Crumby
HE technique of the "twist" at the end of a short play has been exploited so often that the writer who sets in motion a stock situation has the greatest chance of surprising the hardened listener if he doesn’t end it "unexpectedly." Take the NZBS Intruder by Night, by J. S. N. Sewell, heard from 1YA, a typical example, to my mind, of a drab script drably presented. A philandering husband is about to, stand for Parliament; his wife, discovering his infidelity, decides to leave him, and shatter his chances; an armed burgler breaks in by night; the husband kills him. What next? The blasé listener thinks that the husband will shoot his wife and blame it on the burglar, but secretly hopes he won’t. He does. What next? She isn’t killed, but wounded, or something, and lives to confute her husband, we predict, seeing the hackneyed "surprise" ending lurch into view. And we are dead right. What a pity that for a change the husband didn’t kill his wife, and get away with it, or that they all
didn’t sprout wings and fly back into the pages of the crumby magazine from
which, they escaped.
J.C.
R.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19510810.2.21.3
Bibliographic details
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 632, 10 August 1951, Page 10
Word count
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199Crumby New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 632, 10 August 1951, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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