Traveller Without Luggage
| Traveller Without Luggage | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Henri Safran |
| Written by | George F. Kerr |
| Based on | the play Le Voyageur sans bagage by Jean Anouilh |
| Starring | Ric Hutton |
| Distributed by | ABC |
|
Release date
|
1961 |
|
Running time
|
70 mins |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
Traveller Without Luggage is a 1961 Australian TV movie. It was the first English language work from director Henri Safran.
A man (Ric Hutton) has been in an asylum for 16 years suffering from loss of memory. He is without the memories that the normal person carries with him as "luggage." On the advice of the asylum psychiatrist, he sets out to find his past and spends 24 hours with a family who believe he is their lost son. He discovers he was a seducer, a wife-stealer, and generally vile character, and decides to ditch his old self, adopt a new personality and a new family.
The play had been performed at the Sydney University Drama Society in June 1960.
The critic from the Sydney Morning Herald wrote that the production was marked by:
Competence rather than exciting path-finding... In his play Anouilh gradually exposes the subcutaneous shallowncss of a family seeking to reclaim a lost member, an amnesia victim. In the case of the young man—who, while recognising his family, turns to the safety of his particular illness lo avoid them — Anouilh has written a demanding role; lithe assurance and shouted doubt, to name but two strong moods, replace assured rhetoric. Allowing for a slow start, which produced some bored posturing, Ric Hutton was able to achieve some fine variation in tone in this central part. His impassioned duologue with his would-be mother (Enid Lorimer) formed a powerful episode in tie enrly exploratory moments of the play; and Miss Lorimer was both possessive and dignified throughout. Clarissa Kaye and Rhod Walker made an ordinary brother and sister-in-law to they oung man: even in her most vehement moments Miss Kaye could never escape an air of suave recitation. Patricia Kerr, cultured in tone and neat of coiffure, looked and sounded more like a receptionist than a faintly naughty maid. Safran's graceful production included good camera work; Desmonde Downing_'s sets rank with the best one has seen in A.B.C. productions; and George Kerr's adaptation of the play, while it reduced many interesting subsidiary threads, nevertheless fairly happily retained the essence of the writing.
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