For the 1931 film based on Christie's play, see Alibi (1931 film)

Alibi (1931 film)

Alibi is a British mystery detective film directed by Leslie S. Hiscott and starring Austin Trevor, Franklin Dyall, and Elizabeth Allen....

.

Alibi is a 1928 play by Michael Morton

Michael Morton (dramatist)

Michael Morton was an English dramatist in the early Twentieth Century.His comedy called Detective Sparks opened at the Garrick Theatre in August 1909 to good reviews...

 based on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons in June 1926 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company on the 19th of the same month. It features Hercule Poirot as the lead detective...

, a novel by British

British people

The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 crime writer Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...

.

It opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre

Prince of Wales Theatre

The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre on Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in the City of Westminster. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner...

 in London's West End on May 15, 1928, starring Charles Laughton

Charles Laughton

Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...

 as Hercule Poirot

Hercule Poirot

Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on...

. It was deemed a success and ran for 250 performances closing on December 7, 1928. It was the first work of Agatha Christie's to be presented on stage and the first ever adaptation of one of her works for any medium outside of her books.

Background

Christie disagreed with the change of her favourite character Caroline Sheppard, the inspiration for Miss Marple

Miss Marple

Jane Marple, usually referred to as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in twelve of Agatha Christie's crime novels and in twenty short stories. Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur detective. She is one of the most famous...

, into a beautiful girl called Caryl Sheppard. She only permitted this change because the alternative was turning Poirot into a young man called Beau Poirot and having "lots of girls in love with him". The other major changes from the book were:

• The characters of Mrs Russell, the housekeeper, and her son, Charles Kent, were dropped, as were the subplots concerning these characters.
• Roger Ackroyd was given a title and became Sir Roger Ackroyd.
• Poirot was stated several times not to be Belgian but French.

The play takes place in two sets - the hall at Fernley Park and in Poirot's study in his house in the village. Sir Roger's study is situated at the back of the centre stage of the hall set with two doors which are opened at various parts in the play to reveal the corpse at his desk and are closed at other times when events in the play dictate they should be.

Act I, Scene 1

(The hall at Sir Roger Ackroyd's, Fernley Park. Afternoon)

Sir Roger’s sister-in-law, Mrs. Ackroyd, her daughter, Flora, his secretary, Geoffrey Raymond and Major Blunt, a guest, are relaxing in the hall. Mrs. Ackroyd and Flora live there due to their financial circumstances. They are utterly reliant on Sir Roger who tightly controls their money and consequently they are in some debt. They discuss a report in the newspaper of the suicide of a local woman, Mrs. Ashley Ferrars, during the previous night. She had a close relationship with Sir Roger and her death has greatly affected him. They further discuss the impending announcement of the engagement between Flora and Sir Roger’s stepson, Ralph Paton and the difference that this marriage will make. A young woman who is a neighbour, Caryl Sheppard, arrives to play bridge

Contract bridge

Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...

 and Flora teases her over her fascination for a recent arrival in the village – a foreigner who Caryl thinks is called M. Porrott, but Flora reveals that her uncle has told her that he in fact is M. Hercule Poirot, the famous French detective. Poirot arrives and meets everyone. He is especially taken with Caryl. During the conversation, Caryl tells Flora that she thought she saw Ralph Paton in the village that morning but Flora is surprised – as far as she knew Ralph has been in London for the previous six months ever since he had an argument with his uncle. As Caryl’s brother, Dr. James Sheppard, is dining at Fernley that evening, she will be alone and she invites Poirot to dine with her. They leave together. As the others go off to change for dinner, a maid

Maid

A maidservant or in current usage housemaid or maid is a female employed in domestic service.-Description:Once part of an elaborate hierarchy in great houses, today a single maid may be the only domestic worker that upper and even middle-income households can afford, as was historically the case...

, Ursula Bourne, tidies the room and meets Ralph when he comes in from the terrace. It is obvious that the two have a secret relationship but their conversation is interrupted as Bourne sees Dr. Sheppard approaching the house. Ralph quickly hides in the adjoining library and Dr. Sheppard enters to be greeted by Parker, the butler

Butler

A butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its...

