''Till Death Do Us Part'' is a 1959 Australian television play based on a stage lay that had been adapted for radio. The TV play was broadcast live in Melbourne, recorded, and was shown in Sydney.

Premise

In Italy, a man called Roberto is on his way to meet Grazia. A stranger warns him that the woman will murder him for his money, but if he stays away, the woman will come running. Grazia is the wife of a gangster. He then discovers that the gangster wants to kill him.

Cast

Edward Brayshaw Edward John Brayshaw (18 October 1933 – 28 December 1990) was an Australian actor who worked in Australia and England. Australian career He was a Melbourne-based actor in the 1950s and 1960s and often appeared on television and stage. He lef ...

as Roberto *Maree Tomasetti as Grazia * Frank Gatliff as the gangster *

Syd Conabere Sydney Leicester Conabere (8 July 191815 July 2008) was an Australian actor. He was notable for his work in theatre, film and television drama in a career spanning more than fifty years. In 1962 Conabere won the Logie award for Best Actor, for ...

Ken Goodlet Kenneth Edwin Goodlet (11 October 1921- 15 November 2006) was an Australian actor with extensive credits in film, radio, TV and theatre, known for Ned Kelly (1970), Bluey (1976) and The Long Arm (1970). Select Credits *'' One Morning Near Troo ...

* Edward Howell *Keith Hudson *Georgina Batterham *Kurt Ludescher * Robin Ramsay

Production

The play had previously been filmed as "Strange Meeting", an episode of ''

Armchair Theatre ''Armchair Theatre'' is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by ABC Weekend TV. Its successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968. The Canad ...

'' in the UK. It had also been performed on Australian radio in 1958. It was decided not to require the actors to use Italian accents. Director Christopher Muir said the play was of particular interest because "of the flashbacks, the movements in time and space and the exciting visual possibilities provided by the settings." It was the first contemporary European drama made by the ABC. Part of the play was shot at

Sandringham Sandringham can refer to: Places * Sandringham, New South Wales, Australia * Sandringham, Queensland, Australia * Sandringham, Victoria, Australia **Sandringham railway line **Sandringham railway station **Electoral district of Sandringham * Sand ...

Beach. This scene involved

and Maree Tomasetti.

Reception

The critic for ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' said that:

A neat little idea for suspense, with a wry ironic twist, faltered, through common place writing and unsubtle acting...better writing, direction and acting could have pointed up this dilemma more grippingly, as the story moved forward through its half-dozen episodes—what might happen, what has happened, what does happen; all of it while the young man and the sardonic old scoffer wrangle quarrelsomely in a dingy street. Edward Brayshaw, as the young man, was the production's main weakness. The immaturity of the schoolboyish sarcasm in his anger was matched by the discomfort by which he approached the lyrically flowery love-talk allotted to him by the script: "From now on my life will write only your name," and other such nosegays of verbiage. Marie Tomasetti performed competently as the mystery woman, without suggesting (hat there could be depth and aches and necessities even in such a gangland woman. Frank Gatliff, using a rather big Shakespearean style with a Claude Rains bias, was the sardonic scoffer, but too monotonously in the one mood to be always appreciated as much as he Was at first. The dressing and the 'sets, so cramped in space that the characters could be allowed hardly any significant movement about the scene, were shoddy.

References

External links