Australian TV Plays: Corruption in the Palace of Justice (28 Oct 1964)

Based on the play by Ugo Betti.

Premise

A court of justice in a nameless city and country is being investigated. A judge has made himself the accomplice of an underworld victim and this judge infect the whole process of justice. The story starts with the suicide of an innocent young girl.

Judge Cust steers suspicion on to President Vanan, the ageing chief of the court, who is innocent.

A powerful and important man, Ludvi-Pol, who is suspected of dirty dealing in high places is about to be questioned by the court when the documents the police were to seize were destroyed in a fire in which an innocent woman lost her life. The only people aware of the documents and the proceedings against Ludvi-Pol are the six members of the investigating

Cast

Terry Norris as Judge Cust
Michael Duffield as Chief Judge Cross
Wynn Roberts as Counsellor Enzi - investigating corruption
Carl Beazby as President Vanan - accused of corruption
Fay Kelton as Elena
George Whaley
Kendrick Hudson
Sydney Conabere
Bruce Barry
Horst Bergfreid
Bill Bennett
Marion Edward

Original play

Was by Ugo Betti. He was an Italian playwright. I think the original play came around 1944. It won first prize awarded by the Jstituto del Dramma Italiano, as the best play of the season 1948-1949 for theater.

Robert Rietti did the translation.

You can borrow a copy of the play here. You can borrow a book on Bietti here.

Other adaptations

Betti was done a few times by the BBC.He was unknown in England until the BBC did several of his plays according to this article. So maybe the BBC felt a proprietorial thing about him. He died in 1953 his IMDB page is here.

This play was done for BBC radio in 1958.

It played on Off-Broadway in 1964,

It was done on ABC radio in 1977.

Franco Nero starred in a 1975 Italian film.

Production

The ABC were prompted to make this by a recent stage production of the play Off Broadway.

It was shot at ABC Studios in Ripponlea, Melbourne.

It was designed by Gunars Jurgana. Oscar Whitbread directed.

Reception

Sydney Morning Herald called it "the most thought-provoking hour of TV theatre seen for some time", said "the acting was uniformly good" and that "the coldly aseptic geometry of the set emphasised the contrast of impersonal outwardness to the intense inward turmoil".

The Canberra Times said the play "was most valuable as a showcasefor the talents of Terry) Norris" but felt "the other side of the coin was the thoroughly wasted talent of actors like Wyn Roberts and Michael Duffield."