The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The play on which Osborne's novelisation is based was filmed in England as "Black Coffee" in 1931, less than a year after its premiere staging in London. It was released on 19 August 1931 by Twickenham Film Studios and has a running time of just under 80 minutes. Julius S. Hagan produced it and Austin Trevor played the role of Poirot. Trevor had also appeared as Poirot in the 1931 film "Alibi", which was made by the same studio a few months before "Black Coffee". ("Alibi" was the first screen version of Christie's famous story "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd".)