Alibi (play) - Reception of London Production

Reception of London Production

The review in The Times issue of May 16, 1928 began, "Another French detective! We islanders might begin to feel jealous, if we did not remember what a start Poe and Gaboriau gave our neighbours". The review questioned, "whether you can make a play out of theoretical analysis. The old melodramas based themselves upon passion: then - shall we say with William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes and Sir Gerald du Maurier's Raffles? - personality usurped its place. A pure problem has not the dramatic force of either. If we do not weary of Poirot shooting questions to left and right, Poirot with uplifted finger expounding his views to a half-circle of listeners, it is because Mr. Charles Laughton, with a little help from the text, makes a personality out of the fat and sentimental little ratiocinator. His Poirot is an admirable comedy sketch, convincingly gallic." The review stated that Lady Tree had no scope within the part given to her to invest the part of Mrs. Ackroyd with personality but "competence was all that was demanded from her, and from the rest of the cast, and it was generally forthcoming. One actor singled out for praise was Henry Daniell for his "imperturbably natural butler" however his "mystery...was not...analysed enough".

Whilst the reviewer in The Guardian of May 16, 1928 seemed to feel that the play itself showed no great originality, he was impressed with Laughton, saying "we can hardly resist the play despite its wheezy start and inability to accelerate, because M. Poirot is presented in the flesh by Mr. Charles Laughton, who, unlike much youth of brilliant hopes, continues to perform almost more than he so lavishly promised.” The reviewer concluded, "M. Poirot sifts the alibis of the assembled company, finds a scent and hunts it close. None of the other characters appears to have any more personality than is necessary for a human fragment of the puzzle. It is hardly needed. Mr. Laughton is there, and he cannot fail to entertain, whether he is in the supreme frenzy of vigilance, or relaxing over the oldest of old brandies, or making a tender gesture to a charming young lady who is as English as a rose and not, it seems, more talkative or intellectual. Scarcely the wife for Poirot, but let us not be fussy and make difficulties. Mr. Laughton is an important arrival in Crookery Nook, yet we trust he will not stay there too long. We have other uses for such an actor than to brood over the fingermarks on the dagger and discover why the parlourmaid was in the garden at the moment of the crime.”

The review in The Observer of May 20, 1928 was laudatory about the performances of J.H. Roberts and Charles Laughton. About Roberts, the reviewer said, "If ever a man succeeded by his performance in throwing an audience of determined sleuths off the scent, Mr. Roberts threw those members of the first-night audience who had not read Mrs. Christie's clever novel off it." About Laughton, the reviewer said, "Let me not be afraid to use superlatives" and then proceeded to detail why he held the view he did, concluding, "He seizes the stage and firmly controls the audience. He fills me with a sense of his power, and makes me intensely aware of him from the moment he comes on to the stage until the moment he leaves it. He is an actor."
On the play in general, the reviewer did say it, "begins badly but steadily improves; the first two scenes, which are dull and slow, might be telescoped. Mr. Morton, indeed, had a difficult job to perform in dramatising the novel, for the cleverness of Mrs. Christie's story lies not so much in the plot as in the fact that it is told by the murderer. Mr. Laughton, however, added so much to the part of Poirot that they play seemed far bigger than it is." This reviewer, unlike the others quoted, did state that the rest of the cast was also "excellent".

The Scotsman of May 16, 1928 said, "It is a tribute to Mr Michael Morton…that during the play…one completely ignored the many weaknesses in the chain of evidence that bought the guilt home to the murderer of Sir Roger Ackroyd. The audience watched the tangled skein unravelled by the eminent French detective, M. Hercule Poirot, much in the way that an audience watches an illusionist, except that instead of the quickness of the hand deceiving the eye, the speciousness of the detective's reasoning deceived the senses. When the guilt was brought home to the least suspected person, the audience could only gasp. But the incredulity came after the theatre was left. These crime mystery plays are all much one pattern but it must be conceded that Alibi...is one of the best of its kind. It is superbly acted, the performance of Mr Charles Laughton being particularly good. Mr Laughton has a genius for getting into the 'skin' of a part."

The Daily Mirror of May 16, 1928 said of Charles Laughton's performance that, "He has that force of personality which invests his every word or movement with interest. He imparts too, a sense of reality and impending drama, to the process of cross-examining various persons. Sir Gerald du Maurier has produced the piece according to that modern fashion in which people move quietly, behave credibly and often sit with their backs to the audience when speaking."