky - it's hard to say who contributed to what in the script but I'm guessing Hall was responsible for the chunk since Alec Coppel wrote it with him. It's not bad, just clunky, with Greek chorus comments by Joe Valli. A lot of events are referred to that you really need prior knowledge of - such as the death of Charles Ulm, and of the two pilots who died searching for Smithy when the latter crashed.

Also flying across the ocean was dangerous and involved enormous skill but when you watch it, it's basically someone sitting in a cockpit. It's hard to make that too interesting. There is the cool bit where his co pilot got out on the wing to fix something up, but Smithy didn't get to do that.

I liked how they introduced a female, Kay, to help Smithy in America, giving the piece some female interest in the first half (I was confused when Kellaway said to her "does he know?" Know what? She later got married... did she have a fiancee at the time?)

There's some cute things like Smithy giving Muriel Steinbeck his autograph when she thinks he's a messenger boy - that's a good meet cute. Other stuff is less fun like Smith sexually harassing a nurse at the beginning asking for a back rub (mind you this is consistent with many scenes of the time meant to be charming). I loved the little kids talking about Smitty - it's a real insight into 1946 Australia.

The film is stronger in the second half when it gets more serious and down beat. I feel Hall really related to the struggles of Smithy - his attempts to monetise something which was so patently the future, his battles with bankers and backers.

John Tate is very good as Ulm, and Muriel Steinbeck strong as Mrs Smithy. Joy Nicholls is awkward as Kay. Kellaway is always reliable as an American backer.

I think Hall's great film was Dad and Dave Come to Town but this is definitely up there as well.

Movie review - "Brass Monkey" (1948) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

A bright low-budget British comedy thriller, with a dash of The Maltese Falcon as a bunch of types try to track down a valuable brass monkey. The cast is a real grab bag - an awkward Canadian, Carroll Levis, who plays himself (very stiffly); the pretty Carole Landis, shortly before she killed herself in real life; Herbert Lom as a (surprise!) villainous foreigner; Terry Thomas playing himself, as he was then i.e. a stage entertainer (he sings a song); Avril Angers as herself.

It's surprisingly fast paced and light and I enjoyed it. Levis is poor but Landis is spirited and Angers (who I'd never heard of) is a lot of fun. I found it genuinely surprising that Landis was a main baddy - until I remembered they really ripped off Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon.

Structure wise the film does make a big mistake in that the last third the plot comes to the halt and they do Levis' radio show, with people coming on doing various numbers (an accordionist, etc). This ruins momentum, and is annoying. But it's bright and unpretentious.

Movie review - "The Statue" (1971) *

The last screen credit for Australian writer Alec Coppel while he was alive. According to the credits its based on an unproduced play "Chip, Chip, Chip" - it's hard to get a copy of this, so I'm not sure how much was Coppel, or how much co-writer Dennis Nordern, but the Australian born writer did have a track record with dopey sex comedies (eg The Captain's Paradise).

This has the sort of plot that kind of sounds high concept but actually isn't - famed professor David Niven (holding his dignity surprisingly well) looks at a statue his wife (Virna Lisi) has made based on him... only the penis is massive so he becomes convinced that she's cheated on him.

Now if he's genuinely worried about that, there are deeper problems in the marriage - but this is not really dealt with. So much of this feels forced - the "importance" the statute in Robert Vaughan's political career (he's the US ambassador to England hoping to run for president), the legal argument that Niven needs to have the statue suppressed, the nature of his relationship with his wife, the point of Niven's assistant Ann Bell (I think she might just be there to go topless - it's set up she and Niven might be lovers but not much is dealt with), all the forced gay jokes and satire and plotting. It's a pretty dreadful film.

There is some poppy music and bright European scenery and the actors do commit. I hope Niven put the money to good use on his house or something.

Movie review - "Moment to Moment" (1966) **

Mervyn Le Roy's last movie as a director is a fairly unmemorable affair with some promising material badly executed. It is based on a story by Alec Coppel, and features many elements familiar from Coppel's work: a crime of passion, adultery, a shooting of a cad, disposing of the body, the body goes missing (Mr Denning Goes North in particular). The basic story of a neglected glamorous housewife who has a fling and goes on to regret it when the fling-ee turns psycho is solid: it worked in Fatal Attraction.

