A review of the Australian production of the play offers the following synopsis:
'Those who hanker after sensation will receive their money's worth at the Theatre Royal, where "The Crooked Billet" will be produced for three more performances. At the quaintly named old Kentish Inn there are some amazing happenings when an international spy and his gang are run to earth by a retired official from Scotland Yard. Exciting incidents crowd hard upon the heels of one another, and the dramatic interest is maintained through-out. By means of a clever code message delivered by the village idiot with amazing ingenuity the gang is eventually rounded up, and the bracelets slipped on the wrists of the particularly unpleasant master spy. Mr. Leon Gordon is the modern version of Sherlock Holmes in a story that is more baffling than many of that famous detective's problems'.
Source:
'The Crooked Billet', [Adelaide] Advertiser, 22 May 1928, p.16.
The Crooked Billet
International Spy
( dir. Adrian Brunel
)
England
:
Gainsborough Pictures
,
1929
6387582
1929
single work
film/TV
crime
thriller
A film version of Dion Titheradge's play of the same name, in which a gang of international spies are tracked to a Kentish inn called The Crooked Billet by a retired Scotland Yard detective.
The Crooked Billet
England
:
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
,
1938
6388024
1938
single work
film/TV
crime
thriller
'The Crooked Billet, by Dion Titheradge, which was seen on the television screen on Tuesday, is a gangster-and-sleuth play, in which the cards, or rather the revolvers, are held first by one side and then by the other in bewildering succession until at last even the help of the police is invoked by the chief criminal in a last desperate effort to outwit his opponents, an effort which nearly succeeds.
'The whole action passes in the inn parlour of the Crooked Billet, and doped drinks, a loose brick in the wall hollowed out and containing a secret dossier, bloodstains appearing on the ceiling, and a bomb with a time fuse in the grandfather clock inter alia, are sufficient to keep the mind alert and the heart beating a trifle too fast for comfort. This was good entertainment, well-maintained, and the gentle raillery of master-criminal and Scotland Yard detective, when the situation is discussed over a bottle of brandy before it is clear who is going to win, provided a pleasant interlude. The production by Mr. George More O'Ferrall was straightforward and successful and the use of silence at particular points was very effective. But we should have liked to have got out of the inn parlour now and then during the 75-minute run of the play, and so have escaped from the limitations of the theatre.'
Source:
'Television Drama. "The Crooked Billet".' The Times, 18 March 1938, p.14.
Premiered at London's Royalty Theatre on Monday the 10th of October 1927 (see the Times 3 October 1927, p.12).
The play was presented by Alex L. Rea, and cast members included Leon Quartermaine, Mercia Swinburne, Barbara Gott, and C.V. France. It was performed nightly at 8:40pm, with matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays (see, for example, the advertisement in the Times, Tuesday 11 October 1927, p.12).
The run continued into 1928, and ended on Saturday, 3 March 1928 (see the advertisement of the final two performances in the Times, 3 March 1928, p.10).
Performed in Australia in 1928.
The Australian season (produced by Frederick Roland) began at Adelaide's Theatre Royal on 19 May 1928, with cast members including Leon Gordon, Gwyneth Graham, Campbell Copelin, B.N. Lewin, Brandon Peters, Henrietta Cavendish, Vivian Edwards, Frank Bradley, and John Fernside (see the Adelaide Mail, 19 May 1928, p.5).
The Adelaide run ended with two performances (matinee and night) on 23 May 1928 (see the Mail, 23 May 1928, p.9).
The play was performed at Sydney's Theatre Royal from 2 June 1928 (see the Sydney Morning Herald, 24 May 1928, p.2).
Performances in other Australian cities have not yet been traced.
