"Other People's Houses" is the second episode of the 1959 Australian TV drama anthology ''

Shell Presents ''Shell Presents'' was an early attempt at Australian television drama, being an umbrella title for several different productions. It debuted on 4 April 1959, and aired on ATN-7 and GTV-9, who split production of plays for the series between the ...

''. It was based on a play by

Tad Mosel Tad Mosel (May 1, 1922 – August 24, 2008) was an American playwright and one of the leading dramatists of hour-long teleplay genre for live television during the 1950s. He received the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play '' All the Way H ...

and starred Diana Perryman and was directed by David Cahill. It aired on 2 May 1959 in Sydney and on 3 October 1959 in Melbourne. The script had previously been filmed in the U.S. for ''

Goodyear Playhouse ''Goodyear Television Playhouse'' is an American anthology series that was telecast live on NBC from 1951 to 1957 during the first Golden Age of Television. Sponsored by Goodyear, Goodyear alternated sponsorship with Philco, and the ''Philco Tel ...

'', with

Rod Steiger Rodney Stephen Steiger (; April 14, 1925July 9, 2002, aged 77) was an American actor, noted for his portrayal of offbeat, often volatile and crazed characters. Cited as "one of Hollywood's most charismatic and dynamic stars," he is closely assoc ...

and

Eileen Heckart Anna Eileen Heckart ( Herbert; March 29, 1919 – December 31, 2001) was an American stage and screen actress whose career spanned nearly 60 years. Early life Heckart was born Anna Eileen Herbert in Columbus, Ohio. The daughter of Esther (), w ...

Plot

An old man (Lou Vernon) lives with his married daughter and her husband and they do not like him. His eldest daughter, Inez, moves in with them, and tries to save her father from an old person's home.

Cast

*Lou Vernon as the old man *

Diana Perryman Diana Perryman (9 November 1924 - 10 January 1979) credited also as Diane Perryman, was an Australian actress, who appeared in stage, film and television. Perryman was notable for her roles in early TV soap operas and appeared in miniseries a ...

as Inez, the eldest daughter *Coralie Neville as the married daughter *Deryck Barnes her husband Ralph *Fred Powell as a policeman

Production

ATN-7 originally announced that the second episode of ''

'' would be an adaptation of ''Children of the Sun'' by

Morris West Morris Langlo West (26 April 19169 October 1999) was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels '' The Devil's Advocate'' (1959), ''The Shoes of the Fisherman'' (1963) and ''The Clowns of God'' (1981). His books were publ ...

but that was not made. In April 1959 it was announced the second episode would be ''Other People's Hoses''. Rehearsals began in April 1959. It was Carolie Neville's TV debut. The production was shot at ATN 7's studio in Epping, Sydney. The complete interior of a "typical American middle class home" was built and the action was shot with three characters. Producer Brett Porter and director David Cahill spent a week going through the script to plan the presentation and the shooting pattern. There were three weeks of rehearsals and two hours of dress rehearsals. There were two rehearsals the day of the performance. The design of the house was done in the American style. Vernon Best, operations manager for ATN, said that because the play was an intimate family drama, its setting had to be absolutely accurate. "We cannot have one false note," he said. "We have to take special care with furnishings." Coralie Neville, one of the cast, said: "It's a brilliant play, and it's so much like life itself that we won't be able to act the people in it. We will have to be the people."

Reception

A spokesman for ATN Channel 7 said the phoned lines were "choked with congratulatory calls" from "all parts of Sydney" immediately after production finished. The TV critic for the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' said the "director and cast... did not fully exploit the emotional possibilities of the ugly little domestic situation examined by the author in slick, oversimple terms. Technically fluent and firm in accents, but always rather cheap in set decoration, the production ran smoothly through its story."

References

External links

* *
"Other People's Houses"
at

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national co ...