Lady in Danger (9 Sept 1959)

 Adaptation of one of the few Australian plays to have a run on Broadway.

Plot

Monica Sefton is the wife of a sacked reporter. She plans to write a thriller to restore the family fortune. She accidentally stumbles upon a spy ring. 

Cast

• Madi Hedd as Monica Sefton
• James Condon as Bill Sefton
• Queenie Ashton as Mrs Lamprey
• Richard Parry as Dr Norton
• Coralie Neville as Sylvia Meade
  
• Alastair Duncan as Andy Meade
• Peter Carver as Detective Burke
• John Bluthal as Inspector Marsh
• James Elliott as Detective Pogson
• Kevin Williams as a body
  

Original play

The play was first produced by Doris Fitton at the Independent Theatre in Sydney in early 1942. Reviews were positive.

The play was seen by representatives of J.C. Williamsons Ltd, the leading theatrical producers in the country, who bought the rights in 1942. Since Williamsons had not produced an Australian play in over 20 years this was seen as a positive step for Australian playwriting. (The play was set in London.)

The play made its professional debut on 15 March 1944 at the Theatre Royal in Sydney and was positively received.

Afford said “The season at the Independent, gave me an opportunity to improve any weaknesses. Naturally, the professional production will be a more elaborate one particularly in the last act, which requires sliding panels and secret passages.” 

The play was published in 1944.

Thelma Afford in interview Max Afford wrote it early in 1940 said it was the first Australian play produced by Wiliamsons in 20 years (by Harold Bowden). Also bought Mischief in the Air, which was bought off a script, by Bowden. Made him the first playwright to have two plays produced by Williamsons in the one year.  John Alden directed both. Lou Parks told Max "we won't spend much on an Australian play they won't be any good".

See interview here. Williams sent it to their agents in New York who subsequently sold it to the Fisher and Allen Management.

My thoughts on the play

The copyright for this is 1942 but it must be an updated issue because there's references to television, commies and Red China - the commies are the villains as opposed to the Axis, which was the cast in 1942.

This is a fun comedy thriller, a variation on the sort of thing Bob Hope used to film: screwball comedies about spies, with heroes who have a lot of imagination, and a reveal of genuine peril in the third act. Why do they not keep making such movies; audiences like them - look at that recent Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston Netflix film.

The heroine of this is Monica Sefton, determined to write a mystery TV script. She gets in over her head when a real dead body turns up. Monica drops out of the action for a big slab: her husband and his friends take over (a drunken crime reporter whose alcoholism is played for laughs and his put-upon wife... these two feel like they have George and Martha potential); there's also an investigating detective who takes over. This does also add to suspense because they figured out that the neighbouring doctor is bad, so the audience knows before Monica does, creating great tension. There's a superb twist when (spoilers) the ditsy landlady is shown to be bad. The central conceit of this is ingenuous: the murder weapon are poisoned cat claws.

There's decent gags, some fresh comedy with a cat, and affection for the leads; I feel Max Afford had a happy marriage, you sense that from this.

1945 Broadway Production 

The play was also optioned for production on Broadway, although it was rewritten by Alexander Kirkland to be set in Melbourne, Australia and be about a Japanese spy ring. (It was felt the Nazis would soon be out of the war, and that there was more novelty in an Australian setting.)

The character of Bill Sefton was changed to an American soldier who was stationed in Melbourne, and his wife Monica now grew up in Japan, not Germany. The other characters played Australians. Kirkland finished his new draft by September 1944. 

Reviews were not strong and it closed after twelve performances in New York.

The Cincinatti Enquirer said "there is not the tiniest suspicion of comedy throughout and the only mystery about the entire sorry affair is how in the name of things theatrical it was produced in the first place." Walter Winchell said "it had better have stayed down under." The Daily News called it "a tepid chiller."

"That's not: too good, is it?" said Afford. "Still, I don't suppose you can hit the jackpot every time." 

It was recorded in Best Plays 1946 and by Samuel French and by Mulga Publications.

There's letters from Kirkland to Afford discussing selling it to TV in the US, where Kirkland was writing material. I don't think this was produced.

1955 Radio adaptation

The play was adapted for radio on the ABC in 1955.  

It was done again on ABC radio in 1956 - I think a Brisbane production according to the cast. Ray Menmuir directed it.

