A Man About a Dog

A Man About a Dog

First edition
Author	Alec Coppel
Language	English
Genre	Thriller
Publisher	Harrap
Publication date	1947
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print

A Man About a Dog is a 1947 thriller novel by the British-Australian writer Alec Coppel. ^[1] Driven to distraction by his wife's repeated affairs, her husband decides to kidnap her latest lover and commit the perfect murder, only to be thwarted by a dog.

Film adaptation

In 1949 it was adapted into the British film Obsession directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Robert Newton, Sally Gray and Naunton Wayne. Coppel himself wrote the screenplay. ^[2] The film was retitled The Hidden Room when it opened in the United States in 1950.

Play version

Alec Coppel originally wrote the story as a play when he was living in Sydney during World War II. He adapted it into a novel while travelling to London. Coppel titled the play and the novel A Man About a Dog, ^[3] but in the United States, the novel was titled Over the Line.

The play opened in London in April 1946 ^[4] and the novel was published in 1948, although many critics commented that the novel felt similar to a play. ^{[5] [6]}

Another production of the play was staged in London in May 1949 starring Griffith Jones. ^[7] The Daily Telegraph wrote "the plot is neat an ingenious." ^[8] The Observer called it "silly... an indiscreet as well as foolish play; the untidy last act abounded in lines likely to get the wrong kind of laugh - and they did." ^[9]

References

1. Reilly p.352
2. Goble p.94
3. "Sydney's Talking About—". The Sydney Morning Herald . 3 July 1947. p. 14. Retrieved 20 June 2015– via National Library of Australia.
4. "VARIETY". The Truth . Sydney. 3 March 1946. p. 32. Retrieved 20 June 2015– via National Library of Australia.
5. "New Novels of the Week on the Good Earth". The Argus . Melbourne. 3 January 1948. p. 22. Retrieved 20 June 2015– via National Library of Australia.
6. "New Fiction". The Sydney Morning Herald . 24 April 1948. p. 6. Retrieved 20 June 2015– via National Library of Australia.
7. "Production of A Man About A Dog | Theatricalia". theatricalia.com.
8. "Doctor as murderer". The Daily Telegraph. 18 May 1949. p. 5.
9. "At the show". The Observer. 22 May 1949. p. 6.

Bibliography

• Goble, Alan. The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter, 1999.
• Keaney, Michael F. British Film Noir Guide. McFarland, 2008.
• Reilly, John M. Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers. Springer, 2015.