Mayerling is the title of an episode of the American television series Producers' Showcase

Producers' Showcase

Producers' Showcase is an American anthology television series that was telecast live during the 1950s in compatible color by NBC. With top talent, the 90-minute episodes, covering a wide variety of genres, aired under the title every fourth Monday at 8 p.m. ET for three seasons, beginning October...

made for NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

, which was aired in 24 February 1957 and released theatrically as a film in Europe. It was produced and directed by Anatole Litvak

Anatole Litvak

Anatole Litvak was a Ukrainian-born filmmaker who wrote, directed, and produced films in a various countries and languages...

, who had previously directed the 1936 French film version of Mayerling

Mayerling (1936 film)

Mayerling is a 1936 French historical drama film directed by Anatole Litvak and produced by Seymour Nebenzal from a screenplay by Marcel Achard, Joseph Kessel and Irma von Cube, based on the novel Idol's End by Claude Anet. The film stars Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux with Jean-Louis...

. It starred Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...

 and Mel Ferrer

Mel Ferrer

Mel Ferrer was an American actor, film director and film producer.-Early life:Ferrer was born Melchor Gastón Ferrer in Elberon, New Jersey, of Catalan and Irish descent. His father, Dr. José María Ferrer , was born in Cuba, was an authority on pneumonia and served as chief of staff of St....

 with Raymond Massey

Raymond Massey

Raymond Hart Massey was a Canadian/American actor.-Early life:Massey was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Anna , who was born in Illinois, and Chester Daniel Massey, the wealthy owner of the Massey-Ferguson Tractor Company. Massey's family could trace their ancestry back to the American...

, Diana Wynyard

Diana Wynyard

Diana Wynyard, CBE , whose birth name was Dorothy Isobel Cox, was an English stage and film actress.-Life and career:...

, Basil Sydney

Basil Sydney

Basil Sydney was an English actor who made over fifty screen appearances, most memorably as Claudius in Laurence Olivier's 1948 film of Hamlet. He also appeared in classic films like Treasure Island , Ivanhoe and Around the World in Eighty Days , but the focus of his career was the legitimate...

, Judith Evelyn, Isobel Elsom, Lorne Greene

Lorne Greene

Lorne Greene , was the stage name of Lyon Himan Green, OC, a Canadian actor.His television roles include Ben Cartwright on the western Bonanza, and Commander Adama in the science fiction movie and subsequent TV Series Battlestar Galactica...

, Nancy Marchand

Nancy Marchand

Nancy Marchand was an American actress, whose career encompassed both stage and screen. She appeared in various theatre productions throughout the early 1950s, before being offered roles on film and television....

, David Opatoshu

David Opatoshu

David Opatoshu was an American film, stage and television actor. He was born as David Opatovsky in New York City, where he was reared and educated. His father was the Yiddish writer, Joseph Opatoshu.-Television:...

,
Suzy Parker

Suzy Parker

Suzy Parker was an American model and actress active from 1947 into the early 1960s. Her modeling career reached its zenith during the 1950s when she appeared on the cover of dozens of magazines, advertisements, and in movie and television roles.She appeared in several Revlon advertisements, but...

, Nehemiah Persoff

Nehemiah Persoff

Nehemiah Persoff is an American film and television character actor. He was born in Jerusalem, Palestine Mandate.Born in what is now part of Israel, Persoff emigrated with his family to the United States in 1929...

, Pippa Scott and Lilia Skala

Lilia Skala

-Early life:Skala was born Lilia Sofer in Vienna, Austria. Her mother, Katharina Skala, was Catholic, and her father, Julius Sofer, was Jewish and worked as a manufacturers representative for the Waldes Koh-i-noor Company. In the late 1930s, she was forced to flee her Nazi-occupied homeland with...

.

The story of Mayerling is based on the real life events of the tragic love affair between Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria

Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria

Rudolf , archduke of Austria and crown prince of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia, was the son and heir of Franz Joseph I, emperor of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia, and his wife and empress, Elisabeth...

 and his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera

Baroness Mary Vetsera

Baroness Marie Alexandrine von Vetsera was a member of Austrian high society nobility and one of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria's mistresses...

 and their mysterious death on January 30, 1889 in a hunting lodge

Mayerling

Mayerling is a small village in Lower Austria belonging to the municipality of Alland in the district of Baden. It is situated on the Schwechat River, in the Wienerwald , 15 miles southwest of Vienna...

 in Lower Austria

Lower Austria

Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...

.