1959 TV Production

It was the first drama directed by Colin Dean at the ABC. He was assigned the job by ABC's Director of Drama, Neil Hutchinson. 

"It was a 'try-out' to see if I can do it," said Dean. "It wasn't a substantial play." Dean later directed the popular historical mini series at the ABC starting with Stormy Petrel. 

Dean was asked about the play several times by Graham Shirley in an oral history.

I suppose that if we should be emblazoned in my memory that it isn't. In fact, it's it's almost been obliterated by all the others. It was not a substantial play by any means. There was nothing remarkable about the setting or the performances or indeed the script. So it was an exercise. It was a fun procedure... I'm sorry, I can't I can't really chalk that up as a as a memorable occasion. Can we accept that having done it I was there, as far as drama was concerned. And I think that was Neil Hutchison, at the time, was prepared to take me on more or less permanently as a drama producer. So it must have clicked with him here. 

He did recall John Bluthal, in part because Bluthal had such a busy career. He dealt with the actors instinctively but they were all very experienced.

An especially trained cat was used for certain scenes.

Dean later said in an interview with the Gore Hill website

When I started doing drama I had a team of about 30 people. This went on for 4 years. Dave Tapp, the top TP was my usual technical producer. Tom Jeffrey was an absolute marvel as a floor manager. Detect- foresee- correct - understand. It was like having another pair of hands. He was marvellous. Bill Munro was my other floor manager. My camera people were Etzio Belli, Sam Chung and Bill Brown. Desmod Downing was a romantic designer; Doug Smith went to incredible trouble to get authenticity. I was in the hands of first rate people who knew their jobs very well. In most cases they were a party to our joint recognition.

We had endless planning meetings. They were attended by the designer, technical producer and floor manager. We went in for full colour sets even though it was black and white television. It was easier to light a colour set than a monochrome set. Dave Tapp was often muttering about grey scales. It seemed to add to the production. We made or bought props and costumes. We went to an enormous amount of trouble to be accurate. We re-built very accurately in the studio with architectural detail. The search for authenticity in historical series was constant.

It was sheer concentration when you are on air. There was a constant murmur in the control room. You are watching the monitors; you are watching through the control room window into the studio, you are in touch with the floor manager. At the end of the series say 3 months, I was exhausted. But you would not show it. I remember very clearly what it was like. Directing was like being a conductor; it's like having extension to your facilities. It was marvellous. It was fun. It was like flying an aircraft without knowing how to do it.

In all those hours of television we never went to black. We nearly overran a few times. Once I asked my script assistant to 'find a cut' and she found a place, and I communicated with Tom Jeffrey. You would not have picked it. So we did not overrun.

In those early days my main problem was timing, positioning, expression and eyeline. I wanted the actors eyeline to be somewhere for a cut. From my first day I knew where the cutting point was.

Crew

Producer - Colin Dean, Script assistnt - Wynette Gallow (or Lynette Williamson), technical producer - Les Weldon, designer - Jack Montgomery, floor manager - Helen Lockhart

  My thoughts on the script

 Max Afford's stage play was one of the few Australian plays to have a run on Broadway - the original play was set in England but the Broadway version was rewritten by another writer to be set in Australia. It was frequently performed on radio so it's no surprise to see it adapted for TV. Indeed, it was discovering the existence of this play in particular having been filmed that kicked off my interest in Australian TV drama of the 1950s and 1960s.

This version was adapted by Philip Albright, who was the ABC's in house writer. He died young, Albright, I haven't been able to find out much about him.

It's a decent adaptation, which captures the life and flavour. It's been updated to the Cold War so they are worried about spies, which works fine. It's a sort of madcap comedy that you could have imagined making an ideal vehicle for Ann Southern or someone; I'm surprised Hollywood never found this, they certainly made worse movies.

Reception

The Age said it "provided an interesting hour's entertainment... outstanding feature was the fine sustained acting from Madi Hedd... James Condon... was not quite as convincing."

The Sydney Morning Herald called it a "neatly tailored thriller" which set "out to do nothing more ambitious than pass an entertaining hour" and "did just that and nothing more in a very competent live television production... [the cast] all played as though they had been doing this kind of thing for most of their working lives. Colin Dean's production aptly matched their efficiency and craftsmanship."

TVL called it a "sloppy job" due to an "untidy adaptation".