. Dr. Sheppard may have to rush out to a confinement case later and consequently he has his doctor’s bag with him which Parker looks after. Sheppard is left to his own devices for a moment and Ralph comes out of hiding and tells the doctor, an old friend, that he is in a mess with his stepfather and that he is staying at a local inn, the White Horse. Ralph leaves the house and soon Sir Roger himself comes down into the hall. He too unburdens himself on Sheppard: Mrs. Ferrars was going to be his fiancée after the year’s mourning

Mourning

Mourning is, in the simplest sense, synonymous with grief over the death of someone. The word is also used to describe a cultural complex of behaviours in which the bereaved participate or are expected to participate...

 for the late Mr. Ferrars came to an end but, when the requisite time was up, she hesitated for three more months and then confessed that she poisoned her brutal husband. She was driven to suicide by an unknown blackmail

Blackmail

In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...

er who knew of her actions and has been draining her of funds all this time. Sir Roger is certain that she would have left him a letter detailing who her persecutor was. At that moment, Parker comes in with a letter for Sir Roger – it is from the late Mrs. Ferrars but he has no time to open it as the others come down for dinner.

Act I, Scene 2

(The same, after dinner)

The time is 9.20pm. Sir Roger is enclosed in his study at the back of the hall. Dr. Sheppard was with him but Parker told Mrs. Ackroyd that he left earlier and, as far as she knows, Sir Roger is now alone. Flora follows her mother to bed and Raymond and Parker hear Sir Roger’s voice coming from the other side of the door as he somewhat stiltedly tells an unknown person that he can give them no money as they require. Blunt enters from the terrace and he and Raymond go to the billiard

Snooker

Snooker is a cue sport that is played on a green baize-covered table with pockets in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. A regular table is . It is played using a cue and snooker balls: one white , 15 worth one point each, and six balls of different :...

 room. Parker switches off the hall lights and leaves momentarily but re-enters a moment later to see Flora with her hand on the study door. She tells the butler that she has said goodnight to her uncle and that he doesn’t want to be disturbed. The two leave.

(The lights are lowered during the scene and the Curtain descends for a moment, to mark the passing of three-quarters of an hour)

Parker is brought down to the terrace window by a furious knocking. It is Dr. Sheppard who states that he was at his house with Caryl and Poirot when he was phoned by Parker himself who said that Sir Roger had been murdered. A surprised Parker and Sheppard go to the locked study door and, unable to gain access, break it down. Sir Roger is within, stabbed with a dagger through the neck. Sheppard tells Parker to fetch Raymond and ring the police and to shut the study door. Parker leaves and soon Raymond rushes in, shocked at the death of his employer. Soon, Inspector Davies arrives and, by questioning, finds out that Flora must have been the last person to see Sir Roger alive. Flora insists that Poirot is called in to investigate and little time passes before the French detective arrives.

The murderer seems to have escaped through the study’s open window and the murder was committed with an ornate dagger that was often lying about the hall. Parker overheard talk of blackmail and Sheppard tells Poirot of the real cause of Mrs. Ferrars’ suicide and the letter that Sir Roger received. He and Sheppard went into the study after dinner to read it but Sir Roger had a change of mind and asked Sheppard to leave him alone to peruse its contents. Sheppard did so and found Parker just outside the door, as if he had been listening to what was happening within...

Raymond tells of the words he heard Sir Ackroyd say behind the closed door at 9.30 and Blunt also says he heard the words when he was walking on the terrace but his attention was caught by the sight of a woman in white just passing behind a hedge in the garden. Flora tells of seeing her uncle at 9.45 and she and Parker recreate what happened for Poirot. Bourne is summoned and questioned if she was the woman who Blunt saw and she confirms that she was going out to post a letter in the box by the gate. The others retire to bed and Poirot sits and smokes in the semi-darkness, looking at the dead body of Sir Roger and thinking...

