The Bad Man

Summary

1947 BBC live studio production of Porter Emerson Browne’s Broadway comedy The Bad Man which was set in the American west.

Theatre play

The Bad Man by Porter Emerson Browne [more information]

Play synopsis

Comedy. The scene is a ranch in the American west in the final hours before a mortgage is due on the property. There is no money to settle the account, and waiting for the bill to fall due is a group of characters, at least two of which suspect there is oil on the land. Cue the arrival of the Mexican bandit Pancho Lopez...

Production history

First performed on 30 August 1920 at the Comedy Theatre on Broadway. The play was adapted as three films in 1923, 1930 and 1941.

Date of transmission

Tuesday 24 June 1947

Time

8.30-10.00

Channel

BBC Television

Credits

Producer

Eric Fawcett

Playwright

Porter Emerson Browne

Sets / Settings

James Bould

Cast

Robert Ayres	Gilbert Jones
Leo de Pokorny	Alvarada
Charles Farrell	Red Giddings
Zena Foster	Angela Hardy
Claude Frederic	Venustiano
Charles Irwin	Henry Smith
Carla Lehmann	Lucia Pell
Richard Molinas	Pancho Lopez
Rudolph Offenbach	Pedro
Charles Rolfe	Jasper Hardy
Hal Thompson	Bradley
Ben Williams	Morgan Pell

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 3.00pm on Friday 27 June 1947.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

America, as theme or setting; American drama; comedy

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 20 June 1947 (Magazine)

Linking notes

illustrated article by John Swift, ‘The Philosophy of Panchio Lopez’, p.30; listing, p. 31