 

SMH 10 Sept 1959 p 14

The Age Supplement 8 Oct 1959 p 3

The Age Supplement 24 Sept 1959 p 1

AWW 9 Sept 1959 p 12

SMH 7 Sept 1959 p 11

The Age 24 Sept 1959 p 17

 

The Age Supplement 8 Oct 1959 p 3

SMH 7 Sept 1959 p 22

SMH 6 Sept 1959 p 117

Forgotten Australian TV Plays: Lady in Danger
by Stephen Vagg
January 6, 2022
The latest in Stephen Vagg’s series on forgotten Australian television plays looks at one that he hasn’t actually seen, but which has personal resonance for him (well, kind of): Lady in Danger (1959).

The work that kicked off my interest in forgotten Australian television plays was a stage play, Max Afford’s Lady in Danger. I’d always been interested in this because it was a (very) rare Australian-written show to have a run on Broadway, back in 1945. I was doing casual research and came across an item in Leslie Rees’ book The Making of Australian Drama, which mentioned that the play was filmed for Australian television in 1959. I had no idea that we produced any TV drama back then, so did some further research, and that kicked off this whole series.

Max Afford, 1930

Afford (1906-1954) was a South Australian journalist who emerged in the 1930s as one of Australia’s leading writers of radio scripts and detective novels. He was predominantly a radio man but like all jobbing writers Afford dabbled in a variety of mediums, such as film scripts – he worked on the screenplay for Ken G Hall’s Smithy (1946) – and stage plays.

Lady in Danger is no serious drama like, say, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll or The Shifting Heart. It’s an unpretentious comedy-mystery-thriller set in London about married couple Bill and Monica Sefton; Bill is a journalist who has recently been fired from his job while Monica is an aspiring mystery writer with what seems to be an overactive imagination, until they stumble upon a genuine spy plot.

There are decent gags, neat twists, and some fresh comedy with a cat; Afford writes with a lot of affection for the leads – he had a happy marriage (to costume designer Thelma), you sense this from reading Lady in Danger. The play is a fun variation on the sort of movies Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard used to star in – light shenanigans involving a likeable lead couple swapping quips, encountering shady characters and red herrings before they face life-and-death peril in the third act. (Aside: Why do they not keep making such films these days? Audiences like them – look at the success of that recent Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston Netflix film Murder Mystery (2019)).

Madi Hedd

The play had its world premiere at the semi-amateur Independent Theatre in Sydney in 1942, with Gwen Plumb starring as Monica. Response was so positive that Lady in Danger was not only adapted for ABC radio that year, it was also picked up by JC Williamsons for a professional run – a very rare honour for an Australian-written play at the time. Even rarer was the fact that the play wound up on Broadway in 1945. This was a very big deal. There had been Broadway plays written by Australians before – most recently, Alec Coppel’s I Killed the Count had a short run in 1942. But those plays tended to come via London; Lady in Danger went to Broadway from Sydney.

The play did, admittedly, arrive in New York in a very different shape. Its American producers felt that German baddies had been “done”, so it was decided to relocate the action to Melbourne, make Bill an American war correspondent stationed in Australia and turn the villains into agents working for the Japanese. Since international travel was tough for civilians during the war, American actor-manager-writer Alexander Kirkland did the rewrite job.

Just to recap all that – one of the first plays written by an Australian to be produced on Broadway was originally set in England but was rewritten by an American to be set in Australia. Reviews of the Broadway production were poor, and the play only ran twelve performances before being cancelled.

Regardless of this reception, it’s a shame that Lady in Danger was never turned into a film, either in Hollywood or Britain – it would have made perfect ‘40s screwball fodder, and you can easily imagine someone like George Sherman directing, and a madcap specialist like Betty Hutton, Lucille Ball or Googie Withers as Monica. According to Max Afford’s papers at the Fryer Library in Brisbane, in 1951 Kirkland suggested reworking the play for The Philco Television Playhouse on American television but no version appears to have been made. As mentioned, I assumed Lady in Danger was never filmed at all until I read The Making of Australian Drama which referred to an ABC TV version.

Most early Australian television plays were adaptations of overseas scripts, with the odd exception such as The Multi Coloured Umbrella. In late 1959 however, the ABC made a concerted effort to increase its genuinely local content… which coincided with the arrival of Rex Rienits as drama editor. And so, the national broadcaster put on locally written stories such as Bodgie, Ned Kelly, Outpost, and Lady in Danger.

