{{Short description|Australian writer (1907–1972)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=October 2011}} '''Alec Coppel''' (17 September 1907 – 22 January 1972) was an Australian-born screenwriter, novelist and playwright. He spent the majority of his career in London and Hollywood, specialising in light thrillers, mysteries and sex comedies. He is best known for the films ''Vertigo'' (1958), ''The Captain's Paradise'' (1953), ''Mr Denning Drives North'' (1951) and ''Obsession'' (1949), and the plays ''I Killed the Count'' and ''The Gazebo''.
==Biography== ===Early life=== Coppel was born in Melbourne and attended Wesley College. He moved to England in the 1920s to study medicine at Cambridge University, but dropped out before graduating and went to work in advertising, writing in his spare time. Coppel's first stage plays were ''Short Circuit'' (1935) and ''The Stars Foretell'' (1936).
===''I Killed the Count''=== His first big success was his play ''I Killed the Count'' (1937), which had a successful run in the West End. Coppel turned it into a novel (1939), screenplay and radio play. It also led to him receiving screenwriting offers.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146583034 |title=HE KILLED THE COUNT!—and became a Famous Playwright!. |newspaper=Table Talk |location=Melbourne |date=7 September 1939 |access-date=19 February 2015 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23055966 |title=Belated £3,000 for playwright. |newspaper=The Argus |location=Melbourne |date=3 August 1951 |access-date=19 February 2015 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
His script credits include ''Over the Moon'' (1939), the film version of ''I Killed the Count'' (1939), and ''Just like a Woman'' (1939). Coppel contributed to the book of a revue, ''Let's Pretend'' (1940), and wrote a new play, ''Believe It or Not'' (1940).
===Return to Australia=== Coppel returned to Australia in 1940 for his "health".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247611898 |title=Across the Stage |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |volume=I |issue=47 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=6 October 1940 |access-date=22 March 2019 |page=23 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{Citation | title=The bulletin | publication-date=1880 | publisher=John Haynes and J.F. Archibald | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-592224520 | access-date=22 March 2019 }}</ref> While there he and Kathleen Mary Robinson founded Whitehall Productions, operating out of the Minerva Theatre in Kings Cross.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/organisation/8191|title=AusStage|website=www.ausstage.edu.au|access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref><ref name=hertoo>{{Citation |last=Lees |first=Jennie |title=Kathleen Mary Robinson (1901–1983) |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/robinson-kathleen-mary-15911 |access-date=2024-08-04 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}</ref>
The first play they presented there was the world premiere of Coppel's ''Mr Smart Guy'' (1941). The huge theatre was seldom full but they staged two plays every night.<ref name=hertoo/> Coppel also wrote for radio and contributed to the script of ''Smithy'' (1946), one of the few feature films made in Australia during this time.<ref name="smithy">{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|date=12 October 2025|access-date=12 October 2025|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-films-smithy/|title=Forgotten Australian Films: Smithy}}</ref>
===Return to London=== Coppel moved back to London in 1944 after he and Robinson disagreed. He was replaced by Roland Walton.<ref name=hertoo/> Coppel continued to alternate between novels, plays and screenplays.
His plays included ''My Friend Lester'' (1947) and ''A Man About a Dog'' (1949). His scripts included ''Brass Monkey'' (1948), ''Woman Hater'' (1948), ''Obsession'' (1949) (based on ''A Man About a Dog''), ''Two on the Tiles'' (1951), and ''Smart Alec'' (1951) (based on ''Mr Smart Guy'').
Coppel was hired to rewrite some scenes on ''No Highway in the Sky'' (1951) starring James Stewart and wrote ''Mr. Denning Drives North'' (1951) based on his own novel.
He became the first Australian to receive an Academy Award nomination for screenwriting with ''The Captain's Paradise'', which was nominated for Best Story in 1953. That year he published a novel ''The Last Parable'' (1953).
Coppel was used by Warwick Pictures on ''Hell Below Zero'' (1954) and ''The Black Knight'' (1954); like ''No Highway'' and ''Captain's Paradise'' they were British films with American stars and Coppel wanted to work in Hollywood.<ref name="warwick">{{cite magazine|date=8 December 2025|access-date=8 December 2025|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-film-moguls-cubby-broccoli-and-irving-allen/|title=Forgotten British Film Moguls: Cubby Broccoli and Irving Allen}}</ref>
===Move to Hollywood=== Coppel moved to Los Angeles in 1954, where he wrote a number of scripts. He did some uncredited work on ''To Catch a Thief'' (1955) and did the thriller ''Appointment with a Shadow'' (1957). With Samuel A. Taylor, Coppel supplied the screenplay for ''Vertigo'' (1958), based on the Boileau-Narcejac novel ''D'entre les morts''.
