The Last of Mrs. Cheyney

The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1925) is a play by the British playwright Frederick Lonsdale. Mrs. Cheyney is a jewel thief who passes herself off as a society lady, but then falls in love with Lord Dilling, who is one of her intended victims. In London it was staged at the St. James’s Theatre, with Gladys Cooper and Gerald du Maurier in the leading roles. Reviewing the opening night for the Sunday Times, the critic James Agate made the memorable comment "It is not a good sort of play, but it is a very good play of its sort." That same year it opened on Broadway with Ina Claire and Roland Young in the leading roles.

It was brought to South Africa when Owen Nares and his wife, Marie Pollini, toured the country in 1926 and staged it at His Majesty’s Theatre in Johannesburg. There do not seem to have been any other professional productions, but in 1936 Amy Coleridge produced it for the Lyceum Dramatic Society for the Rand Daily Mail Christmas Fund, again at His Majesty’s Theatre, while in 1940 the Footlight Club staged it at the Florida Town Hall for the War Relief Fund of the South African Red Cross Society. The English Service of the SABC brought it to radio listeners in 1974.

There were three American adaptations for the cinema - in 1929 with Norma Shearer and Basil Rathbone (Director: Sidney Franklin); in 1937 with Joan Crawford and Robert Montgomery (Director: Richard Boleslawski); and in 1951 retitled as The Law and the Lady with Greer Garson and Michael Wilding (Director: Edwin H. Knopf). A German version released in 1961 directed by Franz Josef Wild starred Lili Palmer and Carlos Thompson.