It's let down by Le Roy's uninspiring direction and the casting: Jean Seberg is pretty but completely bland in the lead role, one that required a Grace Kelly (Seberg can act well but her eyes are dead here, and she can't convey hidden passion). Honor Blackman overacts outrageously as her best friend. Arthur Hiller is accomplished as the husband but the role would have been better played by a star. Sean Garrison is alright as the passionate naval officer with whom Seberg has a one night stand.

The movie felt as though it needed 15 minutes cut out of it. Despite location filming it couldn't help appearing a bit bland and ugly - many Universal films of the 60s were like this, lacking genuine glamour. The handling needed to be more vigorous - Le Roy's output could be very ordinary and this falls in the debit column.

Alec Coppel Top Ten

Top Ten works from Aussie author Alec Coppel - in no particular order...
1) I Killed the Count (1937, play) - still works because of its original device
2) Vertigo (1958, script) - wonderful script and movie
3) Mr Denning Drives North (1950, novel) - derivative of himself but still enough original twists and turns
4) The Gazebo (1958, play) - funny, light comedy
5) Obssession (1949, film) - cunning low budget thriller full of verve - I prefer the film to the novel though
6) The Last Parable (1953, novel) - twisted work of sexual obsession very different to his other stuff
7) The Captain's Paradise (1953, script) - cute comic sex comedy
8) Tweedledum and Tweedlee (1967, novel) - am surprised this was never filmed, good psycho identical person thriller
9) Smithy (1946, script) - competent rather than inspired by good solid work
10) Hell Below Zero (1954, script) - not highly regarded but an entertaining adaptation of a Hammond Innes novel

Movie review - "Woman Hater" (1948) *1/2

Maybe I'm being mean with the rating but this was very hard going. Stewart Granger wanted to play comedy and he does okay - he clearly tries, even if he was no Kenneth More - but it's a lousy story and he doesn't have chemistry with Edwige Feuillere. 

Granger is a lord who hates women, thinking they're dumb, and hears that movie star Feuillere is sick of men - so he sets out to seduce her for a bet. It's the sort of silly concept that would probably get green lit today, done without romance, warmth, charm or sexiness. The gimmick has Granger pretend to be... wait for it... an estate manager. What sort of impersonation is that? Why not be a butler or gangster or something with a bit of contrast?

Nicholas Phipps wrote the script (from a story by Alec Coppel) and although he specialised in light entertainment any breeziness is killed by the players and Terence Young (a miscast director if there ever was one). Granger falls into some mud on horseback, the two leads get drunk together, Feuillere pretends to drown not once but twice, there are wacky elderly servants who have their own shenanigans. 

If set in period, with proper light comedians, and in colour, this might have worked, but as it is here, it's very hard going.

Movie review - "The Swordsman of Siena" (1962) *** (warning spoilers)

Stewart Granger was getting a little old to play the dashing hero by now but he still has charisma, presence and charm and can swash a fair buckle. His old school stardom also stands as a blessed relief in a cast of mostly no names, including an atrociously dubbed young female lead. (These MGM co-financed Italian shot swashbucklers always seemed to star a young woman who was a shocking actor - I remember one in Seven Seas to Calais.)

This has a pretty good story (Alec Coppel co-wrote it): Granger plays an English mercenary travelling through Europe trying to raise money to buy a property at home. He goes to work for the Spaniards who are occupying Tuscanny - but over time comes to sympathise with the people he is oppressing. Female interest is provided by a pair of Tuscan sisters, the younger who is a dreamy idiot who idolises Granger in a manner similar to Jean Simmons in Adam and Evelyn, and is constantly disappointed by him (she's the one who gives the really bad performance). And her sister who seems to be happily collaborating.

There are two great shocks in this - the dopey sister is killed around two thirds of the way through and the elder slutty is revealed to be actually on the side of the rebels. Neither of these I saw coming. 

 

On the less strong side it climaxes in a race, which is different, but doesn't quite make sense how it's used to keep the populace in line. Awkward dubbing, impressive production design, erratic support performances, some neat sword fights and a bit of torture thrown in.

Movie review – "No Highway in the Sky” (1951) **

Decent plodding British drama from a novel by Nevil Shute, who surely had a film sale in mind when he wrote the charcter of a glamorous film star on the plane whose tail might fall off. She is played here by Marlene Dietrich who has a sort of relationship with boffin James Stewart, the scientist who’s convinced they’re All Going to Die. That’s act two – act three is him trying to prove he’s not crazy for sabotaging the flight, but the thing is that happens off screen due to the actions of others. So in that sense this is more a British film than Hollywood one.

