The Unexpected Guest

Full Length Play / Melodrama(Mystery/Thriller) / More than 120 minutes
Samuel French, London, 1958

Presented by Peter Saunders at the Duchess Theatre, London, on 12th August 1958, with the following cast of characters: (in the order of their appearance)

RICHARD WARWICKPhilip Newman
LAURA WARWICKRenee Asherson
MICHAEL STARKWEDDERNigel Stock
MISS BENNETTWinifred Oughton
JAN WARWICKChristopher Sandford
MRS WARWICKViolet Farebrother
HENRY ANGELLPaul Curran
SERGEANT CADWALLADERTenniel Evans
INSPECTOR THOMASMichael Golden
JULIAN FARRARRoy Purcell

Directed by Hubert Gregg

SYNOPSIS OF SCENES

The action of the play takes place in Richard Warwick's study in South Wales near the Bristol Channel

ACT I
SCENE 1 - Richard Warwick's study. About 11.30 p.m. in November.
SCENE 2 - The same. The following morning about 11 a.m.
ACT II
SCENE - The same. Late afternoon the same day.

Films & TV

Unexpected Guest, W.Germany, 1957
TV drama list
Dhund, India, 1973
Film list
L'ospite inatteso, IT, 1980
TV drama list
KIRIFURI-sanso Satsujin-jiken, YTV/JP, 1980
TV drama list
Fuji-sanroku Satsujin-jiken, BSJapan/JP, 2001
TV drama list

The Unexpected Guest (Novelize)

adapted as a novel by Charles Osborne, HarperCollins, 1999

When a stranger runs his car into a ditch in dense fog in South Wales, near the coast, and makes his way to an isolated house, he discovers a woman standing over the dead body of her wheelchair-bound husband, gun in her hand. She admits to murder, and the unexpected guest offers to help her concoct a cover story.
But is it possible that Laura Warwick did not commit the murder after all? If so, who is she shielding? The victim's retarded young half-brother or his dying matriarchal mother? Laura's lover? Perhaps the father of the little boy killed in an accident for which Warwick was responsible? The house seems full of possible suspects...

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