He wrote the plays ''The Genius and the Goddess'' (1957) and ''The Joshua Tree'' (1958), and saw ''The Captain's Paradise'' adapted into a musical as ''Oh, Captain!'' (1958). He had a big hit with '' The Gazebo'' (1959), based on a story by Coppel and his wife; this was later filmed although someone else did the screenplay. Coppel adapted ''The Captain's Paradise'' (1961) for stage and did a swashbuckler for MGM ''Swordsman of Siena'' (1962).
===Later career=== He spent the 1960s mostly working in Europe and London. He adapted his own story "Laughs with a Stranger" into ''Moment to Moment'' (1966). Coppel did some uncredited work on the script for ''Taste of Excitement'' to make it more of a comedy; director Don Sharp, who knew Coppel from Australia, said the writer's work was unhelpful.<ref name="donfive">{{cite interview |last=Sharp |first=Don |subject-link= |interviewer= Teddy Darvas and Alan Lawson |title=Don Sharp Side 5|work= |date=2 November 1993 |publisher=History Project |location=London |url= https://historyproject.org.uk/interview/don-sharp|access-date=14 July 2021}}</ref>
Coppel's last two credits were a pair of sex comedies co-written with Denis Norden, ''The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom'' and ''The Statue'', based on his play ''Chip Chip Chip''.
He also wrote the plays ''Not in My Bed, You Don’t'' (1968), ''Cadenza'' and ''A Bird in the Nest'' and the TV play ''A Kiss is Just a Kiss'' (1971).
===Personal life=== Coppel died of colon cancer on 22 January 1972, in London.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7122/is_201004/ai_n54365765/ Vagg, Stephen. 'Alec Coppel: Australian Playwright and Survivor.' ''Australasian Drama Studies'', No. 56, Apr 2010: 219–232.]</ref>
He was married twice. He is survived by his son Chris Coppel who lives in the UK and continues to represent his father's works.
==Partial filmography== {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Director ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 1937 | ''Over the Moon'' |Thornton Freeland | Co-screenplay |- | 1939 | ''I Killed the Count'' |Frederic Zelnik | Screenplay, based on his play |- | 1939 | ''Just Like a Woman'' |Paul L. Stein | Co-screenplay |- | 1946 | ''Smithy'' |Ken G. Hall | Co-screenplay |- | 1948 | ''Brass Monkey'' |Thornton Freeland | Screenplay |- | 1948 | ''Woman Hater'' |Terence Young | Based on short story |- | 1949 | ''Obsession'' |Edward Dmytryk | Screenplay, dialogue director; based on his novel, ''A Man About a Dog'' |- | 1950 | ''Two on the Tiles'' | John Guillermin | Screenplay |- | 1951 | ''Smart Alec'' | John Guillermin | Screenplay, based on his play ''Mr Smart Guy'' |- | 1951 | ''No Highway in the Sky'' | Henry Koster | Co-screenplay |- | 1951 | ''Mr. Denning Drives North'' | Anthony Kimmins | Screenplay, based on his novel |- | 1953 | ''The Captain's Paradise'' | Anthony Kimmins | Co-screenplay |- | 1954 | ''Hell Below Zero'' | Mark Robson | Co-screenplay |- | 1954 | ''The Black Knight'' | Tay Garnett | Co-screenplay |- | 1954 | ''To Catch a Thief'' | Alfred Hitchcock | Uncredited contribution to script |- | 1957 | ''Appointment with a Shadow'' | Richard Carlson | Screenplay |- | 1958 | ''Vertigo'' | Alfred Hitchcock | Co-screenplay |- | 1959 | ''The Gazebo'' | George Marshall | Based on his play |- | 1962 | ''Swordsman of Siena'' | Étienne Perier | Co-screenplay |- | 1966 | ''Moment to Moment'' | Mervyn LeRoy | Co-screenplay |- | 1968 | ''The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom'' | Joseph McGrath | Co-screenplay, based on his play ''A Bird in the Nest'' |- | 1971 | ''The Statue'' | Rod Amateau | Co-screenplay, based on his play ''Chip, Chip, Chip'' |- | 1971 | ''Jo'' | Jean Girault | French film. Based on his play ''The Gazebo''<ref name="litt">{{cite magazine|date=1 August 2025|access-date=1 August 2025|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-film-moguls-robert-littman/|magazine=Filmink|title=Forgotten Film Moguls: Robert Littman}}</ref> |}