Act II

(The same. Next morning)

Inspector Davies and Poirot meet back at Fernley. The call to Dr. Sheppard has been traced. It was made from the local railway station, a few minutes before the late-night express train for Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 left. He has also found out that the woman in the lodge house saw Ralph Paton enter the grounds at 9.25pm. The fingerprints on the dagger are yet to be tested but Poirot has a theory that they will find only the dead man’s prints on the handle. The missing letter from Mrs Ferrars is also a puzzle and Poirot summons Parker and asks him to state what is different about the study compared to when he helped break in the previous evening. Parker tells him of the differences – including the fact that the armchair was pulled out from its normal position and turned at a strange angle, something that catches Poirot's attention. Raymond is questioned about any strangers seen in the past week – the only one he can recall was a young representative from a firm of Dictaphone

Dictaphone

Dictaphone was an American company, a producer of dictation machines—sound recording devices most commonly used to record speech for later playback or to be typed into print. The name "Dictaphone" is a trademark, but in some places it has also become a common way to refer to all such devices, and...

 manufacturers called Curtis and Trout – Sir Roger was considering buying one of their machines. Poirot reveals that he found a scrap of starch

Starch

Starch or amylum is a carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by all green plants as an energy store...

ed material in the summerhouse and theorises that it came from the dress of Bourne who is the only person in the house who has no alibi. Mr Hammond, the family solicitor, arrives and reveals that the dead man's will

Will (law)

A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...

 leaves the majority of Sir Roger’s estate to Ralph – another motive for the murder. It is also revealed that cash to the sum of one hundred pounds is missing from Sir Roger’s room. Ralph though remains the principle suspect and Poirot tells the assembled group that he knows they are all individually hiding something from him and that he means to find the truth.

Act III, Scene 1

(Hercule Poirot's Study. Four day's later, after breakfast)

Poirot is finishing a breakfast served by his French maid, Margot, when he receives a visit from Caryl and James Sheppard and then Inspector Davies in quick succession. The policeman tells Poirot that his theory that only Sir Roger’s prints would be found on the dagger handle proved correct and that Ralph is being sought by the police. Flora and Blunt arrive and, under Poirot’s insistent questioning, Flora confesses that she never saw her uncle in the study as she claimed and that she stole the missing one hundred pounds

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

, desperate for money. Blunt, in love in Flora, chivalrously claims the money was given to him by Sir Roger but Poirot is not deceived. Breaking down, Flora is taken into the garden by the doctor and Poirot tells the Major that Flora is not in love with Ralph. She was going to marry him to escape her and her mother’s poverty. He encourages Blunt to go and comfort Flora. Dr. Sheppard is called out to a case and Poirot, left alone with Caryl, questions her over any possible nursing home

Nursing home

A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...

s that are nearby for the use of a sick nephew. She tells him of one in nearby Cranchester. He also asks if anyone from Fernley Park called at her brother’s surgery on the day of the murder. She is insistent that no one did and, challenged, recounts the list of patients including an American steward off a liner

Ocean liner

An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...

 called the Baltic who was passing through the village on his way to Liverpool. Poirot excuses himself – he has to send a cable to a friend in New York and he also tells Margot that he will not be dining at home – he is going to a "mad house"...

Act III, Scene 2

(The same. The next night, after dinner)

Poirot has had Sheppard and Caryl round for dinner. They are expecting further guests as Poirot has asked the household from Fernley to call round but his first visitor is Bourne, panicked over a newspaper report that Poirot asked Davies to insert claiming that Ralph had been arrested in Liverpool. This forces Bourne to admit that she and Ralph are married. She had confessed this to Sir Roger and he had dismissed her. Ralph came to Fernley after an urgent telegram from her but she insists they only met in the summerhouse for ten minutes and then she left him there. Poirot wants her to join the others when they arrive and Caryl insists that the former maid can stay the night at their house. She goes to make arrangements as the party from Fernley arrives. Poirot asks them to sit down as he addresses them and he first reveals Bourne’s marriage to Ralph. However the time when the two people met in the summerhouse coincided with the time that Sir Roger’s voice was heard behind the closed study door. They are therefore all puzzled as to who was with him but Poirot has another idea – no one was with him: the formal words that Ackroyd were using were intended for the Dictaphone. This creates problems for Ralph as his alibi for the time is now useless and Raymond thinks the young man should come forward and explain himself. Poirot agrees and opens the curtains to the conservatory, revealing Ralph. Poirot guessed that Sheppard met him that night, knowing that he had gone to the inn where he was staying, and had then hidden him. Poirot further deduced that a doctor would hide someone in a nursing home, hence his questions to Caryl. Ralph’s alibi is now useless and Poirot tells the assembled group that to save him the real murderer – who is one of the people in the room – must confess. They have until midday tomorrow and then Poirot will go to the police.

