AustLit

The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection contains the following character notes (excluding regular characters):

'BEN DAVIS. A small, repressed man in his early 40s. He dresses smartly, and in fact gives the impression that he is neurotically obsessional about personal tidiness, hygiene. All his life he has been dominated by his mother - but in recent years the enormous strain of repressing normal instincts has begun to tell. He is hesitant, tortured by indecision, jumpy. His demeanor is an uneasy blend of hostility and self-apology. Ben's relationship with his mother is the key to his character. He is, apparently, cowed and quiet - but just beneath the surface there burns a resentment of her smothering dominance. This resentment (channeled at first into attacks on girls) comes into the open in the final scene when, infuriated by her selfishness, he attacks the mother herself.

'MRS DAVIS. Ben's mother. A widow, about 65. A domineering, almost masculine type, with an overlay of "kindly" femininity. She would, doubtless, be president of the local bowling club. Confusing cause with effect, she doubts her son's ability to manage his own affairs. She doesn't realise that her own smothering role of forbidder-of-sex has been the cause of his troubles. Her relationship with Ben is cloying; her "love", from the start, hard to believe in. She plainly values him as a possession - almost as a human doll - rather than as a person.

'JANET STEPHENS. Group patient. A sweet-natured, but quiet and diffident girl. She's seeing the psychiatrist about her depressions. She is very warm and empathetic - especially towards Ben, whose miseries she seems, to some degree, to understand. She has no romantic interest in Ben (no girl would) but she offers him wholehearted help, as she would any unfortunate.

'DR. GEORGE COUSINS. Psychiatrist. A cool, detached analyst of the Freudian school. In therapeutic sessions, he allows his patients to do the talking - only offering guidance when absolutely necessary, in a quiet voice uncoloured by emotion. This, anyway, is how we first see Cousins. But gradually, as his doubts about Ben grow deeper, he loses some of his assurance, becomes rather more of a self questioner.

'SALLY COUSINS. Doctor Cousins' wife. About 30. A sophisticated dresser, very pretty, self-assured and in love with her husband. She's a fine arts graduate, met and married Cousins while both were students. As a doctor's wife she's learned to live with the unexpected, but she shares her husband's fears about Hill. She has a feminine radar that detects trouble from a distance, and she senses, from the first phone call, that something is very wrong.

'TOM HILL. Merchant seaman. An Englishman, about 30, Yorkshire if possible but Cockney would be OK. A defiant, shifty tough, who's been in constant trouble with police. He knows his way around police stations, and gives the impression, under questioning, that he's playing a game at which he is long-practised. But, though shrewd, he's not, fundamentally, very intelligent - and becomes confused when the detectives drive him into a logical corner. Lying comes so naturally to this man that few of his statements (even if they are true) have the ring of truth.

'EMILY WYKEHAM. Group patient. A rather drear, middle-aged housewife, who is seeing Dr. Cousins about her nervous headaches. From her quietly naggy, negative behaviour she gives the impression that her family probably suffer more than she does.

'PAUL RANDALL. A student, about 19. Dresses in jacket and jeans - but not too way out. He is seeing Cousins because of inability to concentrate on his studies. He's exaggeratedly aggressive - ready to take offence at anything. Well-spoken, son of a North Balwyn businessman.

'ROWER. Well-educated. Old Grammarian type. Stuffy, square, but humane - and shocked to come into contact with something (the murder) so remote from his experience. Age about 35.

'SHOP OWNER. Conservatively but expensively-dressed with a rather extravagant manner. He almost sends himself up - gives the impression that he observes his own behaviour with detached cynicism.

'UNIFORMED POLICEMAN. Gives chase to Tom Hill for traffic offence.

'MR CARSON. Ben's boss. A large, rather overbearing man about 45. He holds Ben in very low regard, but, creditably, does try hard to overcome his dislike and show kindness.

'PROFESSOR TODD. Retired academic, about 70. Extremely well-spoken, still bright and youthful in demeanor. He was Dr. Cousins' mentor, and thinks highly of him.

'LANDLADY. About 55. A rough, faintly slatternly, but reasonably kindly woman. She gives the impression that she wouldn't put up with nonsense from anyone, either her tenants or the police.'