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The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
Directed by Delbert Mann
Produced by Michael Garrison
Written by William Inge (play)
Harriet Frank Jr.
Irving Ravetch
Starring Robert Preston
Dorothy McGuire
Release date(s) September 22, 1960
Running time 124 minutes
Country  United States
Language English

The Dark at the Top of the Stairs is a 1957 play by William Inge about family conflicts during the early 1920s in a small town near Oklahoma City.

The play, directed by Elia Kazan, opened December 5, 1957, at New York's Music Box Theatre and ran for a total of 468 performances, closing on January 17, 1959. The drama was reworked by Inge from his earlier play, Farther Off from Heaven, first staged in 1947 at Margo Jones' Theatre '47 in Dallas, Texas.

The opening night cast of The Dark at the Top of the Stairs: Eileen Heckart, Pat Hingle, Teresa Wright, Evans Evans, Timmy Everett, Frank Overton, Anthony Ray, Carl Reindel, Judith Robinson, Charles Saari and Jonathan Shawn. It was nominated for five Tony Awards: Best Play, Best Featured Actor (Pat Hingle), Best Featured Actress (Eileen Heckart), Best Scenic Design (Ben Edwards), Best Director (Elia Kazan) and won Best Play. Timmy Everett won the Theatre World Award.

Film

Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch adapted Inge's play into a 1960 film with Dorothy McGuire, Robert Preston, Shirley Knight, Eve Arden, Lee Kinsolving and Angela Lansbury.

Variety gave the film, directed by Delbert Mann, a favorable review, noting that it was "well cast and persuasively acted".1 The drama centers on Reuben Flood (Robert Preston), who loses his salesman job. While searching for a new job, he must deal with his wife, Cora (Dorothy McGuire), who shuns intimacy and mistakes his joblessness for stinginess, his shy daughter (Shirley Knight) who prepares for her first dance and his pre-teen son who runs to his mama instead of dealing with bullies. He tries to comfort himself with childhood friend Mavis Pruitt (Angela Lansbury), whom the town rumor mill believes is a loose woman. In addition to the themes of modernization (i.e., not enough demand for horse harness, and the impending arrival of the oil industry), Inge's characters all face one set of demons or another on their way to the film's conclusion.

Shirley Knight received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

References

  1. ^ Variety, January 1, 1960.

External links


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