{
  "title": "BANQUO’S CHAIR",
  "category": "[RADIO-SCRIPT; STAGE-PLAY]",
  "article": "Rupert Croft-Cooke’s story of a ghostly trap set for a murderer had its first incarnation in 1926 as\na radio play entitled “The Telegram.” The author subsequently offered it as a stage play in 1930.\nIn 1945 it was made by Republic Pictures into the film Fatal Witness and in 1956 was offered on\nthe television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents as one of a handful of that series’ episodes directed\nby the Master of Suspense himself.\nCroft-Cooke: series of South American travel talks between 1925 and 1927. March 11, 1927: play\n“In the Tunnel,” 5IT, Birmingham, played by the Station Players.”\n[Play synopsis] “The scene is a bare room, furnished in the Victorian manner, in a large but\nrather decayed house on Sydenham Hill… This play has a very exciting story—one of supernatural\nvalue. It seems that in a certain house an old woman was murdered exactly one year from the date\nof the opening scene of the play. Everyone knew that her nephew had murdered her, but he had\nhad one of those ‘air-tight’ alibis which the police had been unable to break down. Consequently\nwhen brought up before the court the young man had been acquitted. Sir William Brent, who is\nvery much interested in the case, plans to wring a confession from the nephew by a very singular\nplan. By having an actress (a Miss Dacklethorpe, a friend of his) impersonate the aunt who had\nbeen murdered, he planned to frighten Bedford, the nephew, into a confession. Exactly what the\noutcome is when Bedford sees the ghost of his aunt walk into the room and the strangely\nsignificant incident at the end of the play will all be revealed in ‘Banquo’s Chair’.”\n(Croft-Cooke laid another one of his murder stories in Sydenham—the 1939 “Sergeant Beef”\nnovel Case Without a Conclusion, in which he describes the neighborhood as a gloomy place of\n“faded grandeur.”)",
  "origination": "",
  "duration": "",
  "personnel": "",
  "extant_recordings": "",
  "chronology": "‘GHOST’ PROGRAMME (2LO, LONDON)\n[Wednesday—10:15-11:00 PM]\nMay 26, 1926\n“The Telegram”\n[THE TIMES: “…a short play written specially for broadcasting… Sir\nWilliam Brent is sitting by the fire in the dining-room of Ridgewood, a\nlarge house in an out-of-the-way suburb. Dinner is laid for four persons.\nLong comes in to announce the arrival of Mr. Gandy and Mr. Stone…”]\nSCRIPT: Rupert Croft-Cooke (scriptwriter).\nPERSONNEL: Howard Rose (producer).\nCAST: Adrian Byrne (Robert Stone, a friend of Sir William’s), Reginald Dance\n(Long, the butler), Michael Hogan (John Bedford, the nephew), J. C. Lawrence\n(Sergeant Campbell), Henry Oscar (Sir William Brent, a retired chief of police),\nBryan Powley (Mr. Harold Gandy, a well known novelist).\nDON’T LISTEN TO THIS (MIDLAND REGIONAL PROGRAMME—BBC)\n[Saturday—9:20-10:00 PM]\nOctober 13, 1934\n“Anniversary” / “Retrospect”\n[“…by Rupert Croft-Cooke…”]\nTHREE SHORT PLAYS (MIDLAND PROGRAMME—BBC)\n[Wednesday—8:40-9:40 PM]\nJune 17, 1936\n“Five at the George” / Object All Sublime” / “Anniversary”\nPERSONNEL: Howard Rose (producer).\nCAST: Godfrey Baseley, John Bentley, Alfred Butler, Percy Dewey, Denis Folwell,\nWilliam Hughes, John Lang, Aubrey Standing, Stuart Vinden.\nTHE GHOST ROOM (CRCM, MONTREAL)\n[Thursday—10:00-10:30 PM]\nSeptember 16, 1937\n“Anniversary Night”\nSUSPENSE (KNX, HOLLYWOOD—CBS)\n[Tuesday—6:30-7:00 PM]\nJune 1, 1943\n“Banquo’s Chair”\n[BERKELEY DAILY GAZETTE: “…When a Scotland Yard detective, Donald\nCrisp, gives a dinner party at a murdered woman’s home and includes\namong his guests the suspected murderer, anything can happen, and\ndoes, on ‘The Extra Chair’…”]\nSCRIPT: Sigmund Miller.\nPERSONNEL: Ted Bliss (director), Lud Gluskin (music conductor), Joseph\nKearns (voice of “The Man in Black”), Lucien Moraweck (composer), William\nSpier (producer).\nCAST: Hans Conried, Donald Crisp, John Loder, Ian Wolfe.\n[OG-NOTE: Announced at the end of the previous week’s broadcast as “The Extra\nGuest”.]\nTHE WORLD’S GREATEST STORIES (WMAQ, CHICAGO—NBC)\n[Saturday—10:15-10:30 PM]\nOctober 2, 1943\n“Banquo’s Chair”\n[“…Nelson Olmsted, radio story teller, will celebrate the third network\nanniversary of his ‘World’s Greatest Stories’ program by telling a tale he\nhas been seeking permission to use since a little after his network debut\nin 1940…”]\nSUSPENSE (KNX, HOLLYWOOD—CBS)\n[Thursday—5:00-5:30 PM]\nAugust 3, 1944\n“Banquo’s Chair”\n[LIMA NEWS: “…Ghosts, make-believe ghosts and real murders provide\nan eerie half hour of radio entertainment, when Screen Actors Donald\nCrisp and John Loder co-star… The plot deals with a Scotland Yard\ndetective who tries to wring a confession from a murder suspect by\nconfronting him with the ‘ghost’ of his victim. Unexpected developments\nforce changes in the detective’s plan, in a strange climax…”]\nSCRIPT: Sigmund Miller.\nPERSONNEL: Lud Gluskin (music conductor), Joseph Kearns (announcer),\nLucien Moraweck (composer), William Spier (producer-director).\nCAST: Hans Conried, Donald Crisp, John Loder, Jane Morgan, Ian Wolfe.\nSENSATION (THE LIGHT PROGRAMME, LONDON—BBC)\n[Tuesday—9:30-10:00 PM]\nSeptember 10, 1946\n“Banquo’s Chair”\n[OG-NOTE: Croft-Cooke’s story “Peter the Painter” was originally scheduled.]\nTHE PHILIP MORRIS PLAYHOUSE (WCBS, NEW YORK—CBS)\n[Friday—10:00-10:30 PM]\nMarch 25, 1949\n“Banquo’s Chair”\n[“…presents Claude Rains as a retired Scotland Yard inspector who seeks\nto crack a case on his own…”]\nCAST: Claude Rains, et al.\nSUSPENSE (KNX, HOLLYWOOD—CBS)\n[Thursday—8:00-8:30 PM]\nMarch 9, 1950\n“Banquo’s Chair”\nSCRIPT: Sigmund Miller.\nPERSONNEL: Rene Garriguenc (composer), Lud Gluskin (music conductor),\nNorman Macdonnell (director).\nCAST: Hans Conried, James Mason, et al.\nSLEEP NO MORE (WNBC, NEW YORK)\n[Wednesday—9:30-9:55 PM]\nFebruary 6, 1957\n“Banquo’s Chair” / “The Coward”\nPERSONNEL: Nelson Olmsted (narrator).\nRupert Croft-Cooke",
  "sources": "",
  "gallery": "",
  "images": []
}