Australian TV Plays: KCU#2 - The Wallace Case (20 Nov 1957)

The second the Killer in Close Up from George F. Kerr. Based on another famous murder case. An Australian original. This one shot in Melbourne.

Premise

In 1931, William Herbert Wallace is accused of murdering his wife. He was convicted, but this was overturned on appeal.

Cast

Laurier Lange (aka Laurie Lange) as William Wallace
Noel Howlett as the judge
Brian James as the prosecutor
Norman Griffiths as the defence counsel
John Morgan as doctor
Robert Stevens
Campbell Copelin
George F. Kerr as narrator

Production

This was shot in Melbourne "live" from Coppin Hall.

Director ("producer") Christopher Muir said he used close ups extensively to build tension.

Writer George F Kerr (who did all four of these) came down from Sydney to help with the production and act as narrator.

The production seems to have been well received because they made two more in the series.

Reception

Listener In review said "although many viewers may have justifiably felt that George Kerr's script was irritating in that it did not produce enough evidence to allow one to make up one's mind whodunnit - was a beautiful example of good, pure TV. It concerned itself solely with people in a certain series of situations doing, thinking, feeling and saying tense and interesting things. Laurier Lange as the accused and John Morgan as the doctor gave world class character performances. If Australian TV drama makes a virtue of budgetary poverty long enough - taking the sound attitude that the TV screen is not a window on which one looks out on the world to find entertainment, but a window by which the world enters the living room to entertain - the day may even dawn on which we'll be exporters of drama rather than importers. We have no Hollywood-Elstree traditions of film extravagance to unlearn in operating a medium which has no earthly use for them."