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Chance of a Ghost

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Chance of a Ghost
Genrethriller
Based onplay by James Carhartt and Nicholas Winter
Written byJames Carhartt
Directed byRoyston Morley
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
Production
Running time60 minutes
Production companyABC
Original release
NetworkABC
ReleaseFebruary 26, 1958 (1958-02-26) (Sydney, live)[1]
28 March 1958 (1958-03-28) (Melbourne, taped)[2]

Chance of a Ghost is a 1958 Australian television play directed by Royston Morley and written by James Carhartt based on a play by Carhartt and Nicholas Winter. It was based on a radio play.[3] Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[4]

Plot

On New Year's Eve, a party of Americans have a celebrations at a penthouse where 20 years before a musical comedy star had been killed. One member of the party, Serena, becomes interested in the story. She becomes so obsessed she is "possessed" by the spirit of the dead woman and begins to look and behave like her.

Cast

  • Bert Bertram as Friend
  • Jacqueline Knott as Serena
  • Moray Powell
  • Walter Sullivan

Production

The idea for the plot came from a murder committed at the Medical Arts Building in New York. "For years afterwards no one would rent the place and it became known as the haunted penthouse," said James Carhartt who turned it into a play with Nicholas Winter. Carhartt was an American who moved to Sydney and he adapted the play for Australian television.[5] He wrote such plays for Australian radio as Finger Your Neck.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Untitled". ABC Weekly. 26 February 1958. p. 7.
  2. ^ "TV Guide". The Age. 27 March 1958. p. 26.
  3. ^ "Advertising". The Canberra Times. Vol. 31, no. 9, 208. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 29 June 1957. p. 11. Retrieved 20 May 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  5. ^ "Us Author in Australia Adapts Own Play for TV". The Age. 27 March 1958. p. 23.