Glynis Johns is the airline hostie who falls for Stewart, seemingly out of pity and loneliness more than anything else. There’s a terrific support cast including Jack Hawkins (just before stardom, as Stewart’s boss) and Kenneth More (a few years before his own stardom). 

 

The best thing about it is the touching relationship between widower Stewart and his nerdy daughter. The most interesting is this weird, unrealistic quasi love triangle involving Johns, Stewart and Dietrich. Two of the writers credited with the screenplay are RC Sherriff and Alec Coppel – it feels more like a Sherriff work than Coppel, although I may be mistaken.

Movie review – “Mr Denning Drives North” (1952) **1/2

This was perhaps Alec Coppel’s best known novel and he wrote the screenplay as well. Before seeing it I was surprised to read that this wasn’t very successful at the box office because there was a time it was always on TV, and it starred John Mills at the height of his popularity. But it made more sense after a viewing.

Mills plays a guilt-ridden air plane manufacturer who’s drinking heavily at the beginning of the film. Although he seems to be successful, with a loving wife (Elisabeth Shue look-alike Phyllis Calvert) and daughter, he pops in a plane and almost kills himself, changing his mind at the last minute but crash landing. We flash back to why in the form of a confession to his wife…

Mills daughter is in love with a dodgy foreigner (who else in a British film but Herbert Lom?) When Mills trys to buy him off, Lom taunts him saying he banged his daughter. Mills punches him and thinks he kills him – a plot used by Coppel in I Killed the Count. He decides to dispose of the body, leading to a quite suspenseful sequence where he's almost busted by a maid, then several cops, etc. He eventually buries the body but no one discovers it and it’s not reported. He and his wife go back to check and the body’s gone. They try to find out what’s going on. And this is where the film loses it’s way (it was the same in the novel). Mills keeps searching for the body, and gypsies who may have taken the body – it doesn’t make sense. And there's all these repetitive scenes of him driving around and flying.

He eventually tracks down a deaf mute gypsy girl who has a ring which Mills put on the corpse – he tries to get it off her (why?) and winds up in a fight with her husband. The gypsies are arrested, so Mills tries to help them by asking his girlfriend’s new American lawyer boyfriend (Sam Wanamaker) to defend them. It gets even more messy – Calvert perjures herself on the stand, saying she gave the gypsies the ring; Wanamaker defends the gypsies and is so scolded by the court that he becomes determined to solve the mystery

The shonky logic and change of driving protagonist worked better in the novel than on screen. But at least something is always going on. And because it’s a British film the hero (Mills) can get away with killing someone. It's also given energetic, interesting handling: the opening credits are spoken rather seen; the camera moves around; it’s non linear in structure. Worth looking at. Coppel can't complain about the adaptation - it's very faithful to his novel.

Movie review – “The Gazebo” (1959) ***1/2

Most of Glenn Ford’s comedy performances I’d seen prior to this were of him being a bewildered straight man in service comedies – where, as David Shipman put it, a combination between Santa Claus and Mister Roberts. He’s a revelation here, as the TV writer-director who gets up to his ears in blackmail and murder. He’s very funny, whether having a nervous breakdown, being blackmailed or planning a murder. He really throws himself into the role, running around his house and acting his arse off.

 

Debbie Reynolds is good value too as his wife. She’s spunky and fun and plays well with Ford – they’re an ideal all American couple who get in over their heads. (Gazebo was based on a story by Alec and Myra Coppel – maybe their married relationship provided inspiration for what is a rare “married couple” comedy thriller.) She plays a Broadway actor, meaning she can do a song and dance number near the beginning (unfortunately the film isn’t in colour).

 

Alec Coppel’s play (based on said story) was one of his best – bright, funny, clever. The twists come solidly – Ford digs a grave for the body, the grave is filled in by contractors, he finds out that the guy he killed wasn’t the blackmailer but someone else, the blackmailer winds up dead elsewhere, the blackmailer’s associates turn up, etc. It’s a bit of a deux ex machina to have it turn out Ford didn’t actually shoot the guy, but miss – he died of a heart attack. But how else would you make it a light comedy, I suppose?

