The Gioconda Smile
The Age 30 Oct 1963
Based onshort story by Aldous Huxley
Written byNorman Gear
Directed byPatrick Barton
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
Production
Running time75 mins[1]
Production companyABC
Original release
Release30 October 1963 (1963-10-30) (Melbourne)[2]
6 November 1963 (1963-11-06) (Sydney)[3]

The Gioconda Smile is a 1964 Australian television play based on a play by Aldous Huxley (which had originally been written as a short story). It was filmed in Melbourne.[4][5]

Plot

Henry Hutton is a wealthy man who lives in an English country house with his crippled wife, Emily, who is looked after by Nurse Braddock. Their neighbour is Janet Spence, an unmarried woman who looks after her crippled father and is in love with Henry. When Emily dies, Janet declares her love, but Henry is going to marry a younger woman. Then Nurse Braddock thinks the death might not be natural and demands an autopsy.

Cast

  • Alexander Hay as Henry Hutton
  • Elizabeth Wing as Janet Spence
  • Fay Kelton as Doris
  • Williams Lloyd as Dr Libbard
  • Roma Johnston as Nurse Braddock
  • Kevin Colebrook
  • Joan Letch
  • Olga Tennison

Production

The play began as a short story which had been turned into a 1948 stage play. This was then adapted into a TV play.[6]

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald TV critic thought that the adaptation had "little left of this story' s original quality... the action and sets were curiously stiff and limited by TV standards, although some Hitchcock horror close-ups and the background music of a hysterical harpsichord added to its pretensions as a "whodunnit.""[7]

References

  1. ↑ "THIS WEEK ON ABC-3". The Canberra Times. Vol. 38, no. 10, 684. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 4 November 1963. p. 12. Retrieved 19 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ "TV Guide". The Age. 24 October 1963. p. 33.
  3. ↑ "Huxley Play Selected". Sydney Morning Herald. 28 October 1963. p. 22.
  4. ↑ "Psychological Drama By Huxley". The Canberra Times. Vol. 38, no. 10, 733. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 1 January 1964. p. 11. Retrieved 19 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  6. ↑ "Melbourne Produces the Giaconda Smile". The Age. 24 October 1963. p. 25.
  7. ↑ "Giaconda Smile on ABN 2". Sydney Morning Herald. 2 January 1964. p. 5.


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