Within the Law

About

Veiller's 1912 melodrama — one of the biggest Broadway hits of its era — follows Mary Turner, wrongly convicted of theft, who emerges from prison and vows to take revenge on her accuser through legal means: she will always stay 'within the law.' The play combines the thriller conventions of the period with a genuine social argument about false conviction and class justice. It was filmed four times and adapted for radio and television. The central character's ingenuity and the theatrical mechanics of the revenge plot have kept it in repertoire long after most of its contemporaries have been forgotten.