 

George Wells’ script adaptation is first rate, making some ideal changes from the play – for instance the opening is turned into the filming of a TV show, he has Reynolds kidnapped by the crooks instead of Ford (giving her more to do), bringing in a pigeon to do cute stuff getting rid of the bullet Ford fired. There are some hilarious moments such as the housekeeper who always yells, Reynolds trying to dial a phone while tied up with her nose, Ford calling Hitchcock trying to dispose of a dead body (this was in the play, too – Coppel wrote Vertigo for Hitch), Reynolds wishing they were in Los Angeles because dead bodies turn up there all the time. There’s a gag at the end where a pigeon drops a bullet on the cops head and he thinks it’s a crap – a poo joke in an MGM film!

 

The support cast is excellent, including Carl Reiner (with hair, as their DA neighbour), John McGiver, Doro Merande (excitable maid) and Martin Landau (crook). A hidden gem and it deserved to make the profit that it did.

Alec Coppel Box Office

How some films written by Alec Coppel fared at the box office...

Mr Denning Drives North (1952) earned cinema receipts of £70,197 in the UK - not a good result.

The Captain's Paradise (1953) earned cinema receipts of £146,548 in the UK.

The Gazebo (1959) - cost $1,218,000, revenue $3,310,000 (domestic $1,860,000 and foreign $1,450,000) – profit $628,000

Swordsmen of Sienna (1962) final cost $1,065,000, total revenue $2,250,000 (domestic $1,500,000 and foreign $2,250,000) – loss of $100,000.

Play review – “Lady in Danger” by Max Afford

A rare Australian play to enjoy a run on Broadway, even if it was a very short one. Unlike other works from Australian playwrights like Oscar Asche and Alec Coppel, this hit Broadway direct from the Australian stage. It had been produced by the Independent Theatre in 1942 before being mounted by JC Williamsons.

It's a fun, solid little mystery about a married couple living in London; the husband is a journalist whose been blackballed because of offending a well-connected politician, the wife is writing a mystery novel. When the politician turns up dead they are drawn into the mystery. Other characters include the doctor next door, an alcoholic journalist (here alcoholism is treated for laughs) and his sophisticated wife, some cops and a Nazi killer. There are some funny lines and the story works pretty well.

In 1942 a story about a woman uncovering a nest of Nazi sympathisers probably would have had a lot more freshness - most Hollywood films in that year had that as a subplot. But by 1944 it had become old hat which might be why the story didn't take. (I would have thought it could have been turned into a good B movie but no, alas).

TV review – Alfred Hitchcock Presents – “I Killed the Count” (1957) *** (warning: spoilers)

Three-part adaptation of the play by Alec Coppel, which had already been turned into a 1939 British film and 1948 TV movie by the BBC, as well as receiving several productions on stage throughout the world. Part of its popularity is due to the gimmick – a Count has been killed (he was a sleazebag so it’s alright), and four different people confess. It also has a light, enjoyable tone and solid structure that is bad actor proof - but the cast here are excellent.

 

Part one has two big twists – an American (Charles Cooper) in love with the Count’s (Dawson’s) wife confesses, then the wife’s father (Alan Napier) confesses; Part two involves the flashbacks, introduces the wife (Rosemary Harris) and ends with a third person (Melville Cooper) confessing. Part Three involves Cooper’s flashback and they transfer the action to the police station for the last bit, to give it some variety. The wife confesses – but everyone is set free because you can’t charge more than one person for a crime you only think one person committed.

 

Watching a three-part episode must have been frustrating for regular viewers of the show but I got to see it in one hit. Hitch recaps episode two and three, puffing as he does so – it’s meant to be a joke, in that he’s trying to keep up with the story, but because Hitch is portly it doesn’t really work, you just think he’s unfit.

 

It’s a very good, faithful adaptation by Francis Cockerill – except for the ending, where we find out the wife did it, albeit accidentally (from what I remember we never found out who did it in the play). Robert Stevens’ direction is strong, even turning flashy at times, such as using extreme close ups when the American explaining how he killed the count. Coppel's plays could sometimes be over-the-top and overly class conscious, but this doesn't feel like that.

 

It’s got a great cast – John Williams is the investigating police officer, giving gravitas to a role that wasn’t much in the play (it’s a vehicle for him as much as anyone else), plus Napier, Cooper (who seems to be a bit of a psycho, which adds to the suspense), Harris, and Dawson (the slimebag from Dial M for Murder, who plays a slimebag here). Pat Hitchcock plays the maid who discovers the corpse. 

 

One of the best adaptations of a work by Alec Coppel.