THE FACE AT THE WINDOW
[STAGE-PLAY]
“Adapted from ‘Le Loup’ by F. Brooke Warren.”
[The Times] “Lucio Delgardo is a declared villain from his first entry. His moustache, his
eyebrows, his imperial, his sallow complexion and his shifty look all proclaim that he is Le Loup,
that his is the vile hand that plunges daggers into innocent bodies, that it is his voice which warns
each victim with the howl of an animal in pain, that his face is concealed by the luminous mask at
the window—in brief, that he is a bad man destined for the guillotine.
“When the great detective Gouffet strolls around Paris in disguise, the audience joyfully shouts
its recognition of the old lady selling bootlaces or of the pretended criminal in a blue blouse.
When the same detective, having died before he could write down his secret, is brought to life by
his friend’s electrical apparatus, we all know that his reanimated hand will write the death
sentence of Lucio Delgardo, and that Delgardo, springing rashly forward and seizing the
electrified arm, will go up in a flash of blue flame.”
[Radio Times, May 13, 1938—“Full-Blooded”] “The one and only Tod Slaughter brings another
grand old melodrama to the microphone on Saturday, May 28. This is The Face in the Window,
written in the early ‘nineties. We recall being thrilled to our marrows by this play in our early
youth. There was the ghastly face itself, probably played by the baggage-man. It kept bobbing up
at the window and uttering piercing falsetto howls like those of a dog in pain. There was the series
of mysterious murders by the arch-criminal known as Le Loup, the terror of Paris, who always
signed his handiwork by leaving an iron dagger on his victim’s chest. There was the brilliant
detective Gouffet, never known to fail. Particularly do we remember an excellent bit of business in
which the murderer, anxious to remove the bloodstains from his hands, used the water from a
flower-vase.
“Finally there was the grim and famous last act in which the victim of a murder was restored to
life by electricity—only for a second or two, but long enough to reveal above the hum of the
electrical apparatus the name of his murderer. The bulk of all these hearty thrills will be yours for
the listening. If you are too big and blasé to be thrilled by anything so elementary you will at least
have the more scholarly pleasure of listening to a good museum piece that has played quite a
notable part in the evolution of the modern detective play.”
[S.R.F., Radio Times] “ ‘Now, when you hear me scream, don’t get mike-fright’, said Tod
Slaughter at a rehearsal for The Face at the Window, to be broadcast tomorrow, Saturday. And he
gave a scream that made our blood run cold.
“They went through the play. Murders, a fight on the roof-tops, a dead man brought to life—
even in a studio they made it real.”
“He told me how he once toured in The Face at the Window, and the face was played by a
sheep’s head, made up with phosphorescent paint and crepe-hair. “‘One sheep’s jimmy’ was
always on the property list and was purchased every Monday morning, and very unpleasant the
theatre was by Saturday night!’”
“ ‘I’m in Sexton Blake in the part of the Hooded Terror—a millionaire philatelist with a crook’s
brain. And we’re going to do The Face at the Window. From the Hooded Terror to a sheep’s head.
There’s variety for you!’”
[CHRONOLOGY]
TOD SLAUGHTER AND HIS COMPANY OF BARNSTORMERS (NATIONAL
PROGRAMME, LONDON—BBC)
[Saturday-9:35-10:25 PM]
May 28, 1938 “The Face at the Window”
[“…Bestial murders were committed. Paris was in a panic. Always Le
Loup left his mark—an iron dagger laid across the heart of the victim.
How was he at last betrayed? Did his pursuer die in vain?...”]
SCRIPT: (adapted from “Le Loup” by F. Brooke Warren).
PERSONNEL: John Cheatle (producer).
CAST: Hazel Bainbridge, Clifford Bean, Audrey Cameron, C. Douglas Carlile, F.
Garrett, Geoffrey Keen, Jenny Lynn, Peter Mosley, George M. Slater, Tod
Slaughter (Lucio Delgardo / “Le Loup”).