===Unused screenplays=== *''The Chinese Room''<ref>"FILMLAND EVENTS: Miss Lindfors Will Appear on Broadway" ''Los Angeles Times'' 12 Sep 1960: C11.</ref> *''The List of Adrian Messenger''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Boxoffice|url=https://archive.org/details/boxofficeoctdec180boxo|title=Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1961)|last2=Boxoffice|date=1961|publisher=New York, Boxoffice|others=Media History Digital Library}}</ref>
==Plays== *''Short Circuit'' (1935) *''The Stars Foretell'' (1936) *''I Killed the Count'' (1937) *''Let's Pretend'' (1938) – contributed to book of a revue *''Believe It or Not'' (1940) *''Mr Smart Guy'' (1941) *''Saturday's Child'' (1946) *''My Friend Lester'' (1947)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article231544591 |title=Britain Lean But Alive And Kicking |newspaper=The Sun |issue=11,638 |location=Sydney|date=14 May 1947 |access-date=22 October 2017 |page=10|edition=LATE FINAL EXTRA |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> *''A Man About a Dog'' (1949) *''The Genius and the Goddess'' (1957) *''The Joshua Tree'' (1958) – from a story by Myra and Alec Coppel *''Oh, Captain!'' (1958) – based on his story only *''The Gazebo'' (1959) – from a story by Myra and Alec Coppel *''Viva Le Difference'' (1960) *''The Captain's Paradise'' (1961) *''Not in My Bed, You Don’t'' (1968) – with Myra Coppel *''Cadenza'' (1977) *''A Bird in the Nest'' *''Chip, Chip, Chip''
==TV plays== *''Guests for Dinner'' (1956) – episode of ''Alcoa Theatre''<ref>[http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/6399359 ''Guests for Dinner''] at AustLit</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page4817416 |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |volume=24 |issue=[?] |date=12 December 1956 |access-date=11 June 2016 |page=40 |via=National Library of Australia|title=Guests for dinner}}</ref> *''A Kiss Is Just a Kiss'' (1971)
==Novels== *''I Killed the Count'' (London: Blackie, 1939) *''A Man About a Dog'' (London: George G Harrap and Company Ltd, 1947) (US: ''Over the Line'') *''Mr. Denning Drives North'' (London: George G Harrap & Co Ltd, 1950) *''The Last Parable'' (London: Arthur Baker, 1953) *''Moment to Moment'' (Greenwich: Fawcett Publications, 1966) *''Tweedledum and Tweedledee'' (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1967)
==Radio plays== *''A Rum Affair'' (1941)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116299123 |title=BROADCAST FEATURES From A.B.C. Stations. |newspaper=Riverine Herald |location=Echuca, Vic. |date=15 November 1940 |access-date=19 February 2015 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> *''Mr Smart Guy'' (1941) *''Murder Scrapbook'' (1950)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98336280 |title=RADIOPINION. |newspaper=Sunday Mail |location=Brisbane |date=28 May 1950 |access-date=19 February 2015 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
===Unmade projects=== *''Peace in Our Time'' (1940) – British film<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureher1381unse_0063|title=Motion Picture Herald - Lantern: Search, Visualize & Explore the Media History Digital Library|website=lantern.mediahist.org|access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name | id=0178785 | name=Alec Coppel}} *{{IBDB name}} *[http://www.ausstage.edu.au/indexdrilldown.jsp?xcid=59&f_contrib_id=226696&f_event_id=15313 Alec Coppel Australian theatre credits] at AusStage *[http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/summary/summary.w3p;adv=;group=;groupequals=;page=0;parentid=;query=Person%3A%22%2FPerson%2Fkey%2F99029-1%22;querytype=;resCount=10 Alec Coppel] at National Film and Sound Archive
{{Alec Coppel}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Coppel, Alec (writer)}} Category:Australian male dramatists and playwrights Category:Writers from Melbourne Category:1907 births Category:1972 deaths Category:Australian radio writers Category:20th-century Australian dramatists and playwrights Category:20th-century Australian screenwriters Category:Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:Australian expatriate writers in the United States