The others leave but a moment later Poirot suffers a small collapse and has Margot fetch back Dr. Sheppard. Poirot recovers quickly and, asking the doctor his opinion of the night’s events, is accused of playing a comedy. Poirot disagrees and confirms that he knows who the murderer is and for them there can be no escape. He takes the doctor through his thinking: The mysterious telephone call can only be judged from its result, which is that Sir Roger’s death was discovered that night instead of the next day. That means that the murderer wanted to be on the spot when the discovery was made, perhaps to retrieve something. The second puzzling fact was the armchair pulled out from its normal place in the study and that can only have been to have hidden something from sight at the moment that the room was broken into. As the Dictaphone is missing, it can only be that item which was there and, by use of a time-lock, the voice heard behind the door was not that of the living Sir Roger but a previously-made recording - the man was already dead. The murderer can only be someone who had a receptacle to carry away the machine and who had the study to himself for a moment after the discovery of the body – in other word’s, Dr. Sheppard himself.

The doctor’s motive was to protect himself – he was Mrs Ferrars’ blackmailer. Sheppard breaks down at the thought at what this will do to Caryl and Poirot reveals that he is similarly tortured by this matter as he is in love with the doctor’s sister. He suggests that the doctor takes the "cleanest" way out and Sheppard agrees and leaves. Poirot tells Caryl that he has failed to catch the murderer but that he is able to clear Ralph. Forlorn, he takes his leave of her.

Reception of London production

The review in The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

issue of May 16, 1928 began, "Another French detective! We islanders might begin to feel jealous, if we did not remember what a start Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...

 and Gaboriau

Émile Gaboriau

Émile Gaboriau , was a French writer, novelist, and journalist, and a pioneer of modern detective fiction.- Life :Gaboriau was born in the small town of Saujon, Charente-Maritime...

 gave our neighbours". The review questioned, "whether you can make a play out of theoretical analysis. The old melodramas based themselves upon passion: then - shall we say with William Gillette

William Gillette

William Hooker Gillette was an American actor, playwright and stage-manager in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who is best remembered today for portraying Sherlock Holmes....

's Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

 and Sir Gerald du Maurier's Raffles

A. J. Raffles

Arthur J. Raffles is a character created in the 1890s by E. W. Hornung, a brother-in-law to Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Raffles is, in many ways, a deliberate inversion of Holmes — he is a "gentleman thief," living in the Albany, a prestigious address in London, playing...

? - personality usurped its place. A pure problem has not the dramatic force of either. If we do not weary of Poirot shooting questions to left and right, Poirot with uplifted finger expounding his views to a half-circle of listeners, it is because Mr. Charles Laughton, with a little help from the text, makes a personality out of the fat and sentimental little ratiocinator. His Poirot is an admirable comedy sketch, convincingly gallic

Gauls

The Gauls were a Celtic people living in Gaul, the region roughly corresponding to what is now France, Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Italy, from the Iron Age through the Roman period. They mostly spoke the Continental Celtic language called Gaulish....

." The review stated that Lady Tree had no scope within the part given to her to invest the part of Mrs. Ackroyd with personality but "competence was all that was demanded from her, and from the rest of the cast, and it was generally forthcoming. One actor singled out for praise was Henry Daniell for his "imperturbably natural butler" however his "mystery...was not...analysed enough".

