Emlyn Williams

Truly.

The earliest surviving audio of a Saturday Night Theatre broadcast that archivists actually possess today is a January 1945 production of Emlyn Williams' The Corn Is Green.

And the vast majority of the surviving catalog only exists because of fortunate accidents, really.

Like what kind of accidents?

Our play this evening, Night Must Fall, is one of the best of this kind.

Emlyn Williams is the rare type of actor who doesn't wait around for some dramatist to bring him a play.

If he needs a play, he can write it himself, and thus it was that he wrote Night Must Fall so that he could be a particularly creepy, thoroughly enjoyable villain.

And now we are passing Mr. Williams's role to another actor of great versatility and intelligence, Alfred Drake.

You wait.

[instrumental music]

You have just heard the Best Plays production of Night Must Fall by Emlyn Williams, starring Alfred Drake and Mary Boland, with Carmen Matthews.

And here again is your host, drama critic John Chapman.

Often broke, he sometimes slept in Central Park and did occasional work as a barker at the 1939 World's Fair, as a tour guide at Radio City Music Hall, and he also tried his hand at modelling.

His stage career began in 1941 in San Francisco, and he made his Broadway debut a year later as the lead in a play called The Morning Star by the playwright Emlyn Williams.

Exempted from military service due to a back injury suffered during his acting training, he became a very in-demand actor during World War II, performing in a total of 50 plays, including three Broadway productions, five road tours, and also summer theatre.

He made his big-screen debut in 1944 in Days of Glory, directed by Jacques Tourneur, but rather than enter the studio system, he decided to remain freelance and signed non-exclusive contracts with the four major studios.

I was gonna say, which version? [laughs]

This is directed by Irving Rapper, written by Casey Robinson and Frank Cavett, from the play, of course, by Emlyn Williams, who also brought us Night Must Fall-

Yeah

... 1937, and many other stories.

Well, so the question becomes, will Morgan win the scholarship, which could really not only change his life, but the lives of the people in the village that see him as this beacon of hope?

Yeah.

The character of Morgan Evans is actually based on writer Emlyn Williams' life, along with the character of Miss Moffat, who was inspired by Williams' beloved teacher, Sarah Grace Cook.

She recognized in Williams his extraordinary ability.