Does a thriller, a horror movie or an action adventure have any intrinsic value beyond that of occupying a few entertaining hours?

Until I had directed several, including the current London revival of the classic 1966 Wait Until Dark, I would have been as disparaging as most people. Now, however, I am tempted to make considerable claims for the worth of these forms of entertainment if, as I hope you will feel tonight, they are done well.

A great temptation, when faced with acts of violence or cruelty like homicide, is to dismiss the perpetrator and the act as ‘evil’. This is a way of us distancing ourselves from the event; of reassuring ourselves that such things could not happen to, or worse, be done by us. In so doing we refuse to confront the part of ourselves that could, under extreme pressure, harm or kill others. In the UK over 90% of murder victims know their killer intimately. Surely that statistics should make us ask what turns a friend, relation or lover into a killer? Does the notion of evil have any meaning in this context?

Leslie Sands’ Intent to Murder is a psychological exploration of what ordinary people find themselves doing in extraordinary circumstances. Here there is no evil genius driving events; just people’s simple desires for simple goals in life – being able to pay the bills or having a fulfilled marriage. The true delight of this 1949 play is that Sands picks up where Agatha Christie and her imitators left off, at the question of WHY murder is committed. I hope that you will feel that the answer to that question is more disturbing than mere evil.

Joe Harmston