"The Mystery of a Hansom Cab" is a 1961 Australian television drama play based on Barry Pree's 1961 play adaptation of the novel by

Fergus Hume Ferguson Wright Hume (8 July 1859 – 12 July 1932), known as Fergus Hume, was a prolific English novelist, known for his detective fiction, thrillers and mysteries. Early life Hume was born in Powick, Worcestershire, England, the second ...

. It appeared as an episode of the anthology series ''

The General Motors Hour ''The General Motors Hour'' was an Australian radio and television drama series. Radio The radio series was a regular one hour drama broadcast over the Macquarie Radio Network at 8 pm on Thursays. It is believed to have commenced in the late 1940 ...

''. It aired on 6 August 1961 in Sydney and on 19 August 1961 in Melbourne. The play had just completed a 12-week run in Melbourne.

Premise

In 1890s Melbourne, a young man murders a blackmailer in a hansom cab. The murdered kills three more people then romances an heiress.

Cast

*Barry Pree as the innocent man wrongly accused of the crime *Fred Parslow as the villain *Leon Lissek *Elaine Cusik *Joan Harris *Mary Hardy as Salvation Army Girl *Robert Hornery as her boyfriend *Patsy King *Bryan Edward *Marion Edward *Ron Finney *Graeme Hughes *Malcolm Phillips

1961 Play Version

Actor-writer Barry Pree, then 22 years of age, had adapted the novel into a stage play. It was the first commissioned play for the Union Theatre Repertory Company, later the

Melbourne Theatre Company The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre com ...

by its first writer in residence. (He did this on the basis of his play ''A Fox in the Night'' written when he was 19.) John Sumner had suggested Pree adapt the novel, which had been hugely popular in its day but had not been revived for a number of years. Pree took a farcical approach to the material, turning it into a spoof of old time melodramas. The original directors were John Sumner and George Ogilvie. It debuted at the Union Theatre in Parkville on 9 January 1961 and ran until 4 February. The cast were headed by Lewis Fiander (hero), Frederick Parslow (Villain) and Patsy King. ''The Age'' called it a triumph for all concerned... rollicking good fun and entertainment." Another review in the same paper called it "unqualifiedly good entertainment." The ''Bulletin'' said "most audiences will enjoy Pree's joke." The play then had a run at

Russell Street Theatre The Russell Street Theatre was a theatre on Russell Street, Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne Theatre Company performed there from 1960 to 1994, using it as their main city venue in the 1960s and early 1970s and their secondary venue from the late 1 ...

from March until May. The stage play was very popular with audiences. The cast included Fred Parslow, Joan Harris and Mary Hardy, who had been in many Melbourne musicals, including ''Free as Air'', ''Salad Days'' and ''Auntie Mamie''.

TV Version

The TV adaptation was basically a filmed version of the stage performance. It was filmed at the Russell St Theatre Melbourne and included the reactions of the audience applauding the hero and booing and throwing peanuts at the villain, with occasional cutaways to a pianist playing "mood music". Two songs of the era, "Daisy" and "Lily of the Laguna" were played. It took 24 hours to move the recording equipment from the studio to the theatre. The ''Sydney Morning Herald'' said Barry Pree played "a personably virtuous hero with a variable Irish accent, cheerfully mixed top-hatted histrionics with music-hall singing and dancing, a barrow-load of deliberate anachronisms, and some mockery of modern Melbourne in the style of intimate revue."

Songs

*"Come to the Garden Maud" *"Daisy" *"Lily of the Laguna"

Reception

The TV critic for the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' called it "an interesting experiment... only partially successful in terms of the special techniques of television. There were too many long-distance shots, of doll-like .figures on stage; not enough of the searching intimacy of expression on which television thrives." The ''Australian Woman's Weekly'' said "As is fashionable with such melodramas nowadays, the audience was invited to throw peanuts at the villain. It could have done without the topicality and the peanuts. The audience, carried away, apparently, by being on TV, showered the cast indiscriminately with peanuts to the point of being irritating." The novel was adapted for Australian radio later in 1961.

References

External links

Production details of Union St Theatre run of play
at

Ausstage AusStage: The Australian Live Performance Database is an online database which records information about live performances in Australia, providing records of productions from the first recorded performance in Australia (1789, by convicts) up unt ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mystery of the Hansom Cab (The Mystery of a Hansom Cab), The 1961 television plays 1960s Australian television plays 1960s Australian plays 1961 Australian television episodes The General Motors Hour Australian plays presented by the Elizabethan Theatre Trust Australian films based on novels