Cirrus@Austlit

'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.

'Winifred Shotter plays a piquantly contrasted role of a lovely and ultra modern young woman who suddenly adopts the pose of a demure Victorian miss, dons crinolines, and becomes coy. All this is designed to attract the attention of a handsome expert in antiques who arrives to inspect the country vicarage. She finds herself introduced to Mayfair as the latest craze, and succeeds in converting society to crinolines with delightfully comic results. Then arises the problem of whether to keep up the pose, or confess and risk shattering her romance with the young man.'

Source: 'Lilies of the Field', Advertiser, 26 January 1935, p.17.

When a police detective is murdered, his girlfriend investigates the crime herself.

'This concerns a man who hunted every niche in London in search of copy for a book he proposed to write. In his search he found a gorgeous woman who later turns out to be the girl of his dreams.'

Source:

'The Fortunate Fool', The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, 18 October 1934, p.19.

An impoverished baronet inherits a farm and determines to make it a going concern, despite his ignorance of farming, the gentle mockery of the locals, and the covetousness of a neighbour, who wants the land, and with whose daughter the baronet falls in love.

A group of English tourists travelling along the Nile by boat are kidnapped by locals and ultimately rescued by the Camel Corps.

Very much of its time, Arthur Conan Doyle's original work displayed a mistrust of Islam and a strong favouring of British imperialism: judging from contemporary reviews, Dion Titheradge carried those elements into this adaptation.

'The story of a woman, her two marriages, imprisonment, and ultimate reunion with the man she loves.'

Source: British Film Institute (http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/50232). (Sighted: 3/9/2013)

A young actress marries, on a whim, a down-and-out man she meets in a London park. He endeavours to make her revise her rackety way of life with her set of Bright Young Things, while she in turn is horrified to learn that he has only just served a fifteen-year sentence for killing the man who seduced his sister and drove her to suicide.

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.

Returning for overseas, a major and his wife pose as servants in order to observe their adolescent children.

'Anna Snyder, an American journalist, arrives to interview a rich young man of twenty-five who has never seen a woman. He is sheltered by a discreet man-servant who explains that his master lived in a large house standing in its own grounds and surrounded by a brick wall fifteen feet high. When the mystified journalist asks how he was educated she learns that his private tutor discovered three books in which no reference was made to the opposite sex. The man servant is horrified when Miss Snyder asks for an interview.'

Source: Radio Times, 14 December 1928, p.20.

'He is sitting on a chesterfield in his study, a well-furnished, particularly masculine room. The Butter stands behind him pouring out a glass of liqueur. Having filled the glass, he offers it to him on a small salver.'

Source: Radio Times, 9 December 1927, p.26.

'The man comes into his sitting-room carrying the girl in his arms. He puts her unconscious form on the settee and mechanically fans her with her own hat. Suddenly he throws this impatiently on the table, takes off his own hat and coat and, putting them down on a chair, brings down a glass of water from the sideboard. He flicks water into the gill's face and she rouses a little. Seeing this, he puts the glass back, grabs up a newspaper and seats himself in the chair with his back to her.'

Source: Radio Times, 1 April 1927, p.10.

'Since Kate Chalice was called to the Bar, two years ago, she has concentrated her energies upon her profession, neglecting her knitting and her husband. To-night she is seated in her study at her desk, on which there are many papers, law books, and manuscripts tied with red tape, and a tin wig-box. She has just received her sixth brief, the contents of which place her upon the horns of a dilemma that butts her back to dull domesticity.'

Source: Radio Times, 17 September 1926, p.17.

'Mind Picture: John Bradburn is seated at a large table-desk in an old-fashioned, comfortable room. of the type of a Country Manor House. It contains a Chesterfield and arm-chairs, with numerous ornaments and pictures. Philip is seated at a small table on the other side of the room from his father.'

Source: Radio Times, 16 April 1926, p.15.

A contemporary review notes that the musical's libretto was somewhat confusing:

'In the last act of Toni, the new "farcical musical comedy" produced at the Shaftsbury Theatre last night, one of the characters plaintively exclaims: "Tell me what it is all about." and [sic] it is difficult not to sympathise with her desire for knowledge. By that time all the characters have drifted from a shop devoted to robes et modes to a country "somewhere in Europe," with familiar flora and fauna and an unfamiliar name–Mettapolachis. They have obviously all gone there to save somebody from something, but, fortunately, they are not themselves very much interested in their musical comedy mission, and at the end are as satisfied as the audience seemed to be last night when the difficulties, which it took two hours to create, were unravelled in the last two minutes.

'What really mattered was that the heroine, a Princess, set out in search of an Englishman to save her from all her troubles, and, having found him, promptly conveyed him to her unhappy country. He arrived there at the beginning of the third act, and at last was on familiar soil in a land addicted to brilliant military uniforms and the unlimited consumption of alcohol. Mr. Jack Buchanan was the Englishman who was taken posthaste to the Continent to save the political situation, and he did it in a characteristically English way by displaying a continual sense of humour.'

Source:

'New Musical Comedy. "Toni" at the Shaftsbury', The Times, 13 May 1924, p.12.

First produced in London in 1922, Snap was popular enough with audiences to keep it going for six months (233 performances). Its primary creators were Australians Dion Titheradge (1889-1934) and Kenneth Duffield (1885-1958), along with Englishman Ronald Jeans (1887-1973). Additional material (music and sketches) were contributed by Simon Strood, M. D. Lyon, Herbert Hupfield and Nat D. Ayer. One of the sketches identified to date was 'Saved.' The musical programme included the songs 'Snap,' (sung by Marjorie Spiers) and 'Echoes' (Cowles and Leigh).

In 1924 the revue became the first production from newly formed Australian Musical Productions Pty Ltd. Additional lyrics were contributed by South Australian writer, poet and businessman, Vaiben Louis, with additiona material and direction undertaken by English actor/director Howett Worster. For the Firm's Sydney season Worster was replaced as director by comedian Jack Cannot.

The Brisbane season saw two editions of the revue staged (the second being billed as Snap the Second). It is unclear if a similar strategy was used in earlier seasons.

Sketches identified for the first Australian version included: 'The Choice' (Reidy, Whelan and Grant), 'The Dancing Doll' (Cannot, Worster and Reidy), 'Home Sweet Home' (Fanning, Grant, Carter, Banvard, St Clair, Cannot and Whelan), 'The Advertising Drama' (no details), 'The Cure' (Cannot), 'Scotch Patrol' and 'Accidents Will Happen' (St Clair), 'O Cedar Mop' (Cannot), 'How Time Flies' (Cannot and St Clair).

Among the songs incorporated into the first Australian edition were: 'Caravan Days' (opening chorus), 'Calypso,' 'Sing it Again,' and 'Aurora Borealis' (Reidy), 'Vagabond Love' and 'A Cocktail at the Carlton' (Worster), 'Girl with the Eyes Divine' and 'Night Time' (Reidy and Worster), 'Twice One Are Two' (St Clair), 'Big Boy' and 'The Blues' (Banvard). The ballet numbers included 'The Pom Pom Platoon,' 'The Sun Will Shine' and 'On the Boulevard.'

[Source: Australian Variety Theatre Archive]

'Melodrama, in which a happily married wife is visited by an escaped convict, who turns out to be the dastardly Russian who deceived and deserted her years ago.'

Source: British Film Institute (http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b725e6600). (Sighted: 2/9/2013)