All My Sons

Summary

Granada production for ITV of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, starring the American Albert Dekker as Joe Keller.

Theatre play

All My Sons by Arthur Miller [more information]

Play synopsis

'Joe Keller, is an apparently successful businessman who made his fortune by selling airplane parts to the army during World War Two. Not wanting to slow business he sent out a batch that he knew to be defective, and twenty-one pilots died as a result. Keller was arrested and tried, but lied, saying that the parts went out without his knowledge and his partner, Steve Deever, was the one who had covered it up. Deever is sent to jail and Keller is exonerated. One of his sons, Larry, is missing in action, but the mother, Kate, insists that their son is still alive, though we later learn that he committed suicide on learning of his father’s arrest. When their other son, Chris, asks Larry’s old girlfriend (who happens to be Deever’s daughter, Ann) to marry him, it causes tension, which results in Keller’s deceit coming out. Chris fought during the war and watched many of his peers die, so on discovering his father’s guilt he totally rejects him. On discovering why Larry died, Keller finally accepts his responsibility for the crime and kills himself’ (http://www.ibiblio.org/miller/works.html, accessed 18 January 2013).

Production history

All My Sons received its American and British stage premieres in 1947 and 1948 respectively.

Date of transmission

Wednesday 14 May 1958

Series

Play of the Week

Channel

ITV

Production company

Granada Television (1956-)

Credits

Director

Cliff Owen

Producer

Cliff Owen

Playwright

Arthur Miller

Cast

Albert Dekker	Joe Keller
Betta St John
John Sullivan

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

American drama; Second World War, as theme or setting; suicide

Print sources

Title

Arthur Miller on the small screen 2: Granada productions in the late 1950s (Blog article)

Author/creator

Amanda Wrigley (Author)

Reference

http://screenplaystv.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/arthur-miller-2-granada-late-1950s, published 10 May 2013

Title

Plays for the Millions: The First 75. A Cross Index of Granada TV Play Productions (Book)

Reference

Published by Granada TV Network, 1960

Title

Study of Wartime Profiteering: Arthur Miller Play on Independent Television (Newspaper review)

Reference

The Times, 15 May 1958, p. 5