Blackmail; a play in three acts

(printed wraps) [modest handling wear, bumping to lower right corner TO BE WRITTEN. This is presumably the first printing of the full playscript of this crime-suspense-melodrama, which made only a modest splash when first produced on the London stage in 1928 (despite its sensational American leading lady, the irrepressible Tallulah Bankhead), but became a very big deal indeed when it was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock as the first all-talking film to be produced in England, which was a huge hit. It's no exaggeration to say that it made Bennett's career, due to the fact that it hooked him up with Hitchcock, an association that continued throughout the 1930s, with Bennett earning full or partial writing credit for several of Hitchcock's best films of the period (including THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, THE 39 STEPS and SABOTAGE). This string of successes ultimately helped establish him in Hollywood as well, although his American career, while productive (and including one more Hitchcock collaboration, on FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT), was relatively lackluster. A nondescript-looking little booklet, it nonetheless represents the first (and perhaps only) publication of the full playscript (a novelization was released at the time of the film's initial release), and is exceedingly scarce.

Product Info

Publisher: Rich & Cowan Ltd.

Year: [1934]

Type: Used

Binding: Softcover

Seller Info

ReadInk

Address: 2261 West 21st St. Los Angeles, California

Website: https://www.readinkbooks.com

Country: United States