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.
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).
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.[1][2]
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).
Coppel returned to Australia in 1940 for his "health".[3][4] While there he co-founded and worked as a director for Whitehall Productions, operating out of the Minvera Theatre in Kings Cross.[5]
Among the plays he presented there was the world premiere of his own Mr Smart Guy (1941). He also wrote for radio and contributed to the script of Smithy (1946), one of the few feature films made in Australia during this time.
Coppel moved back to London towards the end of the war, and 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 PicturesonHell 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.
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).
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.[6]
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).
Coppel died of colon cancer on 22 January 1972, in London.[7]
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.
| Year | Title | Director | 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 |
| International |
|
|---|---|
| National |
|
| Academics |
|
| People |
|
| Other |
|