It was broadcast from ABC’s Gore Hill studios in Sydney on 9 September 1959. The cast included James Condon (Bill Sefton), Madi Hedd (Monica Sefton), Queenie Ashton, Richard Parry, Alastair Duncan, and John Bluthal. Oh, and a specially trained cat. The director was Colin Dean, who had extensive documentary and radio experience, but this was his first attempt at television drama. “It was a ‘try-out’ to see if I can do it,” said Dean later. “It wasn’t a substantial play.”

Dean later became famous for his historical mini series starting with Stormy Petrel. It’s interesting that he did not regard Lady in Danger as “substantial” – it was a light comedy thriller after all (there’s not much other comedy on his CV), and possibly Dean was unaware of the play’s landmark status.

No copy of the production exists, at least not to my knowledge, but I have read the TV script. The adaptation was done by Philip Albright, an American actor-writer who came out to Australia in 1949 to appear in a stage play and wound up staying. Albright did a bit of TV adapting for the ABC in the 1950s, including versions of Sorry Wrong Number (1958), The Skin of Our Teeth (1959) and Dinner with the Family (1959); he died in July 1959, before Lady in Danger was broadcast (some random trivia: Albright’s stage play The Break was posthumously presented by the Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962.) It’s a decent adaptation, by the way, which captures the life and flavour of the original play even if the running time had to be condensed to under an hour. The story was updated from World War Two to the Cold War, so Bill and Monica deal with commie spies rather than German or Japanese ones, which actually works fine. (This was also done in the ABC’s 1955 radio adaptation and in the version of the stage play that you can read online.)

The Age said the show “provided an interesting hour’s entertainment… outstanding feature was the fine sustained acting from Madi Hedd… James Condon… was not quite as convincing.” The Sydney Morning Herald called it a “nearly tailored thriller” which set “out to do nothing more ambitious than pass an entertaining hour” and “did just that and nothing more in a very competent live television production… [the cast] all played as though they had been doing this kind of thing for most of their working lives. Colin Dean’s production aptly matched their efficiency and craftsmanship.”

I would have loved to have seen this production, but at least one can read the script via the National Archives of Australia. Remarkably, this was the only play of Afford’s ever filmed by ABC television. I don’t know why. The national broadcaster had hundreds of his radio scripts to choose from, not to mention a number of his other stage plays that would have made great television: the comedy Mischief in the Air, the historical drama Awake My Love (about Colonel Light), the thriller Dark Enchantment.

Afford was a really good writer, and what’s more, one very known to the ABC. I can only assume their lack of enthusiasm to film his work was a combination of the fact that it tended to be populist, and the author was not around to press his case – he died in 1954, aged only 48 years of age.

For me, early Australian television drama had three big “if onlys”… if only (a) we’d had a quota for local drama (b) Leslie Rees had permanently moved from radio to television and (c) Max Afford had lived at least another ten years. Unlike Rees, Afford really wanted to get into television – he regularly wrote about it, and went to Britain in 1950 to study the new medium in preparation for its arrival in Australia. Someone with Afford’s prestige surely would have ensured far more locally written stuff got on air in Australia ten years earlier than it did.

Based on the career trajectories of fellow radio writers Sumner Locke Elliott, Morris West, Rex Rienits, and Peter Yeldham, I’m guessing Afford’s career also would have involved long stints overseas and penning best-selling novels.

Incidentally, Afford’s wife Thelma – who outlived him by more than forty years – worked as costume designer on some of the earliest Australian TV dramas, including The Twelve Pound Look (1956) and The Importance of Being Ernest (1957). She set up an award in her late husband’s name for young playwrights which is still going and donated their papers to the Fryer Library at UQ.

It’s a shame that the ABC did not film more Max Afford, but at least they did one, and what’s more, perhaps his most culturally significant work: Lady in Danger, which made it all the way from Sydney to Broadway. Give it a read, it’s fun.

The author would like to thank Graham Shirley and the staff of the Fryer Library for their assistance with researching this article. All opinions are my own.
Main Image: Max Afford and friend, 1954, courtesy of Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and ACP Magazines Ltd.

Leslie Rees Towards Australian Drama