''Ten Minute Alibi'' is a 1933

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

thriller play by the British author Anthony Armstrong. It premiered at the Embassy Theatre in

Swiss Cottage Swiss Cottage is an area in the London Borough of Camden, England. It is centred on the junction of Avenue Road and Finchley Road and includes Swiss Cottage tube station. Swiss Cottage lies north-northwest of Charing Cross. The area was ...

on 2 January 1933, before transferring to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

's West End. It ran for 857 performances between 8 February 1933 and 26 January 1935, initially at the

Haymarket Theatre The Theatre Royal Haymarket (also known as Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre) is a West End theatre in Haymarket, London, Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in ...

before switching to the Phoenix Theatre. The London cast included Anthony Ireland, Robert Douglas,

Bernard Lee John Bernard Lee (10 January 190816 January 1981) was an English actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven Eon-produced James Bond films. Lee's film career spanned the years 1934 to 1979, though he had appeared on stage from ...

, George Merritt, Charles Hickman,

Celia Johnson Dame Celia Elizabeth Johnson (18 December 1908 – 26 April 1982) was an English actress, whose career included stage, television and film. She is especially known for her roles in the films ''In Which We Serve'' (1942), ''This Happy Breed ...

Jessica Tandy Jessie Alice Tandy (7 June 1909 – 11 September 1994) was a British actress. An icon in the film industry, she appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV, receiving an Academy Award, four Tony Awards, a BAF ...

, Gillian Maude and Aileen Marson. It was directed by

Sinclair Hill Sinclair Hill (10 June 1896 – 6 March 1945) was a British film director, film producer, producer and screenwriter. He directed nearly fifty films between 1920 and 1939. He was born as George Sinclair-Hill in London in 1894. He was awarded an O ...

. A

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

version at the

Ethel Barrymore Theatre The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a Broadway theatre, Broadway theater at 243 West 47th Street (Manhattan), 47th Street in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1928, it ...

ran for 89 performances.

Original Cast

*Roland Caswell as Hunter *Anthony Ireland as Philip Sevilla *Celia Johnson as Betty Findon *Robert Douglas as Colin Derwent *John Garside as Sir Miles Standing *George Merritt as Detective-Inspector Pember *T.G. Saville as Detective-Sergeant Brace *Jon Godfrey as Restaurant Manager The cast remained the same when the play transferred to the Haymarket Theatre.

Adaptation

The play was first published in 1933 by

Victor Gollancz Ltd Victor Gollancz Ltd () was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century and continues to publish science fiction and fantasy titles as an imprint of Orion Publishing Group. Gollancz was founded in 1927 by Victor Gollancz, an ...

. In 1934 Armstrong created a

novelisation A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book, or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent of ...

of the story published under the same title by Methuen. In 1935 this was in turn made into a film version directed by

Bernard Vorhaus Bernard Vorhaus (December 25, 1904 – November 23, 2000) was an American film director of Austrian descent, born in New York City. His father was born in Kraków, then part of Austria-Hungary. Vorhaus spent many decades living in the UK. Early ...

and starring

Phillips Holmes Phillips Raymond Holmes (July 22, 1907 – August 12, 1942) was an American actor. For his contributions to the film industry, he was posthumously given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. Early life, education and career Born in ...

, Aileen Marson and Theo Shall.Goble p.14

References

Bibliography

* Goble, Alan. ''The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film''. Walter de Gruyter, 1999. * Kabatchnik, Amnon. ''Blood on the Stage, 1925-1950: Milestone Plays of Crime, Mystery and Detection''. Scarecrow Press, 2010. * Wearing, J. P. ''The London Stage 1930–1939: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. * Willison, I.R. (ed.) ''The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature: Volume 4, 1900–1950''. Cambridge University Press, 1972. 1933 plays West End plays British plays Plays by Anthony Armstrong British plays adapted into films Plays set in London {{1930s-play-stub