''Black Limelight'' is a 1936 play by Gordon Sherry that in 1938 became a British crime film directed by Paul L. Stein and starring Joan Marion and Raymond Massey.

Plot

"It concerns itself with the murder of a vulgar young woman ily Suspicion rests on refined young married Peter, who has disappeared, and is known to have spent week-ends with the young woman in question, apparently with the full knowledge of his charming wife ary She, on hearing of the murder, does everything in her power to screen her spouse. There are, of course, police and detectives on the track, but while they are seemingly very active, they rarely turn up at psychological moments. Peter therefore easily gains access to his home, despite the fact that no one could mistake him, in his unhappy condition, as other than one fleeing from justice. Did he commit the murder?"

Production

Sherry's play was an early serial-killer drama ("the monster's homicidal mania leaps up at the time of the full moon," noted ''Time'' magazine) and was originally intended to be premiered in London. In the event it opened at Broadway's Mansfield Theatre on 9 November 1936, with a London production only appearing in mid-April the following year. A preview week at the small Q Theatre was immediately followed by a West End transfer to the St James' Theatre on the 22nd, the production running in all for 414 performances. The text used in London was somewhat revised; among other adjustments, the heroine's name was changed from Naomi to Mary.

Margaret Rawlings Margaret Rawlings, Lady Barlow (5 June 1906 – 19 May 1996) was an English stage actress, born in Osaka, Japan, daughter of the Rev. George William Rawlings and his wife Lilian (née Boddington) Rawlings. Personal life/affiliations She was e ...

scored a huge success doubling two roles - protective wife Mary and, in an Act II flashback, murdered mistress Lily - which on Broadway had been played by separate actresses, Winifred Lenihan and Kate Warriner. The doubling arrangement was Sherry's preferred mode, in order to suggest "that Peter fell in love again with the very qualities which attracted him to his wife." Similarly, in the ''Daily Mirror'' Godfrey Winn welcomed "the most thrilling show I have seen for ages" and suggested that "Every woman should go to hear Margaret Rawlings' soliloquy on marriage."

Adaptations

Television

Fifteen years later Rawlings and John Robinson repeated their stage roles of Mary and Peter Charrington in a BBC ''

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'' presentation transmitted on 1 June 1952. Another British TV production, an ''

Armchair Theatre ''Armchair Theatre'' is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by ABC Weekend TV. Its successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968. The Canad ...

'' instalment screened on 30 September 1956, retained Robinson but cast

Rosalie Crutchley Rosalie Sylvia Crutchley (4 January 1920 – 28 July 1997) was a British actress. Trained at the Royal Academy of Music, Crutchley was perhaps best known for her television performances, but had a long and successful career in theatre and films, ...

as Mary.

Renée Asherson Dorothy Renée Ascherson (19 May 1915 – 30 October 2014), known professionally as Renée Asherson, was an English actress. Much of her theatrical career was spent in Shakespearean plays, appearing at such venues as the Old Vic, the Liverpoo ...

and Nigel Stock played the leads in yet another TV version, shown in the ''

BBC Sunday-Night Play ''BBC Sunday-Night Play'' is the anthology drama series which replaced ''Sunday Night Theatre'' in 1960. It was broadcast on what was then BBC Television (now BBC One). The series often included versions of modern theatrical successes, but orig ...

'' strand on 14 January 1962. An Australian TV production, starring

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and Patricia Kennedy, was transmitted on 15 July 1959, and - like all three British versions - is presumed lost.

Film

The film version was made by the Associated British Picture Corporation at ABPC's Elstree facility, with Sherry's play adapted by screenwriters Dudley Leslie and

Walter Summers Walter Summers (1892–1973) was a British film director and screenwriter. Biography Born in Barnstaple to a family of actors, British motion picture director Walter Summers began his career in the family trade; his first contact with filmma ...

. The completed film was reviewed by ''Variety'' in June 1938 ("Script follows closely the stage version, except that the culprit is indicated too early") and by Britain's ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' in July. As well as calling ''Black Limelight'' "an interesting example of its type," the MFB critic pointed out that Joan Marion's performance "is so convincingly restrained that a film which begins as just another murder thriller almost ends up as a social document." The film's UK general release followed on 9 January 1939 and its New York opening in June. "Although as a murder mystery ''Black Limelight'' betrays its hand rather pointedly early in the game," noted the ''New York Times'', "it has a certain documentary interest as a study of what happens to people mixed up in a big murder case in England ... This being a British film, Scotland Yard is made out to be quite stupid, instead of omniscient, as in our politer productions." In Britain the film was reissued in 1942 as a second feature,Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane, ''The British 'B' Film'', BFI/Palgrave Macmillan 2009 while in the US it was later screened under the alternative title ''Footsteps in the Sand''. Alexander B Cust is shown watching ''Black Limelight'' in the 1992 ''

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'' adventure''The A.B.C. Murders'', set in 1936, but the film wasn't made till 1938.

Cast

* Joan Marion - Mary Charrington * Raymond Massey - Peter Charrington *

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- Jemima *

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- Lawrence Crawford *

Henry Oscar Henry Wale (14 July 1891 – 28 December 1969), known professionally as Henry Oscar, was an English stage and film actor. He changed his name and began acting in 1911, having studied under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Dram ...

- Inspector Tanner *

Dan Tobin Daniel Malloy Tobin (October 19, 1910 – November 26, 1982) was an American supporting actor on the stage, in films and on television. He generally played gentle, urbane, rather fussy, sometimes obsequious and shifty characters, often with a c ...

- Reporter Roberts *

Leslie Bradley Leslie Ernest Bradley (1 September 1907 – 20 July 1974) was an English actor. He died in Desert Hot Springs, California. Filmography * ''The Way of Youth'' (1934) as Lieut. Burton (film debut) * ''Play Up the Band'' (1935) as Jack Heckd ...

- Bill, young detective-on-duty * Diana Beaumont - Gwen, young maid-next-door *

Coral Browne Coral Edith Browne (23 July 1913 – 29 May 1991) was an Australian-American stage and screen actress. Her extensive theatre credits included Broadway productions of '' Macbeth'' (1956), '' The Rehearsal'' (1963) and '' The Right Honourable Gent ...

- Lily James

References

External links

* {{William Sterling 1936 plays 1939 films 1930s crime films Films shot at Associated British Studios Films directed by Paul L. Stein British black-and-white films British plays British crime films 1930s English-language films 1930s British films