By Candlelight

Summary

1949 BBC live studio production of Harry Graham’s version of Siegfried Geyer’s Viennese comedy By Candlelight.

Theatre play

By Candlelight by Siegfried Geyer (1883-1945) [more information]

Play synopsis

'A comedy which relates how Prince Rudolf’s valet falls in love with a pretty voice over the telephone, invites his charmer to his master’s first floor apartment, and then, naturally, puts off his livery and becomes a Prince - all this is related with an arid, wiry wit that is capital entertainment. Particularly when Prince Rudolf returns unexpectedly in person and sardonically accepts the situation by donning his valet’s livery - particularly then are the lines neatly turned and the situations nicely groomed in the acting. Your sympathies are very much with the ambitious valet who confesses that his previous love affairs have been confined to "cooks and maids, with the possibility of a governess at Christmas.'

Production history

The Samuel French acting edition of Harry Geyer’s English adaptation was published in 1930.

Date of transmission

Sunday 27 November 1949

Time

8.30-10.15pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Harold Clayton

Adapted for the Stage by

Harry Graham

Playwright

Siegfried Geyer (1883-1945)

Sets / Settings

Barry Learoyd

Cast

Peter Butterworth	Linder
Georgina Cookson	Lulu Keck
Robert Flemyng	Bastien
Christine Lindsay	Countess von Baltin
Clive Morton	Baron Egon von Felsen
Luise Rainer	Elizabeth
Anthony Shaw	Count von Baltin
Donald Tandy	Joseph

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 8.30pm on Thursday 1 December 1949.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

class issues / differences; comedy; royalty

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 25 November 1949 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 46, article by Lionel Hale, ‘Fairy Tale from the Vienna Woods’, p. 45; profile of Luise Rainer by John Swift, p. 44