Adaptations
A black-and-white film (The Card, renamed The Promoter for its American audience), adapted by Eric Ambler and directed by Ronald Neame, was released in 1952. It starred Alec Guinness as Denry Machin, Petula Clark as Nellie Cotterill, Valerie Hobson as the Countess, and Glynis Johns as Ruth Earp. The movie was mostly faithful to the novel, though it omitted the newspaper caper, Denry outmanoeuvering his mother into moving, and a few other minor misadventures.
In 1973, the married songwriting team of Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent composed the score for a musical stage version of the same name in London's West End. (Coincidentally, the pair wrote a considerable number of Clark's pop hits in the 1960s and '70s.) Although not a huge success, an original cast album was released, and one of the show's tunes, "Nothing Succeeds Like Success," was recorded by Clark as one of her album tracks.
In 2007, it was adapted as a two-part play for BBC Radio 4. Again, the adaptation was faithful to the novel, with the omission of the newspaper incident.
Read more about this topic: The Card