Light Me a Lucifer

Light Me a Lucifer is a 1962 Australian television comedy film which aired on ABC.[4][5] Written by John O'Grady, it starred Frank Thring as the devil, along with Wyn Roberts, Edward Howell, Joan Harris, Ken Goodlet and Lynne Flanagan. It was produced in Melbourne.[6]

Light Me a Lucifer
The Age 19 Dec 1962
Written byJohn O'Grady
Directed byWilliam Sterling
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
Production
Running time75 mins
Production companyABC
Release
Original networkABC
Original release19 December 1962 (1962-12-19) (Melbourne)[1]
26 December 1962 (1962-12-26) (Sydney)[2][3]

Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[7]

Despite having aired in an era where wiping was common, the TV film still exists.[8][9]

Plot

In Hell, Satan (Frank Thring) reproaches his Australian agent, Stoker (Edward Howell) for not bringing enough Australians to Hell. Stoker persuades Satan to come to Sydney with his wife Lilith (Lynne Flanagan) to study the situation.

In Australia, married couple Doris and Harry have a 19-year-old daughter Barbara and a neighbor Bill.

Satan arrives in an industrial suburb as Stoker's boss, Nick Devlin.

The Devil decides to give up being the Devil and becomes an Australian instead.

Cast

Production

The production was announced in September 1962.[11]

William Sterling cast according to type.[12] O'Grady attended rehearsals and made some minor cuts and dialogue re-working.[13] Cas Van Puffen did the design.[14]

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald TV critic called it a "brilliant Melbourne production" which "gave a candid picture of the unsubtle and rough-diamond Aussie, but was in itself subtle and refined in all the details of manner, pronunciation and setting which make up the Australian in-the-round. The main points in this witty study of Australiana were never rammed home they came up naturally in the dialogue" and "the cast portrayed them to perfection."[15]

The Sunday Herald called it "neither a good play nor a bad play but something in between" in which O'Grady "has a sure and accurate ear for the Australian way of speech... but jammed into 75 minutes of television it wasn't enough to bolster a basically weak comedy."[16]

The Bulletin said it "could become a fairly good television play, but not for English ears. The audio side of it would be a torment for them. It was to mine, too, in places... it tried to stretch a thin situation to 75 minutes, which was at least 15 minutes too long for a small joke."[17]

The Age TV critic said it "was not the success it might have been had the author, I imagine, had more time to study television techniques. Ten minutes of talk and hardly any action stalled the play... and, for me, it never got going again."[18]

References
  1. "Untitled". The Age. 13 December 1962. p. 11.
  2. "THIS WEEK ON ABC-3". The Canberra Times. Vol. 37, no. 10. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 24 December 1962. p. 12. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  3. "Satan in Sydney". Sydney Morning Herald. 24 December 1962. p. 7.
  4. "Luficer in Sydney". Sydney Morning Herald. 24 December 1962. p. 8.
  5. Vagg, Stephen (5 February 2022). "Forgotten Australian Television Plays: Light Me a Lucifer". Filmink.
  6. "Sin in the Suburbs". TV Times. 28 March 1963. p. 16.
  7. Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  8. Light Me a Lucifer at National Film and Sound Archive
  9. Light Me a Lucifer script at National Film and Sound Archive
  10. "LECTURES WITH MORNING CUPPA". The Australian Women's Weekly. Vol. 30, no. [?]. Australia. 9 January 1963. p. 13. Retrieved 18 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. "Teletopics". The Age. 13 September 1962. p. 14.
  12. "The "Mob" Cast in Character". The Age. 13 December 1962. p. 12.
  13. "Nino Culotta on TV Trial". The Age. 13 December 1962. p. 11.
  14. "TV Guide". The Age. 13 December 1962. p. 35.
  15. "Luficer on ABC". Sydney Morning Herald. 27 December 1962. p. 4.
  16. Marshall, Val (30 December 1962). "TV Merry Go round". Sun Herald. p. 42.
  17. "Bar The Shouting". The Bulletin. 5 January 1963. p. 34.
  18. "Pale Lucifer". The Age. 27 December 1962. p. 17.
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