The Hollow: Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) reader's report, assessing the novel's potential for film adaptation.

[CHRISTIE, Agatha (1890-1976)] Anon.

N.p. [London: Elstree Studios/ABPC], 1951. [Literary and cinematic critique] Elstree Studios' report on the first stage adaptation of the Hercule Poirot detective novel The Hollow. 3pp., typed report on rectos only, reader's delivery stamp to first page. Together with a first edition of the play/acting edition (Samuel French, 1952). Perforations down left edge from office binding. Very well preserved. Book shows some handling and use; very good. Agatha Christie's The Hollow was published in 1946, and the play on which it is based, produced by Peter Saunders, opened at the Arts Theatre in Cambridge on 10 February 1951. After an eight-week tour, the play opened at the Fortune Theatre in London on 7 June 1951 to an enthusiastic press response, and was attended by Queen Mary. The report states 'this is quite an effective and amusing play of the usual Agatha Christie ingenuity. [...] [T]he play does not exactly invite filming - there is too little action and too much talk.' It transferred to the Ambassadors Theatre on 8 October 1951 and ran for 376 performances. Christie was so pleased with Saunders' production that she took him to lunch just after Christmas 1951 and gave him a brown paper package. Inside it was the script for a new play she had just written based on a 1947 radio play broadcast for Queen Mary's birthday, entitled The Mousetrap. This became the longest running play in the world, reaching its 30,000th performance on 19 March 2025. Saunders was knighted in 1982. Item #74493

Price: £895.00