Mr Smart Guy is a 1941 Australian play by Alec Coppel that was later filmed as Smart Alec (1951).
Coppel wrote the play in England at the beginning of the war.[1] They play had originally been called North Light.[2] Coppel then had it produced when he went to Australia.
Rex Albion wishes to take possession of a particular flat which is opposite that of his rich uncle. He moves in and invites the chief commissioner of police, Sir Randolph Towe, over for tea.
While this happens, the uncle is shot dead while sitting on the balcony... but no bullet is found.[4]
World premiere
ABC Weekly 31 May 1941
The play had its world premiere in Sydney in 1941. It was the first presentation from Whitehall Productions, a new theatrical company established by Coppel and Kathleen Robinson.[5][6] The profits from the season went to the Red Cross.[7]
The Sydney Morning Herald reviewer said those who found I Killed the Count "such a soundly-constructed and Ingenious murder mystery will find much to entertain them in his latest offering, despite its weakness and its lack of sustained interest... The first act drags, and the second loses its necessary punch and development of tension because its course of drama is too often impeded by comic interference."[10]
The Daily Telegraph called it "delightful entertainment."[11]
The Bulletin called it "well cast and acted... a fairly good" detective mystery although "What mars it is the padding in the second act and the third act’s revelation of both a trick killing and a whacking coincidence : a bit too thick, so that the play as a whole becomes a bit too thin. Without any pretences to originality—a comic porter ; the old school tie ; clashes between the bull-roaring detective-inspector and the footling police commissioner ; the comic foreigner appearing as the comic refugee—the byplay that makes the bulk of the play is cheerfully done and gets its full quota of laughs. The murder situation is original."[12]
The play was revived at the Minerva in August 1941 for a three-week run with Ron Randell in the lead role and Muriel Steinbeck in the lone female part.[14]
The Sydney Morning Herald theatre critic said Randell "failed to explore the subtle aspects of the playwright's study of a criminal exhibitionist."[15]
Radio adaptation
The play was performed on radio on the ABC in May 1941.[16][3]
Max Afford did the adaptation and the original cast reprised their roles.[17]
The play was performed on radio in Australia again in 1945.[18]
The play also inspired a song by Sefton Daly which was recorded by Coppel's then-fiancée Myra.[19]
English production: Strange as It May Seem
The play was produced in England in 1947 under the title Strange as it May Seem.[20][21]
The Derby Evening Telegraph called it "an excellent play".[22]
Radio production
The play was adapted for Australian radio under this title in 1949.[23]
^"MORE STAGE PLAYS". The Age. No. 26, 852. Victoria, Australia. 10 May 1941. p. 12. Retrieved 22 October 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
^ ab"Mr Smart Guy on the air", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, 36 (21), Sydney: Wireless Press, May 24, 1941, retrieved 1 November 2023 – via Trove
^"MR SMART GUY". Truth. No. 2679. Sydney. 11 May 1941. p. 32. Retrieved 22 October 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
^"Smart guy well done". The Daily Telegraph. Vol. II, no. 26. New South Wales, Australia. 11 May 1941. p. 5. Retrieved 26 September 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
^"Sundry Shows", The Bulletin, 62 (3196), Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 14 May 1941, retrieved 1 November 2023 – via Trove
^"Coppel's Success". The Sun. No. 11, 491 (LATE FINAL EXTRA ed.). Sydney. 21 November 1946. p. 9. Retrieved 22 October 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