Whilst the reviewer in The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

of May 16, 1928 seemed to feel that the play itself showed no great originality, he was impressed with Laughton, saying "we can hardly resist the play despite its wheezy start and inability to accelerate, because M. Poirot is presented in the flesh by Mr. Charles Laughton, who, unlike much youth of brilliant hopes, continues to perform almost more than he so lavishly promised.” The reviewer concluded, "M. Poirot sifts the alibis of the assembled company, finds a scent and hunts it close. None of the other characters appears to have any more personality than is necessary for a human fragment of the puzzle. It is hardly needed. Mr. Laughton is there, and he cannot fail to entertain, whether he is in the supreme frenzy of vigilance, or relaxing over the oldest of old brandies, or making a tender gesture to a charming young lady who is as English as a rose and not, it seems, more talkative or intellectual. Scarcely the wife for Poirot, but let us not be fussy and make difficulties. Mr. Laughton is an important arrival in Crookery Nook, yet we trust he will not stay there too long. We have other uses for such an actor than to brood over the fingermarks on the dagger and discover why the parlourmaid was in the garden at the moment of the crime.”

The review in The Observer

The Observer

The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

of May 20, 1928 was laudatory about the performances of J.H. Roberts and Charles Laughton. About Roberts, the reviewer said, "If ever a man succeeded by his performance in throwing an audience of determined sleuths off the scent, Mr. Roberts threw those members of the first-night audience who had not read Mrs. Christie's clever novel off it." About Laughton, the reviewer said, "Let me not be afraid to use superlatives" and then proceeded to detail why he held the view he did, concluding, "He seizes the stage and firmly controls the audience. He fills me with a sense of his power, and makes me intensely aware of him from the moment he comes on to the stage until the moment he leaves it. He is an actor."

On the play in general, the reviewer did say it, "begins badly but steadily improves; the first two scenes, which are dull and slow, might be telescoped. Mr. Morton, indeed, had a difficult job to perform in dramatising the novel, for the cleverness of Mrs. Christie's story lies not so much in the plot as in the fact that it is told by the murderer. Mr. Laughton, however, added so much to the part of Poirot that they play seemed far bigger than it is." This reviewer, unlike the others quoted, did state that the rest of the cast was also "excellent".

The Scotsman

The Scotsman

The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....

of May 16, 1928 said, "It is a tribute to Mr Michael Morton…that during the play…one completely ignored the many weaknesses in the chain of evidence that bought the guilt home to the murderer of Sir Roger Ackroyd. The audience watched the tangled skein unravelled by the eminent French detective, M. Hercule Poirot, much in the way that an audience watches an illusionist, except that instead of the quickness of the hand deceiving the eye, the speciousness of the detective's reasoning deceived the senses. When the guilt was brought home to the least suspected person, the audience could only gasp. But the incredulity came after the theatre was left. These crime mystery plays are all much one pattern but it must be conceded that Alibi...is one of the best of its kind. It is superbly acted, the performance of Mr Charles Laughton being particularly good. Mr Laughton has a genius for getting into the 'skin' of a part."

The Daily Mirror of May 16, 1928 said of Charles Laughton's performance that, "He has that force of personality which invests his every word or movement with interest. He imparts too, a sense of reality and impending drama, to the process of cross-examining various persons. Sir Gerald du Maurier has produced the piece according to that modern fashion in which people move quietly, behave credibly and often sit with their backs to the audience when speaking."

Credits of London production

Adaptor: Michael Morton

Director: Gerald du Maurier

Gerald du Maurier

Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson du Maurier was an English actor and manager. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. In 1902, he married the actress Muriel Beaumont with whom he had three daughters: Angela du Maurier , Daphne du Maurier and Jeanne...

Cast:

Charles Laughton as Hercule Poirot

Lady Beerbohm Tree (Helen Maud Holt) as Mrs. Ackroyd

Jane Welsh as Flora Ackroyd

Henry Daniell as Parker

Basil Loder as Major Blunt

Iris Noel as Ursula Bourne

Henry Forbes-Robertson as Geoffrey Raymond

Gillian Lind as Caryl Sheppard

J H Roberts as Doctor Sheppard

Cyril Nash as Ralph Paton

Norman V Norman as Sir Roger Ackroyd, Bt

Baronet

A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...

John Darwin as Inspector Davies

J Smith Wright as Mr. Hammond

Constance Anderson as Margot

Broadway production

Laughton also starred in and directed the Broadway production, retitled The Fatal Alibi which opened at the Booth Theatre

Booth Theatre

The Booth Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 222 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan, New York City.Architect Henry B. Herts designed the Booth and its companion Shubert Theatre as a back-to-back pair sharing a Venetian Renaissance-style façade...

 on February 8, 1932 with settings by Dale Stetson and produced by Jed Harris

Jed Harris

Jed Harris was a renowned Austrian-American theater producer and director, and writer of film.-Personal history:...

. It was not a success and only played for twenty-four performances, closing on March 1.

Brooks Atkinson

Brooks Atkinson

Justin Brooks Atkinson was an American theatre critic. He worked for The New York Times from 1925 to 1960...

 of The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

reviewed the play in its issue of February 10, 1932 when he claimed that, "the minuteness of the facts involved and the meticulousness of the play construction make 'The Fatal Alibi' a rather difficult crime play to follow in the theatre". He further said that the cast was "excellent" and signalled out Laughton's performance as "an immensely entertaining exercise in poster portraiture", however, "Since Mr. Laughton enjoys playing the part, a guileless theatregoer may enjoy watching him. But colorful acting, slightly detached from the flow of narrative, can also temper a drama's illusion. In the opinion of this department, Mr. Laughton's lithographic performing has that subtle effect. It diverts attention from the play."

Credits of Broadway production

Script amendments for US production: John Anderson

Director: Charles Laughton

Cast:

Charles Laughton as Hercule Poirot

Effie Shannon as Mrs. Ackroyd

Jayne Wyatt as Flora Ackroyd

Donald Randolph

Donald Randolph

Donald Randolph was a film, television, and radio actor. The actor, who appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Topaz , acted in dozens of radio dramas, television programs, and over thirty films....

as Parker

Kenneth Hunter as Major Blunt

Jane Bramley as Bourne

Edward Crandall as Geoffrey Raymond

Helen Vinson

Helen Vinson

Helen Vinson was an American film actress, who appeared in 40 films between 1932 and 1945.-Early life:...

as Caryl Sheppard

Moffat Johnston as Doctor Sheppard

Lowell Gilmore as Captain Ralph Paton

Lionel Pape as Sir Roger Ackroyd

Lawrence H. Cecil as Inspector Davies

Fothringham Lysons as Mr. Hammond

Andree Cordy as Margot

Publication and further adaptations

The play was first published as a Samuel French

Samuel French

Samuel French was a U.S. entrepreneur who, together with British actor, playwright and theatrical manager Thomas Hailes Lacy, pioneered in the field of theatrical publishing and the licensing of plays....

 Acting Edition (No. 1177) in January 1930 (copyright 1929). In 1931, a film adaptation of the play, entitled Alibi, was produced by Twickenham Studios in England, and starred Austin Trevor as Hercule Poirot.

A radio version of the play was presented on the BBC Home Service

BBC Home Service

The BBC Home Service was a British national radio station which broadcast from 1939 until 1967.-Development:Between the 1920s and the outbreak of The Second World War, the BBC had developed two nationwide radio services, the BBC National Programme and the BBC Regional Programme...

 on June 17, 1944 from 9.20 to 10.35pm as part of the Saturday Night Theatre strand. The play was adapted for broadcasting by Marjorie Pratt and produced by Howard Rose.

Not completely satisfied with the play itself, Christie decided to try her hand at playwrighting and wrote Black Coffee

Black Coffee (play)

Black Coffee is a play by the British crime-fiction author Agatha Christie which was produced initially in 1930. The first piece that Christie wrote for the stage, it launched a successful second career for her as a playwright....

- a stage play not based on a previous work and again featuring Poirot. It was first presented in 1930 but after this Christie decided that Poirot was too strong a character to be portrayed on stage and removed him from all of her own subsequent adaptations of her books, however she did allow Arnold Ridley

Arnold Ridley

Major William Arnold Ridley, OBE was an English playwright and actor, first notable as the author of the play The Ghost Train and later in life for portraying the elderly Private Charles Godfrey in the popular British sitcom Dad's Army .-Early life:Ridley was born in Walcot, Bath, England where...

 to include the character in his 1940 adaptation of Peril at End House

Peril at End House (play)

Peril at End House is a 1940 play based on the 1932 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. The play is by Arnold Ridley, who much later played Private Godfrey in Dad's Army....

.