The Blunderer

N.p. Associated British Picture Corporation, 1956. Original ribbon copy typescript three-page reader's summary and report for the 1954 novel by Patricia Highsmith. Made for the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) by ABPC reader R. Groves, dated "February 16th, 1956," with a blue rubber stamp stating "RECEIVED / 22 Feb 1956." Unique.

One of the most powerful media conglomerates in British cinema history, the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) was founded in 1927 when John Maxwell acquired British National Pictures Studios and its Elstree Studios complex, first named British International Pictures (BIP).

The company was renamed ABPC in 1933 after acquiring British Pathé, enabling the company to become a fully vertically integrated studio capable of producing, distributing, and exhibiting its own pictures. Following Maxwell's death in 1940, Warner Bros. purchased a large stake in the company, allowing ABPC to distribute its films into the lucrative US market, as well as taking an active stake in television by launching the Associated British Corporation (ABC). Amid the downturn in the British film industry by the late 1960s, EMI staged an aggressive takeover of ABPC in 1969, and by 1970 the name was officially retired.

At the height of ABPC's success in the 1950s and 1960s, its readers reviewed nearly everything being published, from established authors to those with recent screen success, to emerging new authors, in search of material for film adaptation. The resulting reader's summary and reports are an extraordinary record of mid-twentieth century literature never intended for public consumption and unseen since their composition.

The three-page reader's summary and report, written in the ABPC house style, includes the source material and publication information at the top of the first page, followed by a summary, a list of characters names and descriptions, then a detailed synopsis on the second and third pages, and finally the reader's comments on the material's quality and filmic possibilities. ABPC reader Grove did not recommend the novel, noting it was "well-constructed," but found the plot "unconvincing," the characters "unpleasant," and that the American locale and characters "could not be transferred to another locale."

Highsmith's third published novel was the basis for two film adaptations, the 1963 French film "Le Meurtrier," directed by Claude Autant-Lara, starring Marina Vlady and Robert Hossein, and the 2016 US film, "A Kind of Murder," directed by Andy Goddard, and starring Patrick Wilson and Jessica Biel.

8 x 13 inches, perforation binding. Perforation binding beginning to separate at the bottom, else Near Fine.